Oscars and Poor Judgement

One of my astute friends made an interesting comment about Jennifer Hudson, who won best-supporting actress for Dream Girls last night.

She said, "Everyone has made Jennifer Hudson out to be a storybook character, who has gone from being anonymous to winning an Oscar in four years."

"But people forget that while she sang well on American Idol, she was snobish and carried a haughty attitude. That is partly why she was voted off."

This made me see, in a new light, the power of the media to twist a person's image. I am accustomed to seeing various pundits and marketing operatives twist political stories and other news, but I just realized that we only know entertainment figures through the media. With politicians, we know they are real people who are controlling their image to get re-elected to influence constituencies on an issue. We know stars control their image for marketing purposes. But here is an example of the media (and the Oscars) turning Hudson into something that benefits its own need. The need to create a story.

With Hudson, we all gained first-hand experience of her each week on American Idol. We are not so lucky as to gain a first-hand and live experience of politicians and other celebrities. Obama, more than Sen. Clinton and Sen. Edwards, comes accross as genuine and unrehearsed. His articulate speaking style conveys a natural polish rather than over rehearsed sound-bites.

I find that once I have my own impression (of the O.J. verdict, a State of the Union Speech, or a football player's performance for example), it takes conscious effort to maintain that perspective amidst the waves of media coverage giving alternate perspectives.

Perhaps writing here will help solidify my perceptions of first-hand experience–whether in politics, entertainment, or my own life.

---

p.s. (In spite of this, I have never been swayed, even for a second, by the White House's ardent assertions that things are going well in Iraq. It's almost as if they are seeing how long they can call the American people dumb before they get mad. We got mad and voted the Republicans out of office, but Cheney continues to act like he is our only source of news. How in the world can someone call the British deployment from Iraq a sign of progress? The Brits have forced Tony Blair's Labor Party to reduce troop levels. Do we have the only Democracy where the leader ignores the will of the people?)

Just found this related article, which documents Cheney's poor judgement: Cheney's New Front in War on Reality

---