2 Responses to “The War of the New Media”

1. Terry M. Sater Says:
   September 15th, 2004 at 2:12 pm

   There’s a movie script in this election! I have a rough outline. You can picture it, if you try. It’s like the movies you’ve seen about how a person’s life revolves around one incident in their youth, one magic moment that put them on a path to success and happiness, or on to a sad fate of abject failure and unhappiness. You know the movie I’m talking about. It’s like “The Big Game”, where the guy either makes the game winning play, or he blows it. The working name for my movie is “Johnny Goes Back to The Big Game.” The movie opens with a flashback to thirty-five years ago.

   “Georgie and Johnny are seniors at Our Town High. Georgie was a popular, fun loving guy, who hadn’t decided what he wanted to be when he grew up. Johnny was a very serious, ambitious young man. He knew exactly what he wanted to be. Sometimes he came across a little stiff and pretentious. Under his picture in the yearbook, it read, “Most likely to become Mayor.” The yearbook committee wanted it to say; “Most likely to marry rich!”, but Johnny complained. He didn’t like it when he wasn’t taken seriously. He bristled when he thought about how his classmates in grade school called him and Georgie, “Alfalfa” and “Spanky.”

   We flash back, looking at Earth through the heavens. Georgie and Johnny are on the varsity football team. They’re both quarterbacks. Georgie isn’t too serious about football practice. He has a decent “air game”, but football isn’t a real passion. Johnny is very intense, but he is known as somewhat of a “showboat.” Although the team had a lot of injuries and had even lost a number of players, it had a deep bench. A lot of the kids in the school didn’t sign up for the team; out of fear of becoming injured. They were content to watch from the stands. The team was made up of blue collar, good kids. They knew they went to a good school and they had a lot of “team spirit.” The town was proud of them and supported them, just as they had supported every team ever put on the field. The team was very proud of their letter sweaters. They loved Coach Sam and would do whatever he asked of them. The “Yankees” prepared for an “away” game, east of their town. The “East High Dragons” weren’t a BIG team, physically, but they were clever, dedicated and resourceful. They struck from anywhere on the field. The yard lines didn’t seem to matter. Sometimes you got hit, but you couldn’t see who hit you, or where they came from. When “Coach Sam” called Georgie and Johnny into his office to discuss the upcoming game, Johnny said, “Send me!” Johnny saw the big game as his opportunity to set the stage for his life long ambition of becoming the mayor of “Our Town.” This was fine with Georgie. He was content to sit on the bench, but he was available, if Coach Sam called on him.

