aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Friday, April 11, 2008

On Alan Abel’s sophisticated media criticism

It would be so wonderful if it turned out that yesterday’s Today Show nursing home predator problem segment was a hoax perpetrated as commentary on the shortcomings of our corporate media system, on the need for better funding and better policy around elder-care, and as a call for a more enlightened approach to the very serious problem of sex offenders in our society.

If Alan Abel had done it, that’s what it would be.

I fear that it was none of that. I fear that it was, instead, what passes today for serious journalism from “one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience.”

Garbage in. Garbage out.

Alan Abel is an American prankster, hoaxter, writer, mockumentary filmmaker, provocateur and, I would say, a very sophisticated media critic famous for several hoaxes that became media circuses. He and his daughter were interviewed for On The Media recently. This is his description of what the media looks for in a story:

Well, you’re looking for perversions and calamities. Really, you want obscene, offbeat stories.

Here’s Jenny talking about her documentary Abel Raises Cain: