Re: You Da Man (on Da Street)

[Aaron Read <aread@speakeasy.net>]

At 03:23 AM 6/17/2003, Donna Halper wrote:
>At 11:19 PM 6/16/2003 -0400, you wrote:
>>Some time ago, Auntie Donna shared her article on media
>>hoaxers with us, so I'd be interested in getting her comments on another
>>kind of media manipulator.
>
>This is a problem that afflicts the right-wing, left-wing and moderate 
>media outlets-- you are in a hurry and you need a quote, and here is this 
>perfectly normal looking guy and he is willing to give you a comment... 
>and so what if he has been quoted about 300 times over the years and has 
>no expertise other than getting himself admitted to events and getting 
>journalists to notice him?  I also notice that some of the talk shows 
>"round up the usual suspects", using the same guest commentators over and 
>over, as if nobody else out there might possibly have an opinion.  But 
>hey, as much as Greg Packer (the guy who gets quoted way too much for no 
>apparent reason) needs to get a life, at least he is a real person:  some 
>journalists we all know have made up quotes or made up the people they 
>quoted... sigh...

Some years ago as an intern for the now-defunct "Z-Rock" affiliate in 
Groton, CT...WXZR...I and my fellow interns routinely posed as "men/women 
on the street" for outrageously fictitious reasons for the sole purpose of 
being "interviewed" by our "news manager" of the station.   Of course, we 
were a heavy metal / rock / alternative station, and it was pretty obvious 
we were goofing around to any intelligent listener.  But, we didn't have 
many intelligent listeners, so that made it even funnier to us.    I don't 
think our antics ever actually made it onto a real news station, but Lord 
did we try...

:-)



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aaron "Bishop" Read             aread@speakeasy.net
FriedBagels Consulting          AOL-IM: readaaron
http://www.friedbagels.com      Boston, MA