Did Al Franken get railroaded? Jane Mayer's article in the New Yorker tells the story of a poor senator that fell victim to the system of the #MeToo movement. He didn't have the political chops of Joe Bidden to laugh it off, or the political charm of Bill Clinton and Donald Trump to come out of the accusations with his political life unharmed.
There is the public Mr. Franken and the private Mr. Franken. Ms. Mayer's article paints a portrait of a man railroaded by the political system. Due process is mentioned in the article, and he wasn't given a fair chance to defend himself against all the accusations that kept being leveled against him. Eight women came forward with stories of their uncomfortable moments with Mr. Franken.
His political colleagues hit the panic button and called for Senator Franken to resign. But why did they do this? Because they are politicians. They only care about their own jobs. They have no moral or ethical backbone, or they wouldn' have sought to see if these accusations were true. The career politicians raised the white flag and tried to wash their hands of the whole thing.
Senator Gillibrand is quoted in the article saying, "We had eight credible allegations, and they had been corroborated, in real-time, by the press corps." This quote alone is scary because she didn't even bother to do her own research and went off of what the press did. Senator Gillibrand seems to put her faith in the wrong institutions.
Al Franken may have been joking around when he posed for the picture. Yes, he wasn't touching Ms. Tweeden, but the photograph appears to make light of a situation. An old man creeping on a young woman and all this taking place while she is sleeping.
Ms. Mayer does her best to discredit Tweeden and offers a nice story about how Tweeden was going to go to Harvard but pursued modeling instead. The great investigative journalist Howard Stern is the one that broke that story and was the only man to publicly attack the claim. He even went so far as to mock Tweeden for making such a claim. The fact Tweeden was on the show seems a slight attack on Tweeden's character too.
Tweeden was a model that posed for men's magazines. This fact claw at the integrity of Ms. Tweeden. If she will take her top off for the camera, well, what else will she do? She does this with quotes from people that defended Al Franken. There are lines about it being a USO show, it is a burlesque show, and there was no way he was touching her through that flak jacket. The truth is that the picture is taken out of context and shows a moment of poor judgment and not an act of a male predator.
Ms. Tweeden is a Republican, and this is mentioned over and over again in the article. She accepted the apology from Senator Franken and didn't want him to resign. Ms. Tweeden even wanted an investigation.
The article does make clear that Senator Franken wasn't given a chance to prove his innocence. He did what he thought was right and resigned. But he did it because he didn't have an ally in the senate to support him. His fellow senators jumped ship while trying to burn him at the stake. It is one of the sadder moments in recent political history.
It is ironic that the comedian's story has a twinge of Shakespearean tragedy to it. He called it quits when he should have stood his ground and fought harder. He is the one that called it quits. He could have fought the accusations. He had that option. He didn't fight and now he is sad, but maybe that is the problem with being an outsider and not a career politician. He truly viewed these career politicians as his friends and equals and thus the Shakespeare knife is stuck further in the former senator's back.
Monday, July 22, 2019
Sunday, July 7, 2019
Ken Stabler Gets Sacked One More Time
The NFL is using a technicality when it comes to giving Ken Stabler's family money from the concussion settlement.
Yes, Ken Stabler died from colon cancer. He also died after April 22, 2015, so he isn't eligible for money because his death occurred too late for his estate to claim any money because he wasn't diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease before he died.
Legally the NFL is doing what they can to make sure they don't have to pay all the players that suffered head injuries.
The NFL lied about concussions. They are spending more money on advertising to make claims that they are changing the game so the game will be safer, and this money could be used to pay these players now suing the NFL. Players are still getting concussions and retired players are still dealing with the issues caused by repetitive injuries.
Professional football has an inherent risk of head injury. There isn't a helmet made that completely eliminates the risk of head injuries. When that concussion-proof helmet is created, the risk of head injury will be eliminated, but until that day happens every player runs the risk of permanent damage.
Just remember that at one point the NFL used to celebrate hard hits. They embraced the animal side of football and made profits from some of the most vicious tacklers. The NFL released annual videos of the best hits and best tacklers. The apparent marketing value of celebrating hard-hitting football was so good for the bottom line that the NFL did their best to suppress medical information pointing to the damage caused by repetitive head injuries.
These players knew the risk they were taking for quick wealth and fame, or you would hope that they knew that they were putting their health at risk.
Should the NFL pay Ken Stabler's family the money they deserve? Will fans get upset at the fact the NFL is using technicalities to get out of paying the money to a lot of players that deserve it?
Is the NFL sticking it to Ken Stabler again? Stabler didn't get elected to the NFL Hall of Fame until after his death. Sure, Stabler threw more interceptions then touchdown passes, but that is because he finished his career on some really bad teams. Ken Stabler has more fourth-quarter comebacks than Troy Aikman, Terry Bradshaw, and Len Dawson. The NFL didn't wait as long as they did with Stabler when it comes to other quarterbacks with fewer wins and less Super Bowl wins.
Just think about the fact the NFL paid out money to 912 former players, and that is out of 20,540 players that sued the NFL. The numbers are weak, but the NFL is still a business, and the bottom line is the NFL doesn't want to pay the players for the injuries they received from a lifetime of football.
Yes, Ken Stabler died from colon cancer. He also died after April 22, 2015, so he isn't eligible for money because his death occurred too late for his estate to claim any money because he wasn't diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease before he died.
