Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

Feb. 11, 2003: Would-Be Pundit

Yesterday I had a record number of visitors to Musings because of my Michael Jackson entries. The high hit count felt so good I thought I'd weigh in on a few other current topics.

Laci Peterson:
The search continues for Laci Peterson, a missing Modesto, California, pregnant woman whose due date for delivering her child was yesterday.

As far as the media is concerned, there's only one suspect: her husband, Scott.

After all, he appears to have motive, such as the fact that he was having an affair, the fact that he took out a large insurance policy on his wife shortly before she disappeared, and the fact that he wasted almost no time in selling her car and talking about selling the house.

He does have an alibi, albeit a strange one: going sturgeon fishing on Christmas Eve, by himself. He has a dated receipt from the marina he says he visited, but the receipt states no specific time. This means it could have been obtained at any time of day. While police haven't been able to verify the alibi, they're also not saying whether they were able to discount it.

Whatever the truth, we shouldn't pass judgment on this case until all the facts are in. Any police investigation worth its salt wouldn't be making key information available to the media at this point.

Oscar Predictions:
The Best Picture nominees are Chicago, Gangs of New York, The Hours, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Pianist.

Of these, the film most likely to win is Gangs of New York, since epics tend to sit well with Oscar voters and because films by director Martin Scorsese have been nominated before but never won. As one of the great auteurs of our time, he's sadly past due for an Oscar.

The Best Actor nominees are Adrien Brody, The Pianist; Nicolas Cage, Adaptation; Michael Caine, The Quiet American; Daniel Day-Lewis, Gangs of New York; Jack Nicholson, About Schmidt."

This is a toss-up between Daniel Day-Lewis and Jack Nicholson. While some voters may decide that Day-Lewis deserves recognition after a solid career, Jack is Jack. And besides, his understated role in About Schmidt is perhaps his best performance, which is saying a lot.

The Best Actress nominees are Salma Hayek, Frida; Nicole Kidman, The Hours; Diane Lane, Unfaithful; Julianne Moore, Far from Heaven; Renee Zellweger, Chicago.

It's rare to win an acting award for a musical, but Chicago has been getting a lot of buzz, so Zellweger has a chance. However, I think it's a toss-up between Nicole Kidman and Julianne Moore, with Nicole Kidman having the edge because of the emotional complexity of her portrayal of Virginia Woolf.

The Best Supporting Actor nominees are Chris Cooper, Adaptation; Ed Harris, The Hours; Paul Newman, Road to Perdition; John C. Reilly, Chicago; Christopher Walken, Catch Me If You Can.

So many great actors, and so many great performances. How to choose? I'd say Chris Cooper is a good dark horse candidate for a riveting performance. Plus, the supporting categories are the ones where a dark horse candidate has a chance. Still, it's more likely to go to Ed Harris, because of his brief but moving role as a writer dying of AIDS.

The Best Supporting Actress nominees are Kathy Bates, About Schmidt; Julianne Moore, The Hours; Queen Latifah, Chicago; Meryl Streep, Adaptation; Catherine Zeta-Jones, Chicago.

Much as I loved Kathy Bates in About Schmidt, Meryl Streep's performance in The Hours was amazing. And with the Chicago votes split between Catherine Zeta-Jones and Queen Latifah, Streep might carry the day.

The Best Director nominees are Rob Marshall, Chicago; Martin Scorsese, Gangs of New York; Stephen Daldry, The Hours; Roman Polanski, The Pianist; Pedro Almodovar , Talk to Her.

This could be Martin Scorsese's year, even if Gangs of New York doesn't take Best Picture. Then again, maybe this category is where Chicago will bring home the prize.

Of course, my predictions are in no way bankable and shouldn't be used to decide how to cast your vote in the office pool. In fact, I'd love to hear opposing viewpoints in my message board (and no, that's not just a pathetic attempt to get people to post there — okay, it is).

The Showdown with Iraq
This coming weekend, I'll be attending an antiwar protest in New York City, so this should give you some ideas of my views on the subject.

But what I'd like to talk about is the media coverage of the so-called "Showdown with Iraq," as it's been dubbed by the media. With that name, you'd think that George W. himself was going to saunter out there in his native Texan garb of cowboy boots and a ten-gallon hat.

Conservative pundits such as Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson are pushing for war, while liberal pundits such as Phil Donahue and Paul Begala say they'd like to exhaust all other routes before resorting to force.

The mainstream media coverage of the impending conflict makes war seem inevitable. We see story after story about troops headed to the Gulf, as well as every single inflammatory statement uttered by President Bush and Donald Rumsfeld.

However, we are not getting the entire story. When protests occur, they're covered as a feature story. Very light: just a few pictures and how many people showed up. There's very little about the message of the protesters. The same short shrift seems to be given to any opposing viewpoints, although there have been opposing views heard on the talk shows. Senator Kennedy and Howard Dean only get soundbites, showing up for one news cycle and then forgotten.

Having been a member of the news media for several years, admittedly at a much lower level, I know it's very easy to write stories based on what those in power want you to write. They provide press conferences, they give you soundbites, they tell you where to go and who to talk to.

It's a lot more difficult to get in underneath the surface and point up contradictory statements or show conflicting evidence. And while we have seen some of that — such as reports that the British report used by Colin Powell as evidence in his speech to the United Nations last week was partly plagiarized — these stories are then followed up with more soundbites from the administration about how the underlying information is still accurate.

As a former reporter, I know how frequently you go from one story to the next, how hard it is to catch your breath or evaluate what's being said. But as far as the Bush Administration is concerned, it seems their policy with the media is "keep 'em running."

Michael Jackson Update:
I now understand that Michael Jackson has publicly responded to the 1993 court document that appears on the Smoking Gun web site, saying the allegations by the 13-year-old complainant were all false.

He also has a reply underway for Martin Bashir's documentary, Living with Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson says he had a crew simultaneously taping the interview and will present an alternate version of it, to be aired on national TV. This version will supposedly include some of the schmoozing that Bashir did with him in order to get him to open up, in an attempt to prove to the world that Bashir himself thinks that Michael Jackson is a terrific father.

Taken out of context, these statements will likely grate on Bashir as much as Jackson's statements did in the documentary. The problem is, there is simply no way to put Jackson's statements into a context that would have made them look good.

I must admit I haven't seen the other footage, but I couldn't imagine a way you could have presented the statement about young boys staying over night in his bed and make it seem less disturbing. Quite frankly, Michael Jackson gave Bashir the kind of quotes a journalist prays for.

Granted, Bashir's commentary was a little heavy-handed, but it was unnecessary. The material spoke for itself. To have Michael Jackson say, on camera, that he's only had two cosmetic surgeries, that's just golden. It shows, better than anything else did, that Jackson is either terribly deluded or a compulsive liar.

Either way, Bashir didn't make that statement. Jackson did. And as a former journalist, I can't fault Bashir for using it.

Under the agreement to do the interview, Bashir had asked Jackson to tell him the truth. But Jackson is so used to performing a veil dance for the media that he couldn't drop the veil, even when it might have helped him the most.

Moral:
If you pay attention to your site statistics, you may just become an Internet pundit.

Copyright 2003 by Alyce Wilson

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