June 15, 2007

Premiere's film critic Glenn Kenny glaringly misquotes me...

Here. The comment I left at his site.
Glenn: You quote me saying "Meanwhile, in Iran, they're executing porn stars." That is a misquote that you need to correct. I did not use the word "stars," for exactly the reason that you go on to discuss. Since you're trying to smear me here, you should take special care to be accurate. Your whole riff is screwed up because it's based on the notion that I used that word. I demand a correction and an apology.
He wrote that yesterday afternoon, and I'm the only comment there, so maybe no one reads this guy, despite the fact that he's Premiere's film critic. Maybe people don't read Premiere anymore. So I'm doing a post over here on the subject, because he's smearing me and I want a correction. As Glenn Kenny notes, CNN used the term "porn stars" in the headline, and it looked stupid enough to me that I changed it to "actors" for my one-line reference to the story.

So if Glenn Kenny thinks I think there are "porn stars" in Iran, Glenn Kenny is quite wrong. As my mother used to say, Glenn Kenny, "don't let the bedbugs bite." If you're going to use quotes, Glenn Kenny, make sure the person said/wrote what you put inside the quotes, or maybe you don't deserve to be the film critic for Premiere.

ADDED: Kenny does a correction... and the traffic really flowed from here to there after Instapundit linked to this in a funny post.

25 comments:

George M. Spencer said...

Of course, Premiere—the magazine—no longer exists, having been shut down a few months ago by its owner Hachette and its president David Pecker. Given the ax-ete by a...[insert vulgarity].

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117962573.html?categoryid=2508&cs=1

At the time it claimed a circulation of nearly 500,000, below the level that attracts national advertisers. And, of course, it probably only had about 50,000 readers.

The magazine started life in the early 1980s and actually published serious thoughtful stories about the movies. Of course, not enough people want to read that stuff, and such reporting drove stars crazy. I think Arnuld, in particular, had a hissy. The magazine shrank in size, printed pap, and was sold, at least once. It was junk and probably still is.

Simon said...

If he can't even get it right when the quote is sitting there in front of him, how can one possibly trust his review of a movie, which requires him to get it right from memory of a two hour film, retainined through the course of the same and the drive home? At least when Emily Bazelon et al screwed up their amateur psychoalnalysis of Monica Goodling, they had some basis for what they wrote. Here, not so much.

Hoosier Daddy said...

and its president David Pecker

I know this is juvenile but with a last name like that, I'm betting he got beat up a lot in grade school.

Sloanasaurus said...

What is interesting about Kenny's post is that he more or less agrees with Althouse, he just argues that the law is more nasty than it appears to be.

Strange, how nevertheless, he decided to pick a fight with someone who agrees with him. It's very highschool.

Wince said...

"and its president David Pecker."

Now, that's a name for a porn star, if ever there was one!

Regards, Dirk Diggler

Anonymous said...

"don't let the bedbugs bite."

My mom used to say that when she tucked us in. It has some deeper meaning?

Bissage said...

Some things I get. Some things I don't.

I don't get the big deal difference between calling a pornographic performer a "star" rather than an "actor." Does the former imply admiration whereas the latter does not?

Hmm, maybe I do get it, after all.

Oh well, whatever they're called, they're still prostitutes.

marklewin said...

Would George Carlin consider 'Porn Actor' to be an Oxymoron ala Jumbo Shrimp?

Peter Hoh said...

Any of you are welcome to stop by my blog and make fun of the fact that I have very few readers.

Mad props to Kris and Iowa Gardening Woman, the only visitors who have left comments in the past month. But hey, that was much better than the previous couple of months.

Simon said...

OTOH, does demanding retraction and apology ever work on the internet? I would have thought that pointing out holes in the argument and raking it over the coals with mocking sarcasm is more effective. So this post seems a lot more effective than the comment. Hey, it's a "more speech" remedy. ;)

Unknown said...

A rose by any other name, would still get executed. I'm just sayin'.

Roost on the Moon said...

Some things I get. Some things I don't.