   The day of the big game was an especially hot day, and extremely humid. Johnny trained with the team all week. He knew this was his chance to write his legend! He knew that to be successful, he had to be swift. He carried a notebook with him to record his greatness and made notes after each play. He arranged for a friend to take movies of him. On the first play, Johnny dropped back to pass and fired the ball directly into the helmet of the teammate in front of him. The ball bounced back, hitting Johnny in the arm. He fell to the ground, clinching his arm. He lay motionless until the team doctor ran onto the field to see what had happened. Johnny said; “The ball hit my arm!” Doc looked, but couldn’t see anything. Doc pulled his reading glasses from his pocket. He checked Johnny’s arm again. Then he saw it. He had a scratch, just below his elbow, apparently from a rough seam on the football. The doctor breathed a sigh of relief and said, “You mean this?” Johnny said, “Yes. I want a band-aid!” The doctor didn’t want to delay the game, or make a scene, so he did what Johnny asked and put a Band-Aid on his scratch. Johnny jumped to his feet and thrust his fists into the air, signaling that the football hero was OK. Johnny enjoyed the huddles. He enjoyed debating with his team on whether or not the game should really even be on their schedule. He discussed his ideas on where the Yankees should be playing that day. He also liked to express his views on Coach Sam’s playbook. He thought that Coach Sam’s strategy was wrong and actually put the quarterback at needless risk. As the ball slipped into Johnny’s hands on the next play, he dropped back, into the pocket. Although the play called for Johnny to pass, he decided that he would try to run the ball into the sideline. As one of the opposing linemen from the East High Dragons came through the line, the Yankees defense hit him hard, breaking the opposing player’s leg. As the Dragon’s linemen tried to crawl away, Johnny ran to him and stomped the diminutive lineman in the back, stopping him cold. Proud of his achievement, he thrust his arms into the air, waiting for the cheers of the crowd. Meanwhile, Georgie was on the bench, thinking about the party that night, and joking around with the cheerleaders. On the second play, the Dragon’s line blitzed the Yankee’s defense, screaming, as they attacked. The noise initially startled Johnny. He began to run in the wrong direction, tripping and falling on his arm. Almost immediately, the noise died down, and he realized his mistake. He quickly spun around, as though it was part of his plan all along, and ran back to pick up a teammate, who Johnny had accidentally knocked over as he was taking off. He called for a “time out” and motioned for the team doctor. As Doc walked up to Johnny, he asked, “What’s the matter this time?” Johnny moaned, “I hurt my arm.” Doc looked closely at Johnny’s arm and saw a bruise starting to appear on his upper arm. “It’s just a bruise. It will go away”, the doctor said. Johnny muttered, “I want a band aid!” Again, the frustrated doctor put a small Band-Aid over his “wound.” As Doc left the field, he noticed that somehow, Johnny seemed to have fallen into some rice, covering Johnny’s buttocks and legs. He looked back to see Johnny raise his fists to the sky in triumph, hoping again for cheers from the crowd. On the third play, Johnny fell to the ground after the snap, clutching his other arm. Shaking his head, Doc ran out, onto the field. As he ran past Johnny, on his way to one of the players who had a compound fracture of his arm, he looked down and asked, “What is it this time?” Johnny replied by showing his forearm and the scratch that looked as though it may have been caused by someone’s fingernail. “This is why you are laying on the ground?” Doc asked? Johnny indignantly told the doctor, “But it hurts!” I want a …” Doc cut him off with, “I know. I know. You want a Band-Aid.” After attending to the seriously injured Yankee lineman, Doc took a Band-Aid out of his pocket and slapped it onto Johnny’s scratch.

   At the end of the first quarter, Johnny ran off the field to speak with Coach Sam. “I want out”, Johnny whispered to the coach. The coach was frustrated and upset that Johnny had been training with the team all week and now, at the end of only one-quarter, he wanted out. He had never seen a quarterback quit on his teammates like that. The coach decided that rather than put up with Johnny’s antics on the field; he replied that “technically”, since he had been “injured” three times, he could come out of the game early. The coach looked at the bench and saw Georgie munching on a bag of pretzels and coughing. He decided that he really needed a player with a good running game, rather than Georgie’s air game, so he decided to keep Georgie in reserve, and send in one of his guys that had a good running game.

   As Johnny trotted to the sidelines, he took off his helmet and shook his mane of long, unkempt hair. His first stop was to go to the bench and speak to the players there, telling them that he really felt strongly that the Yankees shouldn’t even be playing in this game. He spoke loud enough that the fans in the stands could hear him, gradually getting louder and louder. He startled the fans and the players when he suggested that the Yankees should quit the game! He shouted to those in the stands that the Our Town “Yankees” really didn’t deserve to win, because his teammates were “dirty players.” He asserted that many of the team had gone into the East High area, raping and pillaging! He protested that he had personally seen the Yankee players step on fingers and ears, kick heads and many other despicable acts.

