Tag: Current Affairs (71-80 of 472)

Mar 29 2012 12:19 PM ET

Mother of gay Flight 93 hero responds to Carson Daly's JetBlue joke: 'Gay men and women come in every shape and size'

carson-daly

Image Credit: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

Carson Daly has already apologized for what many, including GLAAD, deemed an offensive joke while discussing the recent JetBlue incident in which passengers had to subdue their pilot after he had an inflight meltdown. But Alice Hoagland, mother of Mark Bingham — one of the passengers who charged the cockpit of hijacked Flight 93 on the morning of 9/11 — would like to remind everyone, including Daly, that stereotyping gay men is wrong.

On his morning radio show Wednesday, Daly had said, “It turns out on this particular [JetBlue] flight, most of the people were on their way to some sort of security conference in Las Vegas…. There was a bunch of dudes and well-trained dudes. What are the odds of that? …. Thank god…. My luck, it would be like, ‘This is the flight going to [the gay pride parade] in San Francisco’ …. I mean, that would be my colleagues…. ‘Uh, we’re headed down to Vegas for the floral convention.’…. ‘Can we get a little help up here with the pilot?’ ‘Oh, Nooo!’…. ‘No thank you. Handle it.’”  READ FULL STORY »

Mar 28 2012 01:15 PM ET

'Muppets vs. Goldman Sachs': Neal McDonough is the winner!

Muppets read The New York Times. Or they use Google alerts. After former Goldman Sachs employee Greg Smith alleged in his resignation letter published as a New York Times op-ed piece that he’s witnessed colleagues refer to their clients as “muppets,” some fabricated fuzzy Americans are striking back. In a Funny or Die video set in dim boardroom, the Anti-Muppet Defamation League confronts suits played by Kyle MacLachlan and Neal McDonough (who dials down his Justified character Quarles for the occasion — we approve). Personally, I think they should have sent in Miss Piggy — that would’ve been a fair fight.  READ FULL STORY »

Mar 28 2012 11:12 AM ET

'Daily Show' investigates Park Slope Food Coop holy war

“Food shopping. Kind of a pain in the a–. Did you know there’s a way to make it much, much worse?” Jon Stewart asked.  Last night, The Daily Show weighed in on the Park Slope Food Coop’s holy war over whether to boycott Israeli-made products, including hummus, in protest of the Israeli government’s treatment of the Palestinian people.

Reporter Samantha Bee trekked to Brooklyn, “home to so many different kinds of NPR listeners,” to capture the spectacle. She sat down with both sides, Barbara Mazor of More Hummus, Please (no, that’s not a joke) and Liz Roberts of Members for Boycott Divestments Sanctions. The resulting interviews gifted us with gems like this from Mazor: “Everyone boycotted South Africa. Israel is different.” Watch Bee keep a straight face through it all. READ FULL STORY »

Mar 27 2012 04:05 PM ET

Yes, that happened: Obama and five other unforgettable mic gaffes -- WATCH

If you don’t want your off-the-cuff words to go viral, don’t chat near the mics. President Obama is learning that lesson the hard away after he was overheard telling outgoing Russian president Dmitri Medvedev he’ll have more flexibility on security issues after he wins reelection this November. Whoops. READ FULL STORY »

Mar 27 2012 12:40 PM ET

'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' reboot gets new title: 'Just give them a chance' pleads Michael Bay

teenage_mutant_ninja_turtles

Image Credit: Everett Collection

Well, that settles that. Producer Michael Bay took to his blog again to address the fans who are criticizing his upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot. Bay’s decision to alter the Turtlesorigin story had sparked a long string of remarks from fans, Bay and even series co-creator Peter Laird — in his most recent missive, under the headline “Ninja Turtles’ Title,Bay wrote: READ FULL STORY »

Mar 26 2012 05:56 PM ET

Mike Daisey issues another apology: 'Things came out of my mouth that just weren't true'

mike-daisey

Image Credit: Astrid Riecken/Getty Images

Before the curtain falls on the 15 minutes of ridiculousness that is the distressing dilemma of Mike Daisey, there is one more act: Daisey’s latest apology, which in reality should have been given eons ago and saved face for Daisey, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company and everyone involved in the Apple factory farce.

