LETTER FROM THE EDITOR 6/23/08
WHEN WILL WE STAND UP?
The Miley Cyrus photo shoot for Vanity Fair just won't die. It's been brought back again by bloggers who are now terming the pictures "creepy," hoping get another round from a non-story that sent everybody hopping a few weeks ago.
Those high-contrast photos of Cyrus showed her looking sultry. They showed less of the 'tween pop idol than a one-piece bathing suit would have shown, but her poses and expressions were sultry (Let's avoid the word 'sexy,' because it's so emotionally charged). Cyrus is 15.
Bloggers, who get attention from creating attack issues, began attacking Cyrus. Mainstream media quickly grabbed the subject, and instantly, a layout of artistic photos turned into a controversy. This was a moment for a genuine national discussion. Is 15 too young to be---well, sultry? Does the culture of teens with raging hormones place too much emphasis on the sultry? We could have had an actual discussion.
Instead, it became a stage of opinions: "She is." "She isn't." And, as always happens these days, everyone with a money or reputation interest in the clean-teen-queen got scared. First, Cyrus said she was embarrassed by the photos, sorry about them. Disney spoke up, saying that the whole thing was all Vanity Fair's fault. Cyrus' father, country music star Billy Rae Cyrus, said he wasn't even there when those photos were taken, despite the fact that one of the most controversial shots is of him and his daughter.
Instead of the scurrying in fear, what would have happened if everyone involved had stood up? If Miley Cyrus had said, "I've never done a photo shoot like that, I like the pictures." If Billy Rae had said, "There's nothing wrong with those photos, my teenage daughter has a bare back and a pouty expression, so what?" If Disney said, "Miley Cyrus is a normal teenager, and a very photographic one." What if they had all stood up for their actions and not let the bloviating gossip-mongers make them back down?
I just came across a book called "Truth and Duty," by Mary Mapes, Dan Rather's producer, who broke the story about Abu Ghraib . She also researched Rather "60 Minutes" story about long-time allegations that President Bush used connections to get in the National Guard so he would not have to serve in VietNam; and then went AWOL from the Guard. The story exploded, but not as one would expect.
Right wing bloggers attacked the CBS story at once, saying the documents were forged. Mainstream media picked that up. A mushroom cloud of opinion damned the whole investigation because of the shape of a comma and the spacing of letters. It became all about the documents. The subject of whether President George Bush had gone AWOL from the Guard somehow disappeared. Mapes presents documented proof in her 2005 book that is indisputable, proof that she also presented to CBS and its owner, Viacom. But the drumming of opinion over the documents allowed the actual story to be neatly sidestepped, until Bush's service in time of war became a non-issue, and still the opinionated attacks went on .
CBS caved. They promised an investigation of the investigation. The outcome was never in doubt. Mapes was fired, Dan Rather 'stepped down.' But what if CBS had stood up for their news department, rather than back down? What if they had said, "This is not about the shape of letters. This is about George Bush's military service."
We have become a nation frightened of opinion, whose people back down under the attack of gossipers, who don't stand up to it even when it's false. But the important fact is that we have become a people who back down under attack. The deeper message of what that says about Americans in a time of global hostility is very, very frightening.
Wina Sturgeon, Editor