Steroid Era redux: Are celebrity journalists complicit in the culture of sexual assault/harassment?

[Dick Whitman]

For the last 20 years, baseball writers have flogged themselves (and been flogged) for their coverage of the 1998 home run chase, and the offensive explosion in general during the so-called Steroid Era. It's probably deserved. Given access, they blew the one story that mattered.

There has been some discussion on the Weinstein thread about how specific publications and reporters were intimidated out of running stories, for example, so this has been touched on a bit already. But the parallel really interests me: Do the people who have been writing largely fawning celebrity profiles the last 20-plus years have blood on their hands in the same way that people who were covering the baseball beat in the late '90s do? Did access come with blinders?

At least in baseball, the only thing under assault was the record books. Does the celebrity press need to have the kind of reckoning that the BBWAA has been going through?

 

[YankeeFan]

For the last 20 years, baseball writers have flogged themselves (and been flogged) for their coverage of the 1998 home run chase, and the offensive explosion in general during the so-called Steroid Era. It's probably deserved. Given access, they blew the one story that mattered.

There has been some discussion on the Weinstein thread about how specific publications and reporters were intimidated out of running stories, for example, so this has been touched on a bit already. But the parallel really interests me: Do the people who have been writing largely fawning celebrity profiles the last 20-plus years have blood on their hands in the same way that people who were covering the baseball beat in the late '90s do?

Maybe it’s not fair, since he’s not here to defend himself, but the David Carr profile of Weinstein is embarrassing to read now, especially after you learn that he knew about Rose McGowan’s claim of rape against him.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Maybe it’s not fair, since he’s not here to defend himself, but the David Carr profile of Weinstein is embarrassing to read now, especially after you learn that he knew about Rose McGowan’s claim of rape against him.

That's the example I remember being mentioned on that thread. Thanks.

Here's another interesting one. By the time of this cover, Affleck had already groped a "TRL" host on live television, an incident that was shoved under the rug until recently. And not for nothing, though this falls into the sports category, there are several profiles of Tiger Woods teased on the cover. A few months later, the sex scandal erupted that would leave his reputation forever tarnished. Hard to see how a magazine as connected as "Esquire" wouldn't have some inkling. Pierce, for example, wrote the definitive Tiger Woods profile in the late '90s/early 2000s, before Woods had put his guard up.

Ironic, I guess, that the issue is entitled: "The Esquire Guide to Minor Transgressions."

That's how people saw that stuff back then.

 

[YankeeFan]

That's the example I remember being mentioned on that thread. Thanks.

Here's another interesting one. By the time of this cover, Affleck had already groped a "TRL" host on live television, an incident that was shoved under the rug until recently. And not for nothing, though this falls into the sports category, there are several profiles of Tiger Woods teased on the cover. A few months later, the sex scandal erupted that would leave his reputation forever tarnished. Hard to see how a magazine as connected as "Esquire" wouldn't have some inkling. Pierce, for example, wrote the definitive Tiger Woods profile in the late '90s/early 2000s, before Woods had put his guard up.

Ironic, I guess, that the issue is entitled: "The Esquire Guide to Minor Transgressions."

That's how people saw that stuff back then.

They ran four profiles of Tiger Woods in the same issue??

 

[MisterCreosote]

"Celebrity journalists" aren't "journalists."

 

[Songbird]

They ran four profiles of Tiger Woods in the same issue??

Was that like the Rolling Stone article when O'Rourke, Greider, Thompson, and Wenner huddled around Clinton (YF's ears just perked up) in the back of Doe's?

 

[YankeeFan]

The whole sysytem of reporting on Hollywood, and its stars, has been perverted, and media large and small has acquiesced to it.

It could previously be excused, since this was the toy department, but now we’ve learned that there are real world consequences to turning monsters like Harvey Weinstein into untouchable icons.

 

[MisterCreosote]

I was just talking with my wife about this yesterday.

My daughter is in a mermaid phase right now, so she was watching The Little Mermaid.

