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| Lara Spencer and GMA have a producer and writers who are also responsible. | |
| Last Edit: Marlo*Manners 11:02 pm EDT 08/23/19 | |
| Posted by: Marlo*Manners 10:59 pm EDT 08/23/19 | |
| In reply to: re: despicable? - nyc23 09:57 pm EDT 08/23/19 | |
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| I agree that you don't mock a 6 year-old publicly. Making fun of ballet also is ignorant and redolent of the dumbing down of America that is hitting its apex currently. However, this wasn't quite as personal as I thought it might be from the outrage. The whole segment was on the almost college level curriculum Prince George is facing. They seemed to be laughing at ballet, not so much Prince George loving it and stating that he will grow out of loving ballet. "We'll see how long that lasts" It was classless and uninformed but not quite as cruel, homophobic and bullying as I thought it might have been. Also, GMA has producers and writers who vet the subject matter. Maybe Lara Spencer laughing at it was her choice but it was a group decision to talk about the Prince's curriculum and highlight that he loves ballet. Many people got really upset about online comments about Barron Trump and his odd gestures and affect suggesting he might be on the spectrum. I usually cheer anyone who takes down the Trumps but in the case of Barron I was like "LEAVE HIM ALONE". Children of world leaders often are targeted about their appearance, mannerisms or actions in highly visible public ways that normal children won't ever face. I strongly believe that children of world leaders should be allowed to be normal kids and not subjected to the public ridicule or scrutiny their parents have to deal with as part of their position and job. A six year-old is a six year-old even if his parents are royalty and they are going to be kings. Lara Spencer should apologize but she is already being lambasted and flogged on social media. The GMA producers and writers, however, also need to be censured by the network and the public. Marlo Manners (Lady Barrington) |
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| re: Lara Spencer and GMA have a producer and writers who are also responsible. | |
| Posted by: jconnors 05:05 am EDT 08/24/19 | |
| In reply to: Lara Spencer and GMA have a producer and writers who are also responsible. - Marlo*Manners 10:59 pm EDT 08/23/19 | |
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| I agree that others are involved, but ultimately Lara Spender has the most visible agency here ... and power. No doubt she could have influenced the language used in that segment and most definitely the tone in which she read the copy. She could have changed either and did not. Is this a major disaster? No, but it is a very visible unforced error. She should know better. The producers should know better. And all of them should have done better. |
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| re: Lara Spencer and GMA have a producer and writers who are also responsible. | |
| Posted by: Delvino 07:50 am EDT 08/25/19 | |
| In reply to: re: Lara Spencer and GMA have a producer and writers who are also responsible. - jconnors 05:05 am EDT 08/24/19 | |
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| She's a 50-year-old experienced host/journalist, operating from Manhattan, who hosts a show on HGTV (!). She should know better. She should've known better in 1972. The people telling us to calm down and cut Spender slack really are pretending she just left journalism school, or won American Idol, or some damn thing. No. It's 2019. She's on GMA, not handling a local weather spot in South Dakota. |
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| re: Lara Spencer and GMA have a producer and writers who are also responsible. | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 11:27 am EDT 08/24/19 | |
| In reply to: re: Lara Spencer and GMA have a producer and writers who are also responsible. - jconnors 05:05 am EDT 08/24/19 | |
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| "I agree that others are involved, but ultimately Lara Spencer has the most visible agency here ... and power. No doubt she could have influenced the language used in that segment and most definitely the tone in which she read the copy. She could have changed either and did not." You've got it exactly right. Spencer could have listed ballet as one of the things that the young prince would be involved in, but NOT saved it for last in the list as a punch line, not made a face after she said it, and not followwed up with the stupid and nervy comment "We'll see how long that lasts." One of the other things Spencer mentioned on the list was "computer programming." Why didn't she stop after THAT, make a face, and then say "We'll see how long that lasts? Because, in her mind, computer programming is completely "acceptable" for a boy to study, but ballet is not. And yes, it's true that one point of the "report" was to note that George is going to have a very full schedule as a very young child, but that ended up coming off as secondary to the need to make fun of the fact that he's going to be studying ballet. |
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| She already DID apologize. Like right away. nm | |
| Posted by: KingSpeed 12:42 am EDT 08/24/19 | |
| In reply to: Lara Spencer and GMA have a producer and writers who are also responsible. - Marlo*Manners 10:59 pm EDT 08/23/19 | |
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| Well, a day later | |
| Posted by: MockingbirdGirl 09:17 am EDT 08/24/19 | |
| In reply to: She already DID apologize. Like right away. nm - KingSpeed 12:42 am EDT 08/24/19 | |
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| The segment aired Thursday morning. Her Instagram mea culpa was Friday. | |
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| But that doesn't feed the Outrage Narrative, so few noticed, and the rest churlishly reject the apology. n/m | |
| Posted by: reed23 04:41 am EDT 08/24/19 | |
| In reply to: She already DID apologize. Like right away. nm - KingSpeed 12:42 am EDT 08/24/19 | |
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| spoken from the perspective of manifest privilege | |
| Posted by: ryhog 11:21 am EDT 08/24/19 | |
| In reply to: But that doesn't feed the Outrage Narrative, so few noticed, and the rest churlishly reject the apology. n/m - reed23 04:41 am EDT 08/24/19 | |
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| that's the problem with your drive-by postings in this thread. If you are not outraged, that, I guess, is your prerogative. If you don't get it, pat yourself on the back. But there are children whose lives are scarred by things like this. There are children who kill themselves because of things like this. There are children who get killed by things like that. Want to call it an outrage narrative and try to denigrate people with a conscience? I can't stop you but I can ask you to think about it. | |
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| Years ago, Dr. Phil said something comparable. | |
| Posted by: Delvino 07:52 am EDT 08/25/19 | |
| In reply to: spoken from the perspective of manifest privilege - ryhog 11:21 am EDT 08/24/19 | |
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| Only 15 years ago Dr. Phil drew audience applause instructing parents to take dolls away from a young male child who adored them. The segment burned a hole in my brain because as a self-appointed arbiter of gender expectations, McGraw claimed to be a staunch advocate of responsible parenting: curb those tendencies quickly or your male child will become an adult you don't recognize and society will never accept. It's no stretch to say the giggly, woefully self-absorbed Spencer voiced the same concern, albeit glibly, capriciously. Why, *real* boys don't dance willingly, didn't you hear? Wink wink, ha ha ha! The offense taken was swift and fully earned, and now some want to tone police those of us who were offended. I won't accept it. |
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| re: Years ago, Dr. Phil said something comparable. | |
| Posted by: ryhog 10:35 am EDT 08/25/19 | |
| In reply to: Years ago, Dr. Phil said something comparable. - Delvino 07:52 am EDT 08/25/19 | |
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| There is a surprising (to me) dynamic at play here, centering on how and to what extent we have evolved. On the one hand, we HAVE evolved, in the sense that, today, I do not think any responsible authority would seriously make the statement you attribute to Dr. Phil above. But on the other hand, we still sustain a culture in which what Spencer and her colleagues did at a major media outlet does not automatically blow a fuse. We are not talking about the learned attitudes of individual parents here; we are talking about the conveyed attitudes of powerful media that taints those parents and their children. These are attitudes that lead some kids to kill themselves, and others to live their lives as square pegs in round holes. Many of us have witnessed the evolution, and are not eager to see the genie forced back in the bottle for the current generation of kids. (And for anyone who thinks this is much ado about nothing, watch some of the Broadway dancers' youtube vids in reaction to what happened and get back to me. |
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| re: Years ago, Dr. Phil said something comparable. | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 10:51 am EDT 08/25/19 | |
| In reply to: re: Years ago, Dr. Phil said something comparable. - ryhog 10:35 am EDT 08/25/19 | |
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| "On the one hand, we HAVE evolved, in the sense that, today, I do not think any responsible authority would seriously make the statement you attribute to Dr. Phil above. But on the other hand, we still sustain a culture in which what Spencer and her colleagues did at a major media outlet does not automatically blow a fuse. We are not talking about the learned attitudes of individual parents here; we are talking about the conveyed attitudes of powerful media that taints those parents and their children. These are attitudes that lead some kids to kill themselves, and others to live their lives as square pegs in round holes. Many of us have witnessed the evolution, and are not eager to see the genie forced back in the bottle for the current generation of kids. (And for anyone who thinks this is much ado about nothing, watch some of the Broadway dancers' youtube vids in reaction to what happened and get back to me." Very cogently and thoughtfully worded. Thank you. |
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| re: But that doesn't feed the Outrage Narrative, so few noticed, and the rest churlishly reject the apology. n/m | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 10:18 am EDT 08/24/19 | |
| In reply to: But that doesn't feed the Outrage Narrative, so few noticed, and the rest churlishly reject the apology. n/m - reed23 04:41 am EDT 08/24/19 | |
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| I can only speak for myself, but I suspect many people rejected the apology -- and not "churlishly" -- because she apologized for the wrong thing. AGAIN, Lara Spencer shouldn't have said she doesn't really feel that way about boys taking ballet lessons, she should have admitted that she DOES feel that way, and that she recognizes it's wrong. | |
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