Remix Culture Meets the Scolds

Friday A/V Club: A president gets remixed and the establishment frets.

Polydor

These days the internet is littered with political remix videos, but they were still novel when Don Was made "Read My Lips" in 1992. So PBS aired the item—which dinged President George H.W. Bush for breaking his no-new-taxes pledge, among other complaints—and then invited a pair of eminences to discuss this strange new thing they'd just witnessed.

The video itself is only mildly interesting—it may be an early political remix, but it wasn't the first and it's far from the best. But the roundtable is pretty amazing to watch today. Bill Moyers opens, in his TV-for-people-who-say-they-hate-TV way, by asking what "happens to the political sensibilities of young people watching a political discourse like that." The publisher of The Hotline replies that the video "debases the process"; the dean of the Annenberg School for Communication calls it an "invitation to cynicism that I think is very unhealthy." And they both go on from there, condemning in advance the entire media landscape of 2017. I'm not sure 1992 has ever felt as distant as it does while I'm watching this:

(For past editions of the Friday A/V Club, go here.)

Comments

[mad.casual]

Far more important than the music video or the commentary on the video; where did Kathleen Hall Jamieson go to the bathroom and does she have a Constitutionally guaranteed right to do so?

[meister574]

I always liked this one better. https://vimeo.com/44568228

[Mongo]

Very interesting, JW.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Yeah, good times. I remember those days… when George Bush was singularly responsible for the Homeless Crisis plaguing America’s streets.

Now we have a real, bona fide homeless crisis and we’re told that it’s… complicated.

“If the rule you followed brought you to this, of what use was the rule?” -Anton Chigurh

[Fuck You - Cut Spending]

Whenever I see articles about homelessness I search for the words “tax” and “wage” (as in “minimum”) and as usual this article contains neither one.

In general, homelessness is caused by “smart growth”.

[Fuck You - Cut Spending]

And of course it’s Seattle where they think raising property taxes is a solution. In another ten years they will be flabbergasted that homelessness has increased despite higher property taxes.

[scape]

“Know new taxes.”