Not just that, but most of those Disney "princess" movies are so godawfully misogynistic it's not even funny.

I looked over to my wife and said, "You ever wonder how all the #metoo stuff happened under the radar for so long, just take a look at all this ****."

It was so prevalent it seeped into EVERYTHING, even kids' cartoons.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

The whole system of reporting on Hollywood and its stars has been hopelessly corrupt since well before the first talkie.

 

[Songbird]

I was just talking with my wife about this yesterday.

My daughter is in a mermaid phase right now, so she was watching The Little Mermaid.

Not just that, but most of those Disney "princess" movies are so godawfully misogynistic it's not even funny.

I looked over to my wife and said, "You ever wonder how all the #metoo stuff happened under the radar for so long, just take a look at all this ****."

It was so prevalent it seeped into EVERYTHING, even kids' cartoons.

Lisa was ranting about it a long time ago.

 

[Dick Whitman]

A lot of these magazines don't just sweep institutionalized misogyny under the rug. They contribute to it with issues like the SI swimsuit issue or the "Sexiest Woman Alive" story and photo shoot.

It really is a lot like the steroid era in baseball: You look back on how things have been approached and covered and it's difficult to think of it the same way anymore.

It will be interesting to see if publications change the way they cover female celebrities, knowing now what we (wink-wink) didn't know then.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I was just talking with my wife about this yesterday.

My daughter is in a mermaid phase right now, so she was watching The Little Mermaid.

Not just that, but most of those Disney "princess" movies are so godawfully misogynistic it's not even funny.

I looked over to my wife and said, "You ever wonder how all the #metoo stuff happened under the radar for so long, just take a look at all this ****."

It was so prevalent it seeped into EVERYTHING, even kids' cartoons.

I'm really glad that my daughter seems to have graduated from princesses to My Little Pony and Wonder Woman. We steered clear of "Snow White" and "Sleeping Beauty" and some of the others that are, frankly, pretty tough to defend.

 

[TyWebb]

The Miss Universe Pageant was last night. I don't know where that fits into this conversation, but I feel like it does.

 

[Dick Whitman]

The Miss Universe Pageant was last night. I don't know where that fits into this conversation, but I feel like it does.

Was Trump running it?

 

[poindexter]

Was Trump running it?

Check backstage, during a changeover.

 

[YankeeFan]

I'm really glad that my daughter seems to have graduated from princesses to My Little Pony and Wonder Woman. We steered clear of "Snow White" and "Sleeping Beauty" and some of the others that are, frankly, pretty tough to defend.

 

[LongTimeListener]

There's a great parallel in the "open secret" language being thrown around now. It was an open secret with Weinstein, and Ratner, and now it sounds like quite a few people even knew about Charlie Rose. How many other open secrets are there?

And did the celeb celebrants know and ignore these open secrets? Was it Don't Ask Don't Tell? If they're as connected as we're led to believe they are, we can indict them for every profile written about these guys that ignored these "open secrets." And if they didn't know these "open secrets," then what exactly are they bringing us in the way of reporting?

 

[MisterCreosote]

I'm really glad that my daughter seems to have graduated from princesses to My Little Pony and Wonder Woman. We steered clear of "Snow White" and "Sleeping Beauty" and some of the others that are, frankly, pretty tough to defend.

My daughter loves Peppa Pig, which as far as I can tell has no hidden awfulness anywhere.

 

[User 11148]

My daughter loves Peppa Pig, which as far as I can tell has no hidden awfulness anywhere.

Give it time ... someday, long after it's too late, you'll find out that allowing her to watch/like that shows how monstrous a person you are.

 

[bigpern23]

I'm really glad that my daughter seems to have graduated from princesses to My Little Pony and Wonder Woman. We steered clear of "Snow White" and "Sleeping Beauty" and some of the others that are, frankly, pretty tough to defend.

This is part of the reason "Brave" is among my favorite Disney movies. Merida is arguably the strongest princess character they've ever created.