Daisey once again took to his blog for his most recent apology, only this time the playwright-slash-performer decided to abandon trying to explain his good intentions and instead took full blame for the debacle.

He apologized first to his audiences: READ FULL STORY »

Mar 22 2012 10:25 AM ET

Republican rivals bludgeon Mitt Romney with Etch A Sketch, kind of -- VIDEO

It may not win him the presidency, but Newt Gingrich has earned a coveted PopWatch shout-out after he took to the toys to raise new concerns about opponent Mitt Romney’s conservative credentials.

One day after convincingly winning the Illinois Republican primary, Romney found himself again on the defensive after his communications director, Eric Fehrnstrom, said that his candidate’s move to the far right would be corrected during the general election: “It’s almost like an Etch A Sketch. We kind of shake it and start all over again.”

Speaking at a campaign rally in Louisiana, Gingrich brandished an Etch A Sketch and recounted the quote from Fehrnstrom, whom he called the “most honest” person on Romney’s staff. Gingrich then pointed out all the supposed problems with Romney having an Etch A Sketch as a campaign model before giving the toy to a girl in the audience, saying “She could now be a presidential candidate.” (The girl, no doubt, most likely wondered why the red iPad Gingrich handed her kept erasing all of her apps.) Watch the speech here: READ FULL STORY »

Mar 21 2012 01:40 PM ET

OPINION: Mike Daisey, 'This American Life', and the invention of 'counterfeit truth'

MIKE-DAISEY

Image Credit: Joan Marcus

The phrase “based on a true story” has become weak currency in the world of storytelling, and unfortunately it keeps getting worse.

The latest downgrading occurs at the hands of performer Mike Daisey and his falsehood-perforated theater monologue The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, about the exploitation of Chinese workers who manufacture Apple products.

Chicago Public Radio’s This American Life presented an entire episode this past weekend to retract and correct its very popular January show that featured Daisey’s now-discredited reporting. The entire program can be found here, and it’s compelling listening – even if you didn’t hear the original broadcast.

Daisey’s defense is that worker abuse in China is real and documented elsewhere, and he only made up lies about meeting abused, ailing, and underage tech employees because he wanted to create a personal connection for the audience that would make them care.

Except Daisey has undermined his own cause by introducing us to a new genre of storytelling: counterfeit truth. READ FULL STORY »

Mar 19 2012 11:37 AM ET

Kony 2012 filmmaker nude, swearing in San Diego street rant — VIDEO

The apparent psychological troubles of Jason Russell — the filmmaker responsible for the widely circulated viral video Kony 2012 — were captured on film, with Russell ranting to himself as he walked naked down a street in San Diego.

TMZ obtained the blurry video of Russell’s meltdown, which shows the 33-year-old human rights advocate completely naked and engaging in puzzling behavior: shouting expletives, clapping to himself, making sexual gestures and pacing feverishly up and down the street. Russell was not arrested but has been placed on involuntary psychiatric hold in California. Watch the censored but still NSFW video here:  READ FULL STORY »

Mar 14 2012 01:10 PM ET

Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum release fake PSA for '21 Jump Street'

In making the press rounds for their upcoming comedy 21 Jump Street, BAFTA nominee Jonah Hill and “MTV Best Kisser Nominee” Channing Tatum (their identifiers, not mine) have released a bizarre fake public service announcement today parodying the style of PSAs from the original ’80s TV series.

In the faux PSA, “Johnny Hills” and “Shanice Tatum” provide a colorful warning against the dangers of sticking your finger down another person’s throat to force him or her to vomit — apparently a key moment in the film. You’ll have to watch the video below to understand why.

READ FULL STORY »

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