Common Sense	Common Sense Archive

For good Crime News these days, I read the business section in my local paper­ the shreddings, the criminal energy trades, the false valuations, the offshore shells, the flips, the lying­ the last Regulator embalmed, stuffed, and strung up as an exhibit in the Smithsonian, backdrop for Republican fundraisers. Back in Watergate and IranContra days, it was the political news from DC. Sometimes­ oftimes­ it is the sports pages. But today, it's the world of capital, and the Ponzi schemes.

There has been on going saga of the collapse of the telecoms­ pumping billions into huge acquisitions and laying all that fabulous fiber optic cable for the broadband surge that never happened. Then there was the amazing dot.com bubble, billions of dollars poured into worthless enterprises that all crashed and burned in no time. I had one down the street­ there were several on the street, this one was a biggie, an aggressive outfit that got one billion in VC money, opened for biz in 1999, started by Harvard Biz Skool types, with a shaky business plan. They bought a big building, all purchased BMWs; their fancy office ("campus") had all the latest pool-table-type games, the fanciest coffee machines, etc. They burnt through a billion in less than two years! And had nothing to show for it! Who the fuck are these people who put a billion in an unproven enterprise? Expenditure without value or productivity­ yes, the New Paradigm.

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But let's get back to the telecoms. And the whole explosion of media in the past 20 years. First up. Who needed cable? Who needed The Fox Network? Who needed the cell phone­ a dreadful technology that has become an addiction? This explosion of media outlets has done nothing to advance intelligent writing or discussion. On the contrary, and it's Mitzel's Rule Number 14 of How The World Works: the more media outlets created, the faster the race to the bottom. (Thirty years ago, the old UHF TV stations showed wonderful old minor, even unknown movies, which they got cheap­ I recall a festival of films with my beloved Beryl Reid­ a campy Brit favorite; I have never seen a Beryl Reid movie on any of the major movie cable channels. And what of Elvira? What of the cheesy horror flicks? I want to know!)

The glut of cable "news" and talking-head shows hasn't provided substance or light. All we've been given are more right-wing frothers­ less one, actually, the late Barbara Olson, a cable TV screamer, whose career was cut short when she went into the Pentagon on that plane piloted by terrorists, shrieking­ her forte­ on her cell phone till the end (would make a great TV movie of the week). It didn't matter. They­ the media "they"­ found a screaming blonde harridan replacement in minutes after Olson's sensational demise and that slot was full up again­ Tele.cum. Garbage in, garbage out, at monthly cable rates. Like it? You paid for it, as Liberace noted.

Are people supposed to make money out of this tumor-like swelling of the Fourth Estate? The media are harder, meaner in spirit, less risky­ the very formula for continuing the exclusion of gay men and lesbians, not to mention most of them are ideologically agin' us­ the "us" being, in my definition, the intelligent and progressive community among gay men and lesbians and all the ambientes.

In this vast and hydra-headed media circus, rare is the forum for intelligent, critical, and witty voices from gay men and lesbians. I can name about three maybe four outlets, this publication being one of them­ yes, they are all print, and on paper, very old-fashioned that, in the best sense. A printed document can last a lifetime and is a tactile object­ you can actually take it to bed! That on-line document might not be there tomorrow, might have some hacker break in and make it over. (It's like the hype about the fucking E-Book­ more billions expended on a technology no one wanted­ when will these folks ever get a clue?)

The current configuration of power in Media Land is a double injury to our community: not only are we denied the access and funding for our political and cultural media, we are aggressively assaulted by stupid movies meant for 14-year-old boys, bimbo-mentality TV, ugly popular music, the pure assault of dumbed-down, globalized ("Americanized") "culture."

I recall an interview I read by someone with the great performer Ethyl Eichelberger (let's get Ethyl put on a stamp­ at least one drag performer, T.C. Jones, somebody) some time just before he, Ethyl, died. The interviewer naively asked Ethyl if he had ever been the recipient of a state or federal arts group. Ethyl must have been shocked; he said, "I'm a drag queen, honey. They don't fund us!" And doesn't that say it all?

A civilized society would grant the drag queens the money! The drag queens provide more value added than those Harvard Biz Skool yuppie types running through a billion bucks and not a gown or a wig or some glitter in sight­ and can they sing or Lip-Synch "The Man That Got Away" or even correct its grammar? Black net stockings versus black hole. Tele-Graph, Tele-Phone, Tele-Quean, Tele-Cum.

Author Profile:  Mitzel
	Mitzel was a founding member of the Fag Rag collective, and has been a Guide columnist since 1986. He manages Calamus Books near Boston's South Station.
	Email:	mitzel@calamusbooks.com
	Website:	calamusbooks.com