Deep Throat
While one article in yesterday's Daily News asked the question “is W. Mark Felt a national hero?” [Yes, and so is the security guard who discovered the break-in.], Stanley Crouch had an interesting piece about the role of the (free) press in all of it. He said that there was no parallel in European history, and certainly not in the communist world; that the ‘bloodless removal of Richard Nixon was an American original in the history of massive political power.’ He drew comparisons to Shakespearean tragedy, and quoted Nixon's exit speech:

“Always give your best, never get discouraged, never petty; always remember, others may hate you, but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself.”

His comments about the significance and power of the free press prompted me to write him this e-mail:

Subject: Nixon's Undoing

Stanley,

I really enjoyed reading your piece yesterday. It's a very interesting perspective to me, and it underscores how much of politics is theatre. One thing gnaws at me, though: Are we speaking of the "free press" in the past tense? Could today's press bring down a president? I wonder.

My suspicion is that Kitty Kelly is right: the White House is guarded by press 'poodles.' To make matters worse, the same corporate interests that seem to exert heavy influence upon the White House, also control a substantial proportion of the media outlets. In addition, a number of stories have come out, indicating that government agencies are packaging 'news pieces' that are being shown through media outlets without disclosure about their production. We've all heard, too, about Armstrong Williams, and other 'pundits' being paid to shill for pet projects of the White House. Those issues seem to represent an integrity problem for the press, at the very least. Then, there's Fox 'News.'

On top of all that, real investigative journalism in the style of Woodward and Bernstein has essentially died. Between budgetary constraints and the emergence of the 24-hour news cycle, few media outlets practice anything remotely like that form of journalism. Justices are willing to threaten Journalists with jail time for not revealing their sources, while one sympathetic journalist 'outed' a CIA operative, and seems impervious to punishment. The military now has a very successful 'embedded journalism' program; remember, the press brought down Nixon, but it also shifted public opinion against the Vietnam war.

In the 70s, a free press expressed an obligation to the greater public, that seems to have been lost. I doubt that the business interests that seem to have worked so hard to put any president in office, would allow their own media outlets to undermine him. Please correct me, if I'm wrong.

In the same paper, someone from the publishing industry speculated about Woodward's doing a book on Deep Throat: “Woodward has not written a book in two decades that has not been a No. 1 best seller.” You can just smell the money. I wonder what Woodward will buy with the advance.

I had a funny idea for a headline I'd love to see: Federal Judge Issues Gag Order to ‘Deep Throat,’ Cites Government Embarrassment

Summer's Coming?!
I got an e-mail saying that there are just two Ozzie's Poetry Night readings before the summer break. By the calendar, I know that June has begun, but it feels as if Spring is barely sprung. Last year's spring seemed so lush by comparison.

:::

A woman stepped onto the subway train wearing a t-shirt that read “You're a Dork So Go Away.” I'm not sure if that communicates fear, or hostility.

:::

Thinking About Seeing
I'm reading Arnheim's Art and Visual Perception. He's combining psychology's Gestalt Theory with art history and other disciplines. It's chewy reading so far, but very interesting.

One of my reasons for writing this book is that I believe many people to be tired of the dazzling obscurity of arty talk, the juggling with catchwords and dehydrated aesthetic concepts, the pseudoscientific window dressing, the impertinent hunt for clinical symptoms, the elaborate measurement of trifles, and the churning epigrams. Art is the most concrete thing in the world, and there is no justification for confusing the mind of anybody who wants to know more about it. (p. 7)

Far from being a mechanical recording of sensory elements, vision proved to be a truly creative apprehension of reality – imaginative, inventive, shrewd and beautiful ... all perceiving is also thinking, all reasoning is also intuition, all observation is also invention. (p. 5)

In looking at an object, we reach out for it. With an invisible finger, we move through the space around us, go to the distant places where things are found, touch them, catch them, scan their surfaces, trace their borders, explore their texture. (p. 43)