The ins and outs of media whoring
Jennifer Jacobson has an excellent story in the Chronicle of Higher Education about the travails faced by academics who make regular media appearances. It’s the perfect mix of serious and amusing. The amusing stuff: During the Monica Lewinsky scandal in the late 1990s, Cass R. Sunstein, a law professor at the University of Chicago, appeared ...
Jennifer Jacobson has an excellent story in the Chronicle of Higher Education about the travails faced by academics who make regular media appearances. It's the perfect mix of serious and amusing. The amusing stuff: During the Monica Lewinsky scandal in the late 1990s, Cass R. Sunstein, a law professor at the University of Chicago, appeared on television regularly to argue that impeaching President Bill Clinton was wrong. Then he got sick of it. He was bored with the cameras, sitting in the studio had lost its novelty, and, to top it off, his earpiece kept falling out. So after CNN asked him to appear yet again, he said he would agree only on one condition: that his dog join him on the air. The network agreed. During the commercial break, the phones were ringing off the hook, Mr. Sunstein recalls. Viewers wanted to know where they could buy a dog like Perry, Mr. Sunstein's Rhodesian Ridgeback. "He was a big TV star," says Mr. Sunstein. The experience, he says, was "the highlight of my television career." [I must stipulate here that Perry is indeed a gorgeous dog... though not as gorgeous as Chester--DD.].... On television-free days, Diane Ravitch doesn't wear much makeup ? no eyeliner, eye shadow, or mascara. Some days, she says, she does not even apply lipstick. She is not a fan of getting made up for television; in fact, she says "that's the worst part." There is, however, an upside to it, Ms. Ravitch says: The skillfully applied products make her look 20 years younger ? for three minutes. She realizes that is not a lot of time to share her views with the public. But it is a chance to reach a national audience, she says. Besides, most Americans get their news from television. "So if you can say something that's educational and valuable for them to hear," she says, "that's more than they'll hear for the rest of the day." Ravitch's last quote raises an interesting question -- as Americans get more and more of their news off the Internet, will more public intellectuals start up blogs? [Duh--ed.] On the serious side, it turns out that junior faculty should be wary of doing too much television. Who knew?
Jennifer Jacobson has an excellent story in the Chronicle of Higher Education about the travails faced by academics who make regular media appearances. It’s the perfect mix of serious and amusing. The amusing stuff:
During the Monica Lewinsky scandal in the late 1990s, Cass R. Sunstein, a law professor at the University of Chicago, appeared on television regularly to argue that impeaching President Bill Clinton was wrong. Then he got sick of it. He was bored with the cameras, sitting in the studio had lost its novelty, and, to top it off, his earpiece kept falling out. So after CNN asked him to appear yet again, he said he would agree only on one condition: that his dog join him on the air. The network agreed. During the commercial break, the phones were ringing off the hook, Mr. Sunstein recalls. Viewers wanted to know where they could buy a dog like Perry, Mr. Sunstein’s Rhodesian Ridgeback. “He was a big TV star,” says Mr. Sunstein. The experience, he says, was “the highlight of my television career.” [I must stipulate here that Perry is indeed a gorgeous dog… though not as gorgeous as Chester–DD.]…. On television-free days, Diane Ravitch doesn’t wear much makeup ? no eyeliner, eye shadow, or mascara. Some days, she says, she does not even apply lipstick. She is not a fan of getting made up for television; in fact, she says “that’s the worst part.” There is, however, an upside to it, Ms. Ravitch says: The skillfully applied products make her look 20 years younger ? for three minutes. She realizes that is not a lot of time to share her views with the public. But it is a chance to reach a national audience, she says. Besides, most Americans get their news from television. “So if you can say something that’s educational and valuable for them to hear,” she says, “that’s more than they’ll hear for the rest of the day.”
Ravitch’s last quote raises an interesting question — as Americans get more and more of their news off the Internet, will more public intellectuals start up blogs? [Duh–ed.] On the serious side, it turns out that junior faculty should be wary of doing too much television. Who knew?
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner
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