Category Archives: journalism

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Defending the Worm? Why we shouldn’t beat up Dennis Rodman too much

An old pair of Dennis Rodman Converse high-tops, the ones emblazoned with that weird sun shape, are somewhere in my Smithsonian called a garage.

I didn’t have Jordans. I had a pair of Rodmans.  So you know, I have a passing appreciation for the style and basketball ability of the old Rodman.

That was the Rodman of the NBA. Not the UN.

Known as “The Worm,” Rodman was valued as a tough guy defender and rebounder. That’s all.  He didn’t score points. Wasn’t his job.

That’s the way we should see him in his role as Diplomat Dennis.

The guy’s  no Madeleine Albright.

And after his history making trip to North Korea, he’s certainly not scoring points for himself, or Kim Jong Un for that matter.

But he’s grabbed the media’s attention, and in doing so, he’s created the chance for us all to see what truth, if any, we can glean.

So much isn’t known about North Korea in the U.S., we can hardly stand it when even an aging pop/sports star gets a glimpse behind the curtain. No one gets that kind of access to the country or its leadership. With or without a jockstrap.

That’s why blasting Rodman for not knowing the contents of your standard CIA dossier or for his inability to recite the human rights violations of the North Korean government, just seems—to mix sports metaphors—like piling on.

It would be better to just ask him without judgment all that he saw. Dennis’ world is part fantasy, after all. I mean, the guy did date Madonna.

Instead of berating him for his ignorance of the evil of North Korea, because of his unique trip, we should be happy getting his different look of a country that’s generally under cover.

And then, most certainly, juxtapose it with what we know of the ongoing misery of a starving nation, and the refugee situation along the China border. Rodman doesn’t refute that. Rodman was never known for his articulation.  Just by going there, he accents the contradictions in North Korea.

Remember Rodman was never the scorer. Just the rebounder. Kim Jong Un may be using Rodman. But this odd pairing, only puts the issues of the North Korean people back on the mainstream radar, where North Korea seems to come into focus only when it lets out a little steam with a nuclear test.

Now, thanks to Rodman, it’s time for the human rights activists and the North Korea specialists to make their points and score.

The Worm has done his job.

Remember, he’s no Madeleine Albright.

 

blog, diversity, humor, journalism, news, politics, race, sports

My Super Bowl prediction and an appearance on KQED’s “This Week in Northern California”; Plus, a late final addition about the 49ers’ super failure

Game time is coming up and I have completed all my superstitious rituals that have helped bring me to a vision, of which I will share with you now.

But before that, this could have been a very literary SuperBowl, what with the Ravens named after the masterpiece of famed Baltimore homey Edgar Allen Poe. 

What if the 49ers had been named after the work of a San Francisco literary figure. Kerouac? The Roadies? Jack London? The White Fangs? Danielle Steele? The Romancers?

No, no, no.  Last night, the movie version of the great Dashiell Hammett classic was on. Imagine the Ravens vs. the Maltese Falcons. 

No?

OK, nevermore.

I’m feeling 24-20 for some reason.

Here’s how it goes, 49ers score first with an Akers field goal (hooray!) , then add a TD, a run by Frank Gore, then another by Kaepernick.  That’s 17 in one half.

The Ravens come back after the field goal to go ahead 7-3.

Niners make it 10-7.

Then make it 17-7 at half-time.

In the second half the Ravens come back, scoring to make it 17-14.

Twice more they penetrate 49er territory, but get only field goals to go ahead 20-17.

In the final quarter, the 49er offense wakes up with some long passes to Vernon Davis.

And then sensing man coverage at the line, Kaepernick uses his legs to score a game-winnng touchdown.

49ers go ahead, 24-20.

That’s my copyrighted vision of today’s SuperBowl  that I have licensed the 49ers to use as they wish.

If you’re a better and take the Ravens and the points, or the 49ers giving, the line is 4, and what do you know, it’s a push, a tie.

That should make the Harbaugh’s parents’ happy.

But the 49ers win the game.

BTW, I made a rare appearance on the KQED “This Week in Northern California” program where I joined a panel talking about immigration reform.

If you missed it, here’s a link to the TV show.

LATE ADD: OK, my prediction, the game, nothing worked out quite the way I said. For the most part, Beyonce won the game, as the 49ers were lip-synching through three quarters. But then came that 34 minute delay due to a power failure. You mean a 49er power failure wasn’t enough, now the Superdome had to be less than super?  And though what usually is spawned by a power failure is a baby boom nine months later, this power failure birthed an explosion of energy from the 49ers who nearly made it all the way back from the dead. 28-6 certainly made us all more interested in whatever buffet was before us and not the football game. But then, the 49ers began to play,  outgaining, outscoring the Ravens, topped off with a Kaepernick score to bring the 49ers to a 31-29 deficit.  The Ravens added a field goal making it 34-29. Then, with the ball on the Baltimore 5-yard line, the 49er juggernaut hit a wall–the Ravens defense. Four plays, goal to go, and nothing. No runs, passes. Lots of penalties. Oh, those aren’t penalties? Well then, the pistol was shot. The 49ers empty.

Oh, what could have been? From 34-29, the Niners go 36-34. Flacco and the Ravens still had a lot of time to drive for a game winning FG or a TD. Or maybe the 49er defense finally prevails. We won’t know that ending. We’re stuck with the one we’ve got.

A Super Bowl win you cherish and commemorate.  A Super Bowl loss burns eternally.

You do learn from it, as team and as a fan. And you go on from there, perhaps to achieve or witness greatness again.

But until that happens, you can never quite turn off the lights on such a super loss.

 

blog, diversity, journalism, news, politics, race

Post-Inaugural post-mortem: Lipsynching with Beyonce and the signficance of that gay/lesbian shout out

Thank goodness for Jason Wu’s red dress. Because Michelle Obama liked it enough to wear a Wu for a second inaugural in a row, Asian Americans made inaurgural history.

You didn’t see many of us pop up on any of the coverage, besides maybe the Punahou band during the parade, and of course, the ubiquitous Konrad Ng, the Asian American Presidential-brother-in-law.

But that red dress? We must take our collective glory when we can.

That was the high point for Asian Americans.  All that 24 hour coverage of the Inaugural and then it was back to covering shootings for the next 24 hours.

I would have liked to have heard more about Asian Americans in Obama’s address. We were blended into the segment of the speech were the president signalled his progressive vision.

It was fairly generic. Not even a specific mention for Asian Americans on immigration and all those engineers here on special visas. He could have. He didn’t.

But he did give that shout out to gays and lesbians which was a great moment of specificity, as all gays and lesbians have noted.

When I heard it, it was easy to lump it in with the president’s stand on gay/lesbian issues in the past. He’s been hot and cold. But here, he’s on record in a big way, and maybe he’ll come through without any wavering this time. It’s also significant because heretofore,  gays and lesbians haven’t always been embraced as part of the “civil rights agenda.” As the journalists found out at Unity, people of color are people of color and when you include gays, you don’t always have people of color. Sometimes, you get an occasional oppressor. It’s a problem. But nowhere near the historical problem. If Dr. King and the black church represent the foundation of our modern civil rights movement, you know the record of black churches on gays and lesbians has been abysmal. So the inclusion of gays and lesbians so specifically in an inauguration speech on MLK day is a much bigger deal than I originally noted.

But it won’t be a big deal if the president doesn’t make it to the goal line in the next four years. Then it’s just feel-good rhetoric.

Now for the Beyonce matter.

Singers lip-synch all the time in performance. If it’s their voice their lip-synching is a good fail safe. But what’s the difference? We’re not talking Milli Vannili.  It’s her voice. And she’s