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12/20/2001 Entry: "franzen and oprah"

Gregg at last looks up from his little monitor. Though visibly dissatisfied with the second take, he announces that a third take won't be necessary. Chris, the cameraman, grins like a hunting dog whose instincts have been vindicated. He's wearing jeans and a corduroy shirt; he looks as if he'd listened to the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd in his youth. Gregg, for his part, seems like a person to whom the Smiths and New Order were important. As he and I drive west out of the city, I wait for him to ask me questions about St. Louis or to joke with me about the tedium and artificiality of what we're doing, but he has messages to return on his cell phone. He has an expensive crew, a marginally coöperative actor, and seven hours of daylight left.

Wonderful, intriguing article from Jonathan Franzen about his experience with Oprah Winfrey. He was widely criticized about his reluctance at accepting Oprah's offer to have him as a Book of the Month. While this offer would translate into increased sales, it also meant an Oprah logo on the cover of his book, which put Franzen off.

After he agreed, this article talks about the experience, and shows just what a remarkable writer he is. Furthermore, it shows the obvious falseness of most television. I'm on a number of photojournalism-related mailing lists, and the members, many of whom are working photographers for newspapers all over the country, complain about how many people shooting video will stage shots to be shown on the news. As recorders of history, this practice is fundamentally wrong, and it's a good idea to remember that this is done when watching news on the television, and that things are not always as they appear.

Replies: [C.1]

fuck shots bein staged, how much of the news itself is staged? "bush has precancerous lesions removed from face" that's funny, i don't remember seeing anything on his face.

Posted by Lusyphur @ 12/21/2001 12:51 PM PST

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