I've already written about the WGA strike, but it should be known that certain shows out there are not sticking with it, and are in fact remaining on the air.
Last Call with Carson Daly (who watches that?) went off the air for a bit, but then came back.
The Ellen DeGeneres Show went off the air for one day in support of the writers, but then came back on because DeGeneres had a contract that she had to honor. Her show is syndicated, and so she is obligated to all the affiliates everywhere who air her show. Well, that's what her production company,
Telepictures, wants us all to believe.
What DeGeneres and Telepictures don't seem to realize is that the other writers who are actually on strike are also under contract. That's kind of the whole idea of a strike, right? You're protesting what you believe to be unfair working conditions and/or situations, and you are ignoring your contract or agreement in an effort to correct those unfavorable circumstances. Apparently, though, DeGeneres and her team, despite the fact that her writers are all on strike, believe that the show must go on.
The interesting thing about this is that DeGeneres herself must be a member of the WGA. She's listed as a writer on her current talk show, and she has been a writer on her two other sitcoms as well. You can't do that without being in the WGA. So, in essence, this makes DeGeneres a scab.
That's not entirely the reason I'm writing about her today, though. Yes, I think it's despicable that she cares more about the money than she does about principle (though the rest of her staff who are not writers, maybe 95 people, is not striking, so she is keeping their paychecks coming), but I guess I can't really be surprised. After all, it's always been about the bottom line for DeGeneres, so this is nothing new.
Let's keep in mind what exactly Ellen DeGeneres is all about, okay? Her character on
Ellen came out in 1997, to a huge uproar, and DeGeneres decided to come out herself at the same time. "Yep, I'm Gay" she proclaimed on the cover of
Time Magazine. It was a huge, huge deal, and rightly so. DeGeneres didn't necessarily want all the publicity, but she wasn't really shying away from it, either. No one forced her to do
20/20 and
Oprah that year. And I'm not blaming her for doing them, either. She got a lot of publicity for being gay. But since her talk show began in 2003, DeGeneres has been doing her best to distance herself from the gay community, which is, frankly, a disgrace, because this is the community that supported DeGeneres back when, as she herself claims, she couldn't get any work.
There was, apparently, some backlash after the sitcom ended its run in 1998. DeGeneres says no one would hire her, even though she did a lot for television in general, and shows like
Will & Grace owed their existence to her (she did one small guest spot on the show, playing a nun). The gay community talked about her and did
documentaries about her and all that, but the mainstream media was done.
Oh, but then
Finding Nemo came along, and then the talk show, and it was easy to forget the group that had never left her side, because suddenly housewives in Iowa were okay with DeGeneres, and she was able to make money because they were willing to buy products advertised on her show. So, DeGeneres played the role of the "nice" comedian that she has always been, the one who doesn't want to say anything bad about another person, the one who wouldn't allow Kathy Griffin on the show for years because Kathy was too "mean" (and then when Kathy finally did go on the show, DeGeneres spent the
entire segment essentially trying to get Kathy to apologize for her comedy).
The point is, DeGeneres was so busy worrying about getting people to like her that she decided it wasn't worth being even a little bit of an advocate for gay rights, though she has a national platform with which to do so. I don't want her to be all about being gay, at all, because that just alienates people. But you know the old saying about how if everyone in this country just
knew someone who is gay, it would be a lot harder to be so against civil rights for gay people? I think it works that way for DeGeneres as well, and, as a result, she could affect a lot of change in this country. Her audience does not know her on a personal level, but they sure feel like they do. But while somewhere in the back of their minds they know that she is gay, they get to pretend they don't know it, because DeGeneres herself pretends it isn't true. Watch the show and you'll see what I mean. As much as DeGeneres tries to be personable and open with the audience, there's always a sense that she's doing her best to hold back a large part of who she is.
That's just the backstory, though. What really got me all riled up today is that earlier this week, DeGeneres had Jenna Bush on the show. During Bush's segment, things got all cutesy, as DeGeneres had Bush pick up the phone and call her father (you know, the president) live on the air (well, live to tape, anyway). CNN
featured the video of this bubbly segment, and I encourage you to go watch. DeGeneres couldn't be more excited about talking to President Bush, and I couldn't be more nauseous while watching this thing unfold.
