Ted Williams and the Triumph of American Dream Propaganda

Thanks to near-ubiquitous national media coverage, you probably know by now that Ted Williams was a homeless and jobless man who is now being offered fairly major media jobs because he had the random luck of becoming a YouTube sensation. This is certainly a heart-warming story, and we should all be genuinely happy for Williams. It's a blessing when anyone is lifted out of such destitution.

However, there's a dark side to all this - not about Williams, but about the phenomenon he has come to represent.

In a country whose social class mobility has now dropped below many fellow (and often "socialist") industrialized nations, Williams is being implicitly promoted by our media as a representative example of how the American Dream still exists. I say it is implicit because, of course, none of the media promoting the story comes out and says exactly this. But the very fact that this has become such a huge national story logically implies that the media promoting it believes it represents something bigger or national. Indeed, why else would the national media cover the story of one homeless person as a national story, if not to suggest it represents something of national importance?

This, then, is a microcosm of a media that has become far more a manufacturer of false establishment-serving storylines than a documenter of genuine everyday reality. The idea that the American Dream still exists and that everyone can "make it" like Ted Williams is, by all objective economic measures, demonstrably false. But that idea is nonetheless incessantly promoted by politicians, corporate leaders and their media servants because it convinces large swaths of the put-upon general public to refrain from asking fundamental questions about inequality, poverty and the punitive structure of our economy - ie. questions that corporate-backed politicians, pundits and media institutions do not want asked.

What's so galling about this particular instance of American Dream triumphalism is the most famous player now involved: The Cleveland Cavaliers. As Cleveland's ABC affiliate reports, the NBA team owned by Quicken Loans has now "offered Williams full-time voiceover work" and "offered to pay a mortgage on a home" for him. The ABC affiliate - like the rest of the media - hasn't bothered to point out what The Nation magazine's Dave Zirin has previously noted: namely, that Quicken Loans has been one of the major banks throwing people out of their homes during the foreclosure crisis. Yes, that's right: The same company that is bragging about offering a single homeless man a job is the same company that is making many people homeless - and none of the media covering the story have mentioned that. All we get are stories about how wonderful and generous the Cavs and Quicken Loans are for making their offer to Williams.

This is exactly what I mean by manufacturing false establishment-serving narratives. Instead of using Williams' story to highlight the thousands of other rank-and-file Ted Williamses who didn't get lucky enough to become an Internet sensation, we are effectively led to believe that Ted Williams is a classic American story emblematic of what supposedly happens all the time in our allegedly well-functioning economy. Likewise, instead of highlighting the hypocrisy of a company that has caused so much homelessness now using a homeless man to whitewash its corporate record, we get hagiography making that company out to be a benevolent savior.

In short, instead of journalism that educates us about truly important realities, we get propaganda that perpetuates the plutocratic status quo.

Gotta love the bias in that article. The author hammers Quicken Loans as "the company that is making many people homeless", but what exactly are they supposed to do with people who said they would pay each month but then defaulted? Should they let them live there without paying? How about, instead of blaming Quicken Loans, the author blames the people who won't/can't pay. (In other words, the people actually at fault.)

I feel bad for people who suffer foreclosure, but it's hardly fair to blame the loan company if the loan payments are not met.

Indeed, why else would the national media cover the story of one homeless person as a national story, if not to suggest it represents something of national importance?

The idea that the American Dream still exists and that everyone can "make it" like Ted Williams is, by all objective economic measures, demonstrably false.

Yes, that's right: The same company that is bragging about offering a single homeless man a job is the same company that is making many people homeless...

The idea of 'marketable' skill went out the door with reality TV. Losing weight and/or being a drama queen should not be the basis to winning money, then being offered work... but i'm just ranting cause I want decent normal TV stuff back >.<

The idea of 'marketable' skill went out the door with reality TV. Losing weight and/or being a drama queen should not be the basis to winning money, then being offered work... but i'm just ranting cause I want decent normal TV stuff back >.<

Honestly I find Jersey Shore to be a great show and gladly support its continuation.

Hmm. Is Ted Williams a citizen?

I think somebody should 'shop Ted's pre-cleanup hair onto Barack at a press conference or something. That'd be pretty entertaining.

Likewise, instead of highlighting the hypocrisy of a company that has caused so much homelessness now using a homeless man to whitewash its corporate record, we get hagiography making that company out to be a benevolent savior.

A viral video vaulted Ted Williams and his golden voice to fame, but the real hero of this story is the woman he left behind.

Patricia Kirtley raised four daughters alone after Williams split 23 years ago and dove down the rabbit hole of drugs.

Not only that, Kirtley took in the baby boy the radioman had with another woman and raised him as her own.

Oh, and by the way, she's partially blind.

"We survived," Kirtley said Thursday in Reynoldsburg, Ohio. "My children are survivors. They know if we get a little bit that God provides, we make it into a lot. I'm a soup maker. I make potato soup and throw in a lot of vegetables and a little meat. We always ate."

Except that Williams, who seems to be a nice guy, just wasn't strong, wasn't around and wasn't contributing financially.

Kirtley had to go on the dole. "I still remember my case number," she says ruefully. She eventually went to school and got licensed as a blind vendor.

"My mother and sisters pitched in and drove me because I can't see to drive," said Kirtley, now 58, over a din of some of her 16 grandchildren playing.

As if that weren't enough, Kirtley said two of her sisters and a cousin each took in a child Williams and his druggie girlfriend couldn't, or wouldn't, care for.

"I didn't want to see those children in no foster home," she said.


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