Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Dude, You Have No Quran!

This is what I call uplifting television. It's news coverage like this that gives me hope and here's why: 1) A Quran-burning is foiled in Amarillo, TX. If it can be foiled in Amarillo, it can be foiled anywhere. 2) There are enough Unitarian Universalists in Amarillo to outnumber potential Quran-burners, and they're organized! 3) The individual hero here is a skateboarder with truly hip hair and glasses, and he's a man of action.



Jacob Isom, you are the American Bad-Ass Patriot of the Week!

I first saw Jacob as I see many things, excerpted in Daily Show coverage. The actual footage embedded above I found after a friend/colleague posted it to Facebook. This week in my Television Criticism class we're talking about TV news and the public service function of TV. I'd say it's good timing because of the current hubbub about whether the media should have paid so much attention to that obviously wayward Florida pastor-apparently-without-a-congregation. I'd say that, but of course there's always some questionable media coverage going on. And ever generalizing about "the media" is a questionable act in itself.

Anyway, here's a link to a longer clip from the episode of the Daily Show. I can't get the embed code to work.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-september-13-2010/islamophobiapalooza

Aside from Jacob, the best moment of it is when Stewart describes TV news/the media as the dog from the movie Up, which is outfitted with a special collar that allows it to talk intelligently, but is still given to uncontrollable urges to drop everything at the sight of a "Squirrel!"

Anyway, the local news coverage from Amarillo makes me happy. Never thought I'd say that. Thank you, Jacob.

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