Year-End Thoughts: Ron Burgundy at the Newseum and Obama's Pinnochio
by John Aquino on 12/26/13
For a while I felt that that I was the only one to be outraged that the Newseum, a museum in Washington, D.C. dedicated to journalism, had an exhibit on Ron Burgundy.
Ron Burgundy is a fictional character played by Will Ferrell in the 2004 movie titled Anchorman. The movie was not a huge hit. If you factor in promotional costs, it appears to have lost money on its initial run. On video, DVDs, and on demand, the movie acquired a cult following, primarily because the viewers could zero in on catch phrases and specific scenes.
A sequel, Anchorman 2, was released at Christmas 2013. To promote it, Paramount and the production companies involved launched a mammoth campaign that includes Ferrell as Burgundy doing Dodge car commercials and anchoring some local news programs. And then there was the Newseum exhibit.
The museum's officials justified the exhibit. They said the original movie was focused on some serious themes like a woman trying to become anchor on a local news broadcast in the 1970s. And they said that it was good to be able to take a joke.
A joke? Ron Burgundy was and is an egotistical, no-talent fathead with a booming voice. He drinks scotch before he goes on the air. His colleagues are equally talentless and the big set piece is a battle between competing broadcasters in an alley. The would-be anchor lady gets on the air because someone tells her that Burgundy will read anything that is put in front of him. She sneaks in and types his copy so that he says "f***k you to the audience. he's fired and she gets his job.
Why would the Newseum celebrate this film and this character? The Newseum is privately funded and always looking for money. The exhibit was presumably part of the movie's promotional expense. But why shouldn't professional journalists of all kinds be offended by this exhibit?
Well, maybe they were. Or at least the public didn't buy into it. The movie's opening weekend was $28 million, which is less than the first movie. It strikes me as someone trying to make something out of nothing and failing. However, when the second movie is on video, DVD, and on demand, it will probably become a cult movie two and in 9 years they may make an Anchorman 3.
Also at year end, on Dec. 16 The Washington Post awarded the 10 best Pinocchios of the year, awarded for the biggest public lies. One of them was for President Obama's statement assertion that "the day after Benghazi happened, I acknowledged that this was an act of terorism."
Now, you have to remember that during the last debate between President Obama and Mit Romney during the 2012 campaign, Romney said that the president during that speech had not called the Benghazi attack an act of terror and had elsewhere attributed it to an online video that mocked the prohet Muhammad. The moderator, Candy Crowley of CNN, corrected Romney, saying that she had viewed the tape of the speech and the president did say that the attack was an act of terrrorism.
Romney, finding himself debating the president and Candy Crowley, became tongue-tied. He even turned to the president and said, "Didn't you not say it was an act of terrorism?" President Obama looked at him as if to say, "You think I'm going to help you?"
And now, the Post gives President Obama a pinocchio for making the same assertion Candy Crowley had made. The Post wrote, "President Obama did refer to an ‘act of terror’ in the immediate aftermath of the Benghazi attack, but in vague terms, wrapped in a patriotic fervor. He never affirmatively stated that the American ambassador died because of an ‘act of terror.’ Then, over a period of two weeks, given three opportunities in interviews to affirmatively agree that the Benghazi attack was a terrorist attack, the president obfuscated or ducked the question. So this is a case of taking revisionist history too far for political reasons."
And so, Romney was right, for whatever good it does now. Thank you, Candy Crowley. Even Jim Lehrer, who had moderated presidential debates, said that Crowley was out of line for becoming part of the debate.
And so the year ends.
Copyright 2013 by John T. Aquino