   Suddenly, his eyes fell upon a sexy and outspoken student on the other side of the field, talking with the students of East High. He was rather fond of Jane. He trotted to the other side of the field to see Jane and talk with Coach Hochiminh, of the East High Dragons. He and Jane enjoyed the attention and reception that they received from the East High student body. They made them feel very important. He even spent a considerable time talking privately with Coach Hochiminh, although we really don’t know what the two discussed. After a few minutes, Jane and Johnny came back to their side of the field and began to lead cheers against their own team. Johnny went to his bench to get his letter sweater. With rage in his eyes, and a shout of contempt for his school; he threw it into the trash barrel. He screamed to the cameras that he rejected anything associated with the symbol of his school. Jane loved Johnny for his courage and his rebellious spirit. As they continued to lead cheers against their school, the Yankee football team heard the chants and cheers while they were on the field. They became confused. They felt their hearts sink. They couldn’t understand. They were fighting for their school, giving everything they had; yet, some of their schoolmates were cheering against them and accusing them of the vilest acts they could think of. What were their parents thinking? What were their brothers, sisters and friends thinking? Johnny and Jane kept the crowd fired up, demanding that Our Town High forfeit the game, apologize to the East High Dragons for their dirty play and pay East High for any real or imagined damages. As time went on, the Yankees on the field became more and more demoralized. They had never been beaten on the field. The East High Dragons heard the chants, as well. Suddenly it occurred to them that although it was looking like they couldn’t beat the Yankees on the field, they could see that the Our Town Yankee student body was their best hope to actually win the game! Now, although the Yankees were successful in every series of plays, they had no support from their school. As Johnny and Jane kept up their cheers against the Yankees, members of the school newspaper began to agree with them. They said the Yankees could not win the game; they were committing terrible fouls and should pull out. Now! They had heard rumors that the whole team had been playing dirty, used drugs and tortured small animals. Slowly, the momentum built to such a point fights were breaking out. Coach Sam felt pressured to call the game, forfeiting to the East High Dragons. The Yankee team left the field dejected. The fans in the stands spit at them and called them names. For the first time in the school’s history, there was no rally to celebrate the courage and sacrifice of the team. They were vilified. They were hurt and had seen their friends injured. Some left the game on stretchers. The school yearbook recorded not only the loss, but also all of the real and imagined crimes and failures of the members of the football team. The Drama Club had plays with characters from the football team as drunks, druggies, losers, murderers and other assorted misfits. It was frustrating that while they were being spit on; the trophy case of the East High Dragons proudly displayed a photo of Johnny and Jane, shaking hands with Coach Hochiminh. The Yankee team’s honor had been stolen from them.

   As the years went on, Georgie, Johnny, the rest of the team and their class, graduated and went on with their lives. Georgie dabbled in business, but eventually felt a calling to get involved in the town’s civic affairs. When Johnny graduated, he ran for alderman in his area. He wasn’t elected on his first try. He had campaigned on the “courage” of his speaking out against the big game and the terrible acts of his teammates. By the time of the next election, he decided that his strategy was wrong. Enough time had passed that people really wanted to forget. Johnny went to the school store and purchased a new letter sweater. He cajoled Coach Sam into giving him a replacement for the letter he had thrown away. This time, Johnny went to campaign rallies wearing his letter sweater proudly, telling everyone who would listen about his exploits in The Big Game. He made it clear to everyone that if only they had more guys like Johnny on the team that year, the Yankees would have won. He spoke with carefully measured emotion about the dangers he had faced, how he had picked up one of his teammates who had fallen and the injuries he sustained in the heat of the game. He never got into a full discussion of the injuries, describing them in detail. He felt it was more effective if the voters imagined the worst, thinking that Johnny had narrowly escaped crippling, or life threatening injuries and that he still carried pieces of the field in his legs. He was successful in his new strategy and was elected alderman. With each new election campaign, Johnny fine-tuned his campaign. With each campaign, the stories of his heroics became more extraordinary, while the legacy of his teammates became forever mired in slurs and mud that Johnny had used to describe them, years earlier. They had given up on trying setting the record straight. They had married and raised their children. Their children were taught in school that their fathers were losers. They were rapists. They were terrible, horrible men. One day, Johnnie decided it was time to make his move. He was going to run for mayor! Ironically, Georgie had quietly succeeded in his career and had won the office of Mayor, only four years earlier. Georgie never talked about the Big Game. When it was brought up, he readily admitted that he sat on the bench. He also said that he honored all of those who played in the game. Johnnie put his campaign machine into motion. He didn’t want to talk about what he had accomplished as an alderman. He really didn’t have a record of achievement he could point to. Instead, at each campaign rally, Johnny showed up in his letter sweater. He was able to get a couple members of his team to campaign with him. He told them that he never meant that they played dirty. It was just everybody else. Everyone who attended Johnny’s campaign events listened to Johnny regale them with his stories. When a reporter asked Johnny what he would do about the local economy, he replied that he would fight for new jobs the same way he fought for ground in the Big Game. When they asked him what he would do to make the neighborhood safer, he said he would fight for safer streets the same way he fought to win in the Big Game. When they asked him what he would do for the school district, he said he fight for the schools, even if he had to shed blood, just like he did when he was winning the Big Game. He showed carefully edited movies that were made during practice, years ago. Of course, he did have some “special effects” added to make them more effective. They showed Johnny running into the end zone with a winning touchdown and blocking for his running backs. One film showed him receiving a pass in the end zone, although nobody really quite understood that part, since he was the quarterback. He even wrote a book about it. The cover had the square jawed Johnny standing ramrod straight, while his mother sewed his “Y” letter onto his letter sweater. When his teammates read the book, it brought back all of the pain and disappointment of the big game. People started talking again about their dirty tricks and how they did terrible things to girls and small pets. This time, they decided to strike back. They couldn’t stand the idea that Johnny would become mayor, after what they knew about Johnny. They organized a group; “Big Game Players for Truth.” Johnny was furious. His campaign staff was furious. They went to the press; saying that Georgie’s headquarters directed the “Big Game Players for Truth”. He said they were all liars. He pointed out that Georgie sat on the bench and didn’t even play in the game. His staff complained that they couldn’t understand why Georgie and the “Big Game Players for Truth” were bringing up a game that had happened thirty-five years ago! They pointed out how “suspicious” it was that the “Big Game Players for Truth were “only now” coming out. Johnny stood in the stance of a quarterback ready to launch a long pass and said, “I simply want to pass along to you my positions on what our town needs in the future! I don’t know why my opponents insist on talking about the past!” When they pointed out that he had just spoke out against a large expenditure for the local police department, he explained that he really was for the expenditure, before he campaigned against it!

