“Fake News” musings
One of the joys of being ‘being a certain age’ is the sense you has seen it all before even if, on a personal level, that isn’t quite necessarily true.
The art of staying personally relevant in the 21st Century is tied to the notion that, whatever is going on, the essential nature of the human condition remains unchanged and therefore – contrary to Henry Ford I’s contention that it’s “bunk” – the great benefit of history is that one can learn from it.
In the circles in which I move a theme of our humour is the fact that – for we oldies – the dawn of each bright new day is exactly that because – our (metaphorical) memory hard drives having been “wiped clean overnight” – we begin it with a full memory capacity to fill!
Several years ago now I found myself laughing out loud when coming across a Matt newspaper cartoon based upon a news report of a senior citizens’ demo that ended up in Westminster.
Referencing the alleged propensity of oldies to have memory lapses, it featured a crowd carrying placards and chanting … without quite being able to remember what for.
My son Barry, a strong character, has forged his way in life despite – or, to be fair, possibly because of – his tendency to do things his own way or not at all. We have a close relationship even though in certain respects our attitudes of life are very different.
I once had a conversation with him as a youngster in which I tried to impress upon him that, contrary to his apparent belief, sometimes there were plusses to be had from listening to his elders [for the sake of the argument I was making, I left out my underlying implication “and betters”!].
My point was that to a great extent in life we can learn things either the hard or the easy way. In that context, those of previous generations to his could have their usefulness. Having lived more of their lives that he, they necessarily had more experience of it and therefore possibly – but admittedly not always – more wisdom too.
Why plough on, learning as the years go by via doing things in practice (and therefore often also by ‘trial and error’) when quite possibly – e.g. by chatting to an oldie, especially if they happened to have followed the same career or interests as he had – he might pick up more sound knowledge and/or ‘insider nous’ in an hour or two that he might in five or even ten years of ‘doing it all himself’’?
My father used to tell a story on the subject. He was sixteen when his own father died during WW2 (but not in action) and afterwards he spent a lot of time with his godfather, an admiral in the Navy.
On one occasion he complained that he hated parties because he had so little in common with the older generation and thus nothing to talk about.
His godfather had told him not to be so bloody silly: “Nonsense! Just keep asking questions – you never know what you might learn about the world …” and he had followed that advice ever since.
One of the current fashionable subjects is that of ‘fake news’.
Rust correspondents have commented previously upon the themes that ‘nothing is ever new’, ‘history is written by the victors’ and that throughout the course of human interaction since the year dot – in times of war, let alone anything else – the boundary line between fact and propagandas is necessarily blurred if not obscure.
Which brings me to the worlds of public relations and entertainment awards shows.
Overnight one of the media ‘issues of the moment’ is the Grammy awards event taking place in the USA.
It’s an opportunity for the great and good of the American music industry to preen themselves, tread the self-congratulatory catwalks and be seen at the glitzy after-match parties for the benefit of the publicity in celebrating the glories of the past twelve months.
This year’s edition comes with the spicy added spicy controversy surrounding the sacking ten days ago of former Grammys CEO Deborah Dugan over her alleged ‘bullying’ of staff and her counter-allegations of sexual harassment and nomination-‘rigging’ – see here for a link to a report by Associated Press and Laura Edmonds that appears upon the website of the – DAILY MAIL
For me, this is only par for the course and I wonder why anybody is concerned about the development.
Since the dawn of time, annual entertainment awards events – and, for all I know, those in any other walk of life – have rarely been what they purport to be. They’re just opportunities for publicity and celebration, nothing more. Rigging of nominations – and indeed the award-winners themselves – has always been rife.
And don’t get me started on “awards by public vote” – they’re a complete hostage to fortune by definition – you only have to think back a few years to the “public vote” announced to decide the name of a new and important British Antarctic research ship which produced the ludicrous de facto winner “Boaty McBoatface” which with suitable embarrassment the authorities had to refuse to accept.
My conclusion for the day?
That annual entertainment industry awards shows have been dripping with “fake news” for nearly a century before the term was ever coined.
