The Yes Men Fix the World is a great movie
This week’s Media Mayhem column from my gig at the Mother Nature Network:
Truth is stranger than fiction, they say. And, sometimes, fiction can be truer than truth.
Read the rest at the Mother Nature Network.
Coal’s silver lining
My apologies for disappearing. Went on vacation, faced an onslaught of other projects and then the computer done broke. Starting to catch up with my June 13 “Media Mayhem” column from the Mother Nature Network.
The coal industry’s re-branding campaign reminds me of an old Mad Magazine illustration.
Ingrid Newkirk on PETA’s buzz
This week’s Media Mayhem column at the Mother Nature Network:
A fly. Seven days after President Obama swatted the sucker, I googled “PETA” and “fly” together. One-thousand-one-hundred-and-eighteen news articles showed up. The first wave of mentions was speculative, as in: “The Onion ought to write that PETA’s upset at Obama.” The next wave was disbelieving, as in: “This may sound to you like a headline from the Onion: PETA’s upset at Obama.”
A handful of writers got past the visceral reaction: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals again displayed its unerring talent for drawing attention to the cause of animal rights. In this case, PETA didn’t even mean to draw the attention. A staff blogger happened to mention in a short post about “flygate” that “human beings have a long way to go before they think before they act.”
PETA responds to Audrina Patridge’s hamburger
Audrina Patridge gets a pass from PETA for modeling with a big fat juicy hamburger in her mouth a month or so after doing publicity work for the animal rights group.
“Audrina is brand new to the animal rights movement and she is not a vegetarian (and has never claimed to be),” PETA spokeswoman Amy Cook wrote in an e-mail in response to my questions. “She has, however, brought much needed media attention to the problem of animal overpopulation by appearing in our ad urging people to adopt companion animals instead of buying them.”
Patridge, a character on MTV’s The Hills who’s slated to get her own reality show next season, created a bit of unintentional entertainment earlier this month by showing up on an ad for a new Carl Jr.’s terriyaki burger after appearing April 22 in an “Angel for Animals” publicity campaign to get people to choose pet adoption.
I know. I know. This isn’t exactly Read more
Whale Wars: Killers get more witnesses
The Animal Planet network is boasting that the season premier of Whale Wars, the reality show aboard of an anti-whaling expedition, attracted an audience of 1.2 million, or 22 percent more than last year’s debut show.
The season continues for eight more weeks “much to the chagrin of the Japanese [whalers], who would probably rather not have their hunts on display in American homes,” notes the Ecorazzi enviro-tainment blog.
I wonder: Does this show put more pressure on the Japanese government to rein the whalers (who only are allowed to kill whales because they claim to be doing “research”), or does it get the whaling interests to dig in their heals?
Either way the direct-action adventures of the Steve Irwin — which an English-speaking maneuvers into the path of Japanese whaling vessels — is made-for-TV eco-drama. And Animal Planet is milking for all it’s worth the occasionally dysfunctional antics aboard the vessel, as well as an incident in which Australian police temporarily confiscated footage that’s actually used in this season’s shows. From the network’s press release:
Earlier this year when the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vessel the Steve Irwin docked in Hobart, Tasmania, it was met by two dozen members of the Australian Federal Police. They were there to confiscate hundreds of hours of videotape, launching an investigation into what was one of the most intense and dramatic campaigns ever conducted by the Sea Shepherds in their 30-year history. It was a life-changing experience for those on the boat and is the basis for WHALE WARS.
The new season includes collisions at sea; dangerous ice fields to avoid; harrowing nautical maneuvers; and the use of more aggressive defenses against the Sea Shepherds.
Audrina Patridge: If you can’t buy animals, eat ‘em
This is right up there with Paris Hilton wearing a “Vote or Die” t-shirt but forgetting to show up at the polls.
Audrina Patridge, who appears in the MTV reality show The Hills (and is soon to get her own reality show), recently became a PETA “Angel for Animals.” She posed with a star Chihuahua named Speedy Gonzalez for a poster and a short video. PETA said this:
During the photo shoot, Audrina told us, “I wanted to get involved with PETA because I’ve always been passionate about animals, and I think this is a great way to make people and all my fans aware of all the animals that need a home. And a lot of people go to pet stores and breeders to buy their animals, but you should adopt, so go to an animal shelter and rescue a dog.”
But it’s the tag line on the poster that’s particularly awkward right now. “Always adopt. Never buy,” it says.
Why awkward? Within a month, Patridge was posing for another shoot — except this time it was to promote for a new terriyaki burger Read more
Food Inc.: See it on an empty stomach
Food Inc., the movie about the food industry, opens today in select cities.
The latest in a spate of environmental documentaries to hit screen, it promises to be the blockbuster of the bunch. The movie’s directed by Robert Kenner, and features two authors who have become the nation’s best-known troubadours for the local and organic food movements, Michael Pollan (Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food) and Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation).
So far, it’s getting rave reviews. The most memorably line appeared in Variety: “Food Inc. does for the supermarket what Jaws did for the beach.”
The most consistent bit of advice, though, is this: Don’t, under any circumstances, eat before you see this movie.
George Will invokes “Goode Family”
I should have mentioned earlier that although George Will finds animated TV shows a bit beneath him, he still hopes ABC’s “The Goode Family” will pass along to the little people a sort of Cliff Notes version of his contempt of environmentalists.
In a syndicated column published in various newspapers over the last few days, the bow-tied conservative says:
The incessant hectoring by the media-political complex’s “consciousness-raising” campaign has provoked a comic riposte in the form of “The Goode Family,” an animated ABC entertainment program at 9 p.m. Wednesdays … . Cartoons seem, alas, to be the most effective means of seizing a mass audience’s attention. Still, the program is welcome evidence of the bursting of what has been called “the green bubble.”
Will considers a New Republic article by Terry Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger more in line with his towering intellect. Read more
Why are critics silent on Home?
Home, the visually stunning documentary released on YouTube and via screenings Friday, is approaching 1.4 million views in various languages on YouTube. But I can’t find a single critic’s review on the Yan Arthus-Bertrand/Luc Besson movie on Rotten Tomatoes or on IMDb.
This is partly due to the unusual approach of Home’s release. Arthus-Bertrand and Luc Besson, the two very accomplished French filmmakers response to movies, made the movie available for free Friday via YouTube, DVDs, private screenings and TV, because it’s a nonprofit endeavor.
Those who have watched the movie seem pretty impressed. Nearly 400 voters gave it an average grade of 8.4 out of 10 on IMDb (An Inconvenient Truth got a score Read more
‘Whale Wars’ makes for good TV
Does anyone else find the promotional material and overall approach of the Animal Planet’s upcoming “Whale Wars” series a bit obscene?
Not that there’s anything wrong with that. The reality show, which premiers its second season Friday night (9 p.m. Eastern), tracks activists on a mission to prevent Japanese whalers from killing their prey.
In some ways, it’s incredibly effective propaganda for a worthy cause. And to be that effective, it has to introduce us to the flawed heroes, the impersonal villains, and their bloodied victims.
For those who missed last season, “Whale Wars” follows the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s ship (the Steve Irwin) and its crew as they harass Japanese whalers by getting between them and their prey, by videotaping their activities, and even by getting close enough to throw stink bombs that ruin the harvested whale meat. Last season, Captain Paul Watson came across as an erratic autocrat but not at the expense of the righteousness of his cause. Read more