   The “Big Game Players for Truth” really didn’t have any issues with Georgie. Johnny’s campaign people kept pointing out that Georgie spent the entire game on the bench. Then they said that they had information that there were times that he had gotten off of the bench to get a hot dog, or a cold drink. It was true that Georgie sat on the bench, but so did many others. Georgie never said he was the hero of the game. He didn’t say terrible things about the team. He didn’t go to the other side of the field in his Yankee uniform, to meet with the opposing coach. Whenever anyone brought up the “Big Game Players for Truth” assertions that Johnny had lied about them, or that he may not have been the hero of the game that he said he was, he became indignant. He was furious that anyone would dare question his courage and his school spirit! The “Big Game Players for Truth” were amazed that Johnny’s campaign staff never backed off of their accusations from years earlier. As a matter of fact, they pointed out a penalty in the fourth quarter of the game to prove that all of the team had committed terrible fouls that shocked decent townspeople. Sometimes they stated that Johnny hadn’t accused his teammates of those terrible things, he “was only repeating what he had heard others say.”

   In order to turn the subject away from what he did or didn’t do in the Big Game, Johnny thought back to his grade school days and came up with the idea of using Georgie’s middle initial to make fun of him. Georgie’s middle initial was “W”, so he began to speak at his rallies about how the “W” stood for “Wrong”, or “Wrong Way”, or “Wrong Guy”, or anything else he could think of that started with “Wrong”. Georgie thought and thought about how he could counteract Johnny’s tactic. He remembered that Johnny’s middle initial was “F”. He immediately thought of three words that started with “F”. Two of them were “Flip” and “Flop”, but Georgie really didn’t think the approach was a strategy worthy of a respectable Mayor of “Our Town”. As a matter of fact, he didn’t think it was worthy of an unrespectable Mayor.”

   This is as far as I have gotten in my story outline. I plan on finishing it over the next couple of months. I think I know how it will turn out, but I’m not sure. The biggest decision I have to make is whether or not I want to call my movie a farce, a drama, or a documentary. I might go with documentary. They seem to get a lot more respect from Europe and Hollywood.

