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PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 1:35 pm 
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sir ... 05252.html

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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.


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PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 3:42 pm 
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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.


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PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 4:05 pm 
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How about blaming the legislators who claimed that the banks were racist and kept hammering on them to make loans they knew weren't good to keep up with the status quo? Yeah maybe the banks should have told them to make off, but there is plenty of blame to go around.

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PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 4:31 pm 
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Farther wrote:
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.


Some of that depends on how the company and the person having problems paying the loans handled it. There have been many examples out there of people who tried very hard to work with the loan companies to try and work out a solution but were basically met with a stone wall.

But really the point is the irony of a homeless guy being given a free mortgage as a PR stunt being held up as "The American Dream".


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PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 5:31 pm 
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Quite right, the perspective is interesting. The author's implication that this is something new is laughable. We all know that rags-to-riches stories have been around forever; (Horatio Alger anyone?) so pretending that this is a phenomena exclusive to our time is a sad attempt at propagandizing.

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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?

Guess this guy has never heard of Susan Boyle, or the Balloon Boy, or the Killer Whale that killed the trainer or ...

It's not necessarily of "national importance" if it is a story carried nationwide, it's just something that will get attention.

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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.

Man what a tool, the American Dream isn't that everyone can be rich and/or famous, it's that America holds the promise of the possibility of prosperity and success. Not the guarantee, not the certainty that you'll be Oprah (another rags-to-riches story btw), but the chance that you can rise above your current "station" and make a better life for yourself or your children.

Gotta laugh at the:
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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...

Yup, "Quicken Loans" is making people homeless. Nope, "Quicken Loans" negotiated a contract with people, enabling them to live in a home. Those people then defaulted on that contract.

Sorry David, you're reaching.

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PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 5:33 pm 
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Please he is a perfect example that a marketable skill will gain employment.

The article is dripping with idiocy. Everyone has the same chance that Ted has, everyone. If its the apply themselves to get it. This guy applied himself early on and set career goals, he was sidetracked but his skillset and willingness to advertise it (he wasn't begging - he was selling a service) attracted enough consumer interest that he was hired.

Other likely do not have his drive or such a developed skill. You want to make your way in the world - go find out what you can do that others need done. That is the real way you help yourself, you help others, and you help the community. Anything other than mutual agreement is fraud or force and immoral.

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PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 5:46 pm 
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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 >.<


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PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 8:42 pm 
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We need Firefly back.

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PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 8:45 pm 
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Lydiaa wrote:
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. I don't watch most of reality tv though.


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PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 8:47 pm 
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It's not that everyone will it's that anyone can. You don't have to be part of a special class or fortune of birth like the Europeans.

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PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 9:04 pm 
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Lydiaa wrote:
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 >.<


You can't blame the creators of the shows or the people in them. It's the people that watch the shows that are the problem with the dreck on television these days.


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


See? This is the problem. Get rid of this and maybe something decent will be on.

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PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 10:44 am 
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 11:29 am 
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Hmm. Is Ted Williams a citizen?

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PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 11:33 am 
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Kaffis Mark V wrote:
Hmm. Is Ted Williams a citizen?


He has an American accent. People born here are citizens.


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PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 11:43 am 
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Lex Luthor wrote:
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THANK GOD SOMEONE ELSE POINTED THIS OUT! I didn't want to for fear of being called a racist.

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PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 11:45 am 
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You're just a closet racist then.

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PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 11:59 am 
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I think somebody should 'shop Ted's pre-cleanup hair onto Barack at a press conference or something. That'd be pretty entertaining.

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PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 12:14 pm 
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Kaffis Mark V wrote:
I think somebody should 'shop Ted's pre-cleanup hair onto Barack at a press conference or something. That'd be pretty entertaining.



He would look like Rangel on a hunger strike.

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PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 12:33 pm 
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I personally want to wish Mr. Williams the best of luck if he is determined to change his life for the better. I hope he surrounds himself with folks who really do have his best interests in mind so that he doesn't fall back into the trap he just apparently escaped from.


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PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 1:07 pm 
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I'm curious to see if he returns to his drug habit after the Media light dims.

Hopefully he can make his opportunity a permanent life style change

edit: most of this is just a media ploy to get publicity instead of truely being concerned that Ted Williams was homeless.

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PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 3:34 pm 
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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.


Hah. Yeah it's Quicken Loans fault. I dont know this guy and I dont know the whole story, but from the beginning my take was; there is a reason he is homeless and it's more than likely not "the system". This is more of an example of the American Dream to me:

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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.


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... z1ANq9Zeuk

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PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 9:50 pm 
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"..over a din of some of her 16 grandchildren playing."

Hopefully they broke "the cycle"

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