Off the Media: Racist? Or Just Insensitive
Aye, aye, aye, aye. Who knew Mel Blanc was the Frito Bandito? Listen to the first part of the “On the Media” piece and you can clearly hear the voice is the same as Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd. The story’s on “racist spokescharacters.” Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben were stereotypes, but racist? Little Black Sambo toothpaste (above) maybe.
Arun Rath, subbing for Bob Garfield, did his best Garfield impression, “edited … by … Brooke” in the show’s end credits. Rath did some that’s rarely done, but was kind of refreshing: asking someone doing depressing stuff all day, if it takes a personal toll: “I mean, does it ever get to you? Do you ever have trouble sleeping at night, just knowing all of this stuff?”
Brooke Gladstone talked about David Halberstam, with David Remnick, who told me he was a good friend of Halberstam. My experience with Halberstam was much more limited — and odd.
For those of you you may be seeing this for the first time, it continues a tradition of critiquing On the Media I began at FishbowlNY.com.