Culture Briefs

Not with program

“To the surprise of many of my male friends, I hate the idea of an ESPN channel aimed specifically at women. And I’m not alone. Nearly every female blogger and sports fan on my twitter feed was annoyed by the announcement of espnW. … Women already have an ESPN. It’s called ESPN. The idea that women need a ’girlier’ version of sports programming is insulting. This is the same idea that has caused sports marketing geniuses to try to sell baseball to women, who already comprise more than 40% of the fan base, by creating sparkly pink hats and bedazzled t-shirts.

“The idea that sports need to somehow be feminized to attract women is completely off-base. Like the Jennie Finches, Julie Foudys, and Lindsay Vonns of the world, women today are the daughters of Title IX. We grew up playing sports, just like the guys, and we still love sports, just like the guys. … The idea that we want our own ESPN for sunrise yoga and ’learning how to ride a Harley-Davidson motorcyle’ is, in a word, stupid. And by the way, I already get Lifetime.”

— JulieDiCaro, writing on “Why I Hate the Idea of espnW” on Oct. 1 at A League of Her Own

Not with Coco

“The media are in part to blame for the new Conan [O’Brien] and the self-righteous fervor of his fans. They tracked the whole Conan versus Leno mess as if it were of international interest and characterized the fallout in Homeric terms. … He became the spiritual leader of a hollow movement in which a breached NBC contract was a moral cause.

“Like Jon Stewart’s ’Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear,’ ’I’m With Coco’ was a pseudo-movement pitching itself as an attempt to rise above the fray and offer something nobler, more in touch with the people. And, like the Stewart rally, it was less a demonstration of any real principle than a publicity stunt. Now, the ethos behind TBS’s ’Conan’ is the same: comedy uncomfortably mingled with a sense of real aggrievement.

“Stewart’s rally was good fun when he and Colbert were strutting around in American flag sweaters and belting off-key duets. It lost its punch at Stewart’s earnest closing speech. … His ambitions of real moral leadership killed the comedy act. And the comedy act killed his ambitions of real moral leadership. For O’Brien, too, self-righteousness undermined the act. The cloud of self-reference surrounding him became tiresome fast.”

— Laura Bennett, writing on “Conan the Solipsist,” on Dec. 3 at the New Republic

Climate and money

“It’s good to see that the Guardian, ’the world’s leading liberal voice’ as they bill themselves on the website, is catching up to my viewpoint that these climate change deals are all about the money. I laid out my claims a week ago quoting from top climate change activists and U.N. officials who say that climate change is about redistributing wealth. Now the Guardian, Britain’s biggest booster of climate change conferences after the BBC, is saying pretty much the same.

“It turns out that the U.S. and other countries were using money as a bargaining chip to get developing nations on their side. The Guardian then lays bare why this is important. ’Negotiating a climate treaty is a high-stakes game, not just because of the danger warming poses to civilization but also because re-engineering the global economy to a low-carbon model will see the flow of billions of dollars redirected.’ Key words there — ’the flow of billions of dollars redirected.’”

— Brian Lilley, writing on “Guardian admits climate change is about redirecting money,” on Dec. 6 at Lilley’s Pad