* Who would have thought Bruce Jenner and Douglas Hughes would wind up in the same sentence? But the decathlon gold medalist/Kardashian extra and the Ruskin gyrocopter/mailman patriot share some serious notoriety.
Each had an important societal message for mainstream America, but each went about delivering it in a way that was inevitably diverting and diluting.
Jenner, via his well-hyped, well-watched ABC interview with Diane Sawyer, has helped publicize the transgender issue. When Bruce Jenner says “For all intents and purposes, I am a woman,” people notice. Specifically, 16.8 million viewers heard him say it last Friday night.
Jenner identifies as a woman–and has for a number of years. And he is now utilizing his fame and forum to inform society about a serious issue, one that has caused pain and heartbreak. He can help.
“What I’m doing is going to do some good,” he explained to Sawyer.
The problem is Jenner has been seen seemingly forever as a self-promoter. The Khardashian khonnection has made him a cultural joke. No, this is obviously not his latest reality-show iteration, but his coming-out interview with Sawyer almost seemed like it. He’s almost too media savvy.
His message is critical. It can literally save lives. What he’s doing is admirable. It’s just that he hasn’t done anything admirable in a long time, and some segments of society unfortunately will never get beyond the compromised messenger.
As for Hughes, his legacy will not be his obsession with campaign finance reform and how much he loathes the Citizens United decision and the Koch Brothers. It will be how he underscored in his inimitable, under-the-radar way the unconscionable state of security around the Capitol.
Once again the messenger is not a complement to the message.
* Speaking of the Ruskin Icarus, the reaction of the Tampa Bay Times, remains, well, curious.
It got an insider’s heads-up on a major national incident with dueling story lines, campaign finance and Capitol security. It also was caught in an ethical bind about how and when to inform authorities and what to do about possible, end-result scenarios, some of them life threatening. Lots to ponder–and editorialize about.
But nothing from the Times beyond straight reporting and a feature on the patriotic stuntman. No editorial. No column by either of their two prominent columnists. Not even a cartoon. Serious journalistic follow-up, presumably, is the purview of the Poynter Institute.
*We were lucky to score a couple of tickets to see John Leguizamo at The Improv last weekend. The Ybor City venue was packed on a Sunday afternoon with a largely Hispanic crowd that was as animated as the comedian-actor known for his ethnic/racial caricatures and satires as well as a kinetic delivery.
The Bogota native with Puerto Rican roots–and a Jewish wife–who grew up in Queens performed his latest one-man show: Latin History for Dummies (A Work in Progress) while in town to film a part in The Infiltrator.
Indeed, it is a work in progress, and that’s not a criticism. Comics often use the comedy club circuit to work out new material. It will be interesting to see what makes the cut when the edited version of Latin History finally comes to HBO.
Just guessing, but I’d be surprised to see the Steven Hawking impersonation in the final version.