Legally the NFL is doing what they can to make sure they don't have to pay all the players that suffered head injuries.
The NFL lied about concussions. They are spending more money on advertising to make claims that they are changing the game so the game will be safer, and this money could be used to pay these players now suing the NFL. Players are still getting concussions and retired players are still dealing with the issues caused by repetitive injuries.
Professional football has an inherent risk of head injury. There isn't a helmet made that completely eliminates the risk of head injuries. When that concussion-proof helmet is created, the risk of head injury will be eliminated, but until that day happens every player runs the risk of permanent damage.
Just remember that at one point the NFL used to celebrate hard hits. They embraced the animal side of football and made profits from some of the most vicious tacklers. The NFL released annual videos of the best hits and best tacklers. The apparent marketing value of celebrating hard-hitting football was so good for the bottom line that the NFL did their best to suppress medical information pointing to the damage caused by repetitive head injuries.
These players knew the risk they were taking for quick wealth and fame, or you would hope that they knew that they were putting their health at risk.
Should the NFL pay Ken Stabler's family the money they deserve? Will fans get upset at the fact the NFL is using technicalities to get out of paying the money to a lot of players that deserve it?
Is the NFL sticking it to Ken Stabler again? Stabler didn't get elected to the NFL Hall of Fame until after his death. Sure, Stabler threw more interceptions then touchdown passes, but that is because he finished his career on some really bad teams. Ken Stabler has more fourth-quarter comebacks than Troy Aikman, Terry Bradshaw, and Len Dawson. The NFL didn't wait as long as they did with Stabler when it comes to other quarterbacks with fewer wins and less Super Bowl wins.
Just think about the fact the NFL paid out money to 912 former players, and that is out of 20,540 players that sued the NFL. The numbers are weak, but the NFL is still a business, and the bottom line is the NFL doesn't want to pay the players for the injuries they received from a lifetime of football.
Thursday, July 4, 2019
The End of Mad Magazine
"Not only do I not know what is going on, I wouldn't know what to do about it if I did." George Carlin
Say it ain't so.
It is hard to believe that Mad Magazine announced it is going to cease production the way we have come to know it. They will still produce books and special collections, so maybe that isn't too bad. The old content is all the funny stuff anyway.
What does this mean for people searching for humor?
Well, the magazine will still be available at comic book stores and to subscribers.
Mad magazine is owned by DC, and DC is owned by Time Warner. The truth is the magazine really hasn't been as relevant and funny as it once was, so declining sales and the reality of young people not buying magazines means the end of an era.
Maybe it is just a sad truth that magazines are just like any other business in the way that they have a life cycle and that Mad magazine couldn't find a way out of the decline cycle. As readership shrinks, and advertisers chase new ways and places to advertise in the age of Facebook and other social media, print magazines just aren't a safe place for advertisers to spend money.
If you look at Mad and the content, yes it is still funny, but the time it takes to produce and reach the end user is too long in today's age of instant gratification. The movie spoofs don't have the appeal that they had two generations ago because the movie is already streaming by the time Mad spoofs it, or so it seems. There are other parts of the magazine that were replaced with comic strips, and the direction of the magazine seems lost at times.
The culture of political correctness also harmed the magazine. The 1990s were rife with political correctness and the stench only got bigger. The readership continued to shrink in the 1990s as the magazine struggled to stay relevant in the age of the internet boom.
Yes, it is easy to point fingers, but the magazine that once pushed boundaries now pulls the doors closed. It seems we lost our appetite for humor that pushed the boundaries of political correctness and humor that required the ability to read and understand satire.
The magazine as we know it is gone, but what is going to replace it?
Say it ain't so.
It is hard to believe that Mad Magazine announced it is going to cease production the way we have come to know it. They will still produce books and special collections, so maybe that isn't too bad. The old content is all the funny stuff anyway.
What does this mean for people searching for humor?
Well, the magazine will still be available at comic book stores and to subscribers.
Mad magazine is owned by DC, and DC is owned by Time Warner. The truth is the magazine really hasn't been as relevant and funny as it once was, so declining sales and the reality of young people not buying magazines means the end of an era.
Maybe it is just a sad truth that magazines are just like any other business in the way that they have a life cycle and that Mad magazine couldn't find a way out of the decline cycle. As readership shrinks, and advertisers chase new ways and places to advertise in the age of Facebook and other social media, print magazines just aren't a safe place for advertisers to spend money.
If you look at Mad and the content, yes it is still funny, but the time it takes to produce and reach the end user is too long in today's age of instant gratification. The movie spoofs don't have the appeal that they had two generations ago because the movie is already streaming by the time Mad spoofs it, or so it seems. There are other parts of the magazine that were replaced with comic strips, and the direction of the magazine seems lost at times.
The culture of political correctness also harmed the magazine. The 1990s were rife with political correctness and the stench only got bigger. The readership continued to shrink in the 1990s as the magazine struggled to stay relevant in the age of the internet boom.
Yes, it is easy to point fingers, but the magazine that once pushed boundaries now pulls the doors closed. It seems we lost our appetite for humor that pushed the boundaries of political correctness and humor that required the ability to read and understand satire.
The magazine as we know it is gone, but what is going to replace it?
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