I think I've got a handle on this. "Stars" implies an industry, with professionals, and that Iran is cracking down on it. This is not the case. They are going after a television actress who may or may not have appeared in an underground sex tape. (The actress denies the whole thing.)

I don't understand the whole interblog dustup, though. Kenny is being awfully snarky for someone who made fun of someone for using a word that they didn't use. And Ann is being awfully indignant despite Kenny's argument basically withstanding his mistake. She isn't a 'porn actress' either, really, and the urge to call her that is sensationalist.

marklewin said...

peter hoh said...
Any of you are welcome to stop by my blog and make fun of the fact that I have very few readers.

Look on the bright side....fewer visitors....the lower the liklihood you will be party to a lawsuit.

I once ran unopposed for president of my state's service association and lost. Turned out to be a blessing in disguise. A coup took place that year and the elected president was run out of the association.

From Inwood said...

Prof A

Take some consolation in the fact that you’re safe here since the standards of proof required to kill blasphemers in these countries is so low that even though you were misquoted, you’d probably be executed for “glorification of porn” or “inciting to porn” (“ ‘misinformating’ of porn?) under their amorphous, vague porn codes!

Funny, even though we’re told that Iran & many countries have multitudes of things to teach us profanum vulgus materialist capitalists as we overdose on junk food, drive SUVs, execute criminals rather than understanding them as victims of our sick society, deny medical care to the poor, have 1/5th of the population in the bottom quintile of income/wealth (that’s a funny stat, folks, no gotchas!) even with this ChimpyMcHitlerBushCheneyHalliburtonFascist regime elected by gun-toting weirdo moronic, fat, flag-waiving, fundamentalists (see the picture on the front page of last Sunday’s NYTimes), even with all that, we don’t kill blasphemers. Though, in truth, we do, quite righteously, of course, ostracize & shun certain blasphemers when it involves serious articles of Faith such as Global Warming or Global Warming “Stars” such as the Hon Gore.

Brian Doyle said...

"porn stars"/"porn actors"?

Yeah that's pretty glaring. Totally different terms. I mean he should get it right but Jesus get over it.

Simon said...

From Inwood said...
"[T]he standards of proof required to kill blasphemers in these countries is so low that even though you were misquoted, you’d probably be executed for “glorification of porn” ... under their amorphous, vague porn codes!"

Or, for that matter, for having a picture of herself - unveiled! The shame! - on her blog.

Unknown said...

The CNN headline on the link says "stars." My guess is he simply took the headline and attributed it to you since you wrote about it.

marklewin said...

On a more serious note....thank goodness for genuinely beneficent people like...Instapundit and Ms. Althouse who regularly point out how lucky we are that we don't live in Iran and instead live in a country where if you are a 17 y.o. black male you only get sentenced for ten years in a correctional facility for having oral sex with a fifteen year old female. I appreciate you both (and others, see for example Michelle Malkin) for setting me straight and reminding me daily how lucky we all are here in the U.S. Again, thank you for telling me what I need to hear.

Dick Brodhead said...

...and its president David Pecker

I know this is juvenile but with a last name like that, I'm betting he got beat up a lot in grade school.


That's not funny.

Sincerely,

Dick Brodhead
President
Duke University
Durham, NC.

Simon said...

Mindsteps said...
"[We] live in a country where if you are a 17 y.o. black male you only get sentenced for ten years in a correctional facility for having oral sex with a fifteen year old female."

Whether that was a dumb law or not, it was democratically adopted and has since been democratically amended so as to preclude that result in the future. And despite your attempt to bring racist overtones into it, it has nothing to do with the race of the defendant and everything to do with the age of the girl. So what's your beef?

Frankly, I don't think it should have been repealed, but that's the beauty of federalism for you - the people of Georgia don't agree with me, and they're free to figure out their own rules for such things, free from idiots like you and me telling them what the age of consent ought to be and what exceptions they should have. Serves him right! He solicited oral sex from a minor! Here's a hint, guys: don't engage in sexual conduct with minors! (And if you can't tell the difference between a legal teen and a minor, develop a preference for older women. Actually, that's healthy advice anyway.)