This piece, as innocuous as it may seem on its surface, is just sickeningly wrong. I'm worried now that I won't even have the words to describe how repulsive it is, so I guess I'll let some of President Bush's words do the talking for me instead:
"Yes, I am mindful that we're all sinners," the president said Wednesday when asked for his views on homosexuality. "And I caution those who may try to take the speck out of the neighbor's eye when they've got a log in their own. I think it's very important for our society to respect each individual, to welcome those with good hearts, to be a welcoming country," Bush added. "On the other hand, that does not mean that somebody like me needs to compromise on an issue such as marriage." (CNN, 2003)
"So many of my generation, after a long journey, have come home to family and faith and are determined to bring up responsible, moral children. Government is not the source of these values, but government should never undermine them. Because marriage is a sacred institution and the foundation of society, it should not be redefined by activist judges. For the good of families, children and society, I support a constitutional amendment to protect the institution of marriage." (State of the Union Address, 2005)
Are children worse off being raised by gay or lesbian couples than by heterosexual parents?
Responding on Thursday to a question about gay adoption, President Bush suggested that they were.
"Studies have shown," Mr. Bush said in an interview with The New York Times, "that the ideal is where a child is raised in a married family with a man and a woman."
But experts say there is no scientific evidence that children raised by gay couples do any worse - socially, academically or emotionally - than their peers raised in more traditional households. (New York Times, 2005)
This is the man who wants to put it
in the Constitution that marriage should only be between one man and one woman. In the Constitution! Like outlawing gay marriage is akin to the friggin' Bill of Rights! (If you're picturing me yelling this at my computer right now, you're spot on.)
I don't know if DeGeneres wants to get married or not, but the fact remains that the man to whom she so gleefully spoke on the phone, to the delight of her audience, absolutely and positively regards her as a second-class citizen. All one has to do is look carefully at the first quote from Bush that I put up there, the one that begins, "Yes, I am mindful that we're all sinners." Whatever he says after that about tolerance and respect is bullshit, because he just referred to every single person in a homosexual relationship (of any kind) as a sinner. And while, yes, we all (as in, all of humanity) might be sinners for various reasons (assuming you have a belief system that subscribes to that), it's absurd for the president of my country to imply, not indirectly, without knowing me or anything about my relationship, that the type of relationship I am in automatically makes me a sinner. He's saying the same thing to you, Ellen. But let's call him up and "ooh" and "ahh" when he tells Jenna he loves her, okay?
Think of it is this way. There's another popular talk show host out there who also happens to be a minority. Perhaps you've heard of her? Her name is Oprah Winfrey. Now, let's say Oprah decided to have one of
David Duke's daughters on the show (hey, it makes about as much sense as Jenna Bush being on a talk show). Could you see Oprah getting really excited and giddy when Erika or Kristin (the daughters) said that they could just call up daddy on his cell phone right there? Would there be giggles in the audience when David Duke told the daughter how happy he was to speak to her? I think not.
Whether DeGeneres likes it or not, she has a responsibility to the public. She chose to embrace the gay community while it suited her, and then abandoned it when its support was no longer necessary. I always knew that was true, but seeing Jenna Bush on the show just reinforced it in a way I never thought possible. I knew DeGeneres was a sellout, but this is beyond selling out. This is pure, unadulterated treason.
It's one thing to not want to be an advocate for something, but it's quite another to openly embrace a member of the opposition as though he hasn't been ardently and publicly opposed to a major aspect of your identity. Now, please excuse me while I go take some Maalox to keep from throwing up.
COMMENTS:
AUTHOR: Bruce Paine
DATE: 12/06/2007 05:52:25 PM
Kid I love where your hearts at. We are the Constitution. There is no government without the consent of the governed, and if you cannot bring yourself to consent to its actions, you are no longer beholden to the machinations of its dictates. These people will not serve you by choice, they must do it by fear and force. They are afraid of three things and those things are all boxes.
1. Soap Box
2. Ballot Box
3. Ammo Box
Use each liberally and in that order. If you can't get past 2, call your friendly neighborhood hillbilly.
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