Impressions: Sticks and Stones
⊆ 6:47 PM by A. Liebendorfer | bucket list , canada , documentaries , eh , politics , sinead oconnor . | ˜ 4 comments »My bucket list has been growing since I got down to Athens:
-kill a bear with my bare hands
-be a centaur for Halloween
-drink a gallon of milk in one city
-run a marathon
-make a documentary that I'd watch
Unlike musicals, I used to like documentaries, but like musicals, now I don't. This doesn't mean that documentaries were my passion and one day they failed me; I just liked to watch them from time to time. What burst it for me was the one we watched in Journalism 101 about the elections. It was very well-done, but between dozing off and the slant it was trying to hide, I had the worst neck ache. I'm not sure what it is, but now that I have a journalism major cap to put on, I've found myself very critical of them.
Namely the one we watched tonight at our weekly SPJ meeting. It was called The Fifth Estate: Sticks and Stones. It's from the Canadian Broadcasting Company and, though I tried being as objective as possible, it faintly echoed the arrogant, American wannabe stereotype to me.
The entire idea was just stupid, rubbish --it was to illustrate how the apparent great partisan divide in American politics and media is tearing our country apart. Near the beginning, they had some American say that there hasn't been this kind of partisanship since the Civil War era. How they hell would he know?
And who the hell do they think they are? I'm not trying to sound elitist, but they're Canada. We don't go around bashing their media (which evidently sucks if this garbage was on their national cable). I guess our all-terrible pundits are too sinister to go into a friendly neighboring country and trash-talk their media.
It all feels like a neighborhood alley fight.
The most prominent figure to me that they had was Phil Donahue, if that says anything.
Some of the material had merit. I always enjoy a Bill O'Reilly burst and Ann Coulter really is the antichrist. Entertainment. Those people really should be publicly embarrassed, maybe even tried for heresy.
Near the end they showed that the American press --ahem, my profession-- sometimes take things just fill space. The example they used were the two or three brief comments about George W. Bush's new Cadillac he rode to his second inauguration. The CBC seems to think that's trivial, and they're entirely right. But what else are we going to listen to while we wait for the speech? Commercials?
This is coming from a country that doesn't even have a president.
For your viewing displeasure:
October 14, 2008 at 8:22 PM Kill a bear with your bare hands? Really? Good luck with that.
Sounds like a thrilling SPJ day... too bad I slept through it.
October 14, 2008 at 10:16 PM You know, I liked the doc today. I know what you are talking about when you say the Canucks seemed a little smug but I appreciated the content anyway. It was a fun watch but didn't necessarily change my life.
The J101 documentary rocked my world though...until Bob Stewart got the filmmaker on speakerphone and he came across as the most partisan man of all time.
October 14, 2008 at 10:30 PM #1. I have been training for the bear thing.
#2. I've come to the conclusion that I just really get too into documentaries I think. I hope I find a good idea for one soon because that would just be friggin' sweet to make one.
October 14, 2008 at 10:33 PM That creeps me out a little bit.