Ixman said...

Oh my God, they killed Kenny!

Bastards!

marklewin said...

Simon wrote: And despite your attempt to bring racist overtones into it, it has nothing to do with the race of the defendant and everything to do with the age of the girl. So what's your beef?

I don't know whether racism was involved or not....

However, while liberals, too often, may tend to confuse expressions of national pride with xenophobia and chauvinism, those on the conservative side tend to attack honest self-appraisal and self-assessment of our country's negative episodes as unpatriotic, self-contempt, or even sympathy for terrorists.

What ever happened to true efforts at integration and synthesis, in contrast to the promotion of polarization without efforts at reconcilliation?

Benjamin Wharf, the 19th century anthropologist perceptively suggested that language can affect perception. In addition, there is an accumulation of research that suggests that when groups that were previously loose social categories are named and given specific definition, the result is an increase in prejudice.

There can be something very healthy about the process of developing a thesis and an antithesis, especially if there is effort toward eventual synthesis (and then the process starts again).

What is unfortunate, in my opinion is polarization begetting greater polarization. Moreover, individuals who attempt to see the perspective of others are attacked by purists on both sides.

Obviously, the over-reactions that take place in Iran are worth reporting on and criticizing. Those who bring it to our attention in a reasonable way should not be considered Xenophobes or Chauvinists. Individual's who reasonably point out the lack of proportionality here in our country's legal system,or other errors in our decision making, procedures, or systems, however should not necessarily be viewed as unpatriotic or self-contemptuous.

Is there something wrong with efforts at balance, multilateralixm, and moderation with respect to self praise and self-criticism. Personally, I tend to be more open to someone else's criticism, when I perceive that person to have some humility and the capacity to criticize themselves. People who are unable to admit their own mistakes, come across as judgmental when they point out the mistakes of others. I tend to be much less open to their criticisms, even if they are accurate.

Revenant said...

Would George Carlin consider 'Porn Actor' to be an Oxymoron ala Jumbo Shrimp?

Some porn stars deserve the label, I think. Faking genuine sexual heat for the cameras is not easy -- most "real" actors and actresses can't manage it either, which is why sex scenes in the movies are so often uninteresting.

From Inwood said...

Mindsteps

You tell us

“thank goodness for genuinely beneficent people like...Instapundit and Ms. Althouse who regularly point out how lucky we are that we don't live in Iran and instead live in a country where if you are a 17 y.o. black male you only get sentenced for ten years in a correctional facility for having oral sex with a fifteen year old female.”

Please don’t keep us hanging in suspense. Tell us what happened to the 15-year old daughter of a dog. Provoking a male like that. Was she walking outside her home without being enveloped in clothing from head to toe?

Aren’t people like you telling us that we in the U.S. have a moral police? And don’t you analogize it to the Iranian moral police, a branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, whose job it is to enforce the Islamic code of behavior on Iran's streets? Where were they in this case? And aren’t you aware that women who claim to have been raped are often found by these Iranian moral police to be covering up having voluntarily committed sex outside marriage? Didn’t this U.S. male you talk of explain how she had encouraged him & had been dressed provocatively? Oh, wait, I forgot, our moral police have led us into adopting a statutory rape law, under which men, men are guilty of rape simply for having sex with a female under a certain age? How uncivilized. How immoral!

Anyway, did her father not have her beheaded for such a slur on his honor? If not, was it because he was enfeebled or blinded by the materialism of this Country as it enters the 21st Century? If he had been, did her brothers not take up the family honor? A challenge to the master of the household from an emancipated 15-yr old woman & rebellious sons!

That’s why they hate us. We have no sense of honor. Like they do.

And Prof Althouse shows her short hair to America & all they do is write filth like “Bernice Bobs Her Hair”.

Revenant said...

I didn't realize Premiere still existed in any form. And now that I know... I plan to continue not bothering to read it. :)