   Terry Sater
   Eureka, Mo.
   Mobile Riverine Force
   Mekong Delta, 3/68-3/69

2. Terry M. Sater Says:
   November 2nd, 2004 at 5:53 am

   Check out the current issue of “Rolling Stone” magazine, dated November 11, 2004. It has a very sensitive, thoughtful looking John Kerry on the cover. The entire issue is a homage to JFK the Second.

   One article, with the not too subtle title of “John Kerry For President,” by Jann S. Wenner, begins “Our current leadership seems to have lost its way and its moral compass. Dishonesty has become a national policy. We have been asked to debase our Constitution for political purposes, to enshrine bigotry and to take away fundamental rights from Americans. We have abandoned scientific and medical research, bowing to narrow religious beliefs. We have handed over more of our national wealth to the rich and taken it from the poor and the workingman. We have gone to war for reasons that have been proved wrong, and we have sanctioned torture as acceptable policy. We must not make war on other nations because we think we hear God telling us who is evil. We must not unleash the terror of war-death and destruction and the inevitable murder of innocents – as if it were some God given right.”

   The level of vitriol has hit a new high, or a new low, depending on how you look at it.

   In another article; “The Youth Vote”, by Tim Dickinson, it notes; “Iraq – and the specter of a renewed draft – also appears to be sparking youth-voter engagement. Despite frequent disavowals from the administration, fifty-one percent of young people believe that President Bush wants to reinstate the draft. “When you look at the last time that fifty percent of this age group turned out, it was around the Vietnam War,” says Greene.”

   A third article, “The Fun-Hogs In The Passing Lane” by Dr. Hunter S. Thompson has many comments as outlandish as this one; “Every GOP administration since 1952 has let the Military-Industrial Complex loot the treasury and plunge the nation into debt on the excuse of a wartime economic emergency. Richard Nixon comes quickly to mind, along with Ronald Reagan and his ridiculous “trickle-down” theory of U.S. economic policy. If the Rich get Richer, the theory goes, before long their pots will overflow and somehow “trickle down” to the poor, who would rather eat scraps off the Bush family plates than eat nothing at all. Republicans have never approved of democracy, and they never will. It goes back to preindustrial America, when only white male property owners could vote.”

   When the same article refers to the 2000 election, Thompson tells us; “It was the most brutal seizure of power since Hitler burned the German Reichstag in 1933 and declared himself the new Boss of Germany. Karl Rove is no stranger to Nazi strategy, if only because it worked, for a while, and it was sure as hell fun for Hitler. But not for long. He ran out of oil, the whole world hated him, and he liked to gobble pure crystal biphetamine and stay awake for eight or nine days in a row with his maps & his bombers & his dope-addled general staff.”

   The issue boasts a Rolling Stone Poll of their readers. It is not too surprising that 17.7% of the readers would vote for Bush and 74.0%, for Kerry. The poll also asks, “Which of the following sources do you trust completely when it comes to information about the election?” The response to this question is startling!

   Bruce Springsteen and the Vote for Change Tour; 18.9%
   Presidential Debates; 13.8%
   MoveOn.org; 13.6%
   Michael Moore and Fahrenheit 9/11; 12.9%
   Major-network news; 4.8%
   Daily newspapers; 4.5%
   Fox News; 4.1%
   Swift Boat Veterans for Truth; 1.5%

   Many have said this may be the most important election of our lifetime and the readers of “Rolling Stone” admit that their most trusted source of election information is “The Boss”!!!!

   It is stunning to me that the readers of “Rolling Stone” find Bruce Springsteen to be a more trusting source of information than 300 decorated Vietnam veterans and POW’s! They trust Michael Moore and Fahrenheit 9/11, more than TV news and newspapers!!!

   When asked “What is the most important action we should take in Iraq?” The number one response is “Bring in more allies”, at 44.1%. Sound familiar?

   This is scary!

   Terry Sater
   Eureka, Mo.

Leave a Reply

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

Spam protection: Sum of 10 + 5 ?