Wow, little did we know when we decided to drop some science on the Yes Men’s half-assed New York Times prank it would actually be pre-science that wound up shattered on the ground. This morning Is Greater Than ran an interview with one of the original participants in the Times hoax who walked out of the project when she realized the whole thing was becoming more about getting the Yes Men’s face on TV again than making any sort of coherent point about the New York Times, corporate control of mainstream press, or the war in Iraq. She makes some good points we wish we’d thought of yesterday, like how activists are so consumed with getting media attention for their cause they start tailoring it to be more marketable, and how, at the end of the day, groups like the Yes Men are more interested with establishing the equity of their own brand (thankfully we were able to slide a mention of those asinine “brandless” sneakers Adbusters sells into the comments but believe-you-us are we kicking ourselves for leaving them out in the first place).
Anyways, Gawker tried to play off her concerns with the project like it was all a bunch of SDS-style internecine leftist bickering, but we don’t really see how statements like this qualify as nitpicking over ideological minutiae:
“We already know the media is a broken system and will never get our stories right because it only tells the part of the story that sells, so is it even worth our while to try to get attention from a broken media? Even this project–that aimed to question the legitmacy of the New York Times–was measured in media appearances.”
Not exactly the RYM versus the RYM II.
Reader Comments
November 27th, 2008
5:32 am
panties. twisted.
November 27th, 2008
6:08 am
Yes, well, i find that posting such a critique under “Vice” makes me think that the Yes Men and Vice are at the same level of self-reflectivity… But, in going with this “blog” entry with no author without collapsing this world in which it is presented in, I, (the anonymous but different opinionated I that is responsible for presenting the critique of the whole New York Times) must present the side that when stumbling upon the project unknowingly through an e-mail of a friend without realizing that it was fake and for a moment had to take on this reality and have my brain wrap around and rationalize what was written actually found it pretty interesting after that universe collapsed on itself.
Props for the attempts of the Yes Men. It’s more than I can say for myself at the moment. But whoever wrote this was right: ego will always get in the way and it will always be those without power who need it and then end up wanting it. . . and what not and what not. Doesn’t this post in itself make that apparent?
Here’s a Haiku:
MMMM, Bowl, Cereal, Milk: Breakfast
Do not let is get soggy.
Eat fast with a spoon.
November 28th, 2008
12:47 am
hurr political statements are only valid if nobody hears them
November 28th, 2008
2:11 am
The problem with culture jamming is that in offering a critique of the market and consumerism it ends up creating a market in and of itself. The brandless Adbusters sneakers mentioned in the post is an excellent point as is Adbusters magazine. There is a good book out there (the title escapes me at the moment) about how such anti-system posturing compliments the mainstream. The culture needs a counterculture and so does the market.
Consumerism and the unlimited market becomes a problem when it is elevated to the status of being principles or expressions of a culture. Capitalism is bad when it is exploitive of labor and the market is bad when it is seen as the only valid expression of individualism or some form of revolutionary, modernizing force which will usher in an enlightened time of progress. Truly free markets are a good thing but there has to be a decent socio-economic-political system on top of that. Also note that we are living in advanced state capitalism not the free market run amok.
November 29th, 2008
8:21 am
Nation Of The Rebel is a really good book that points out how the counterculture creates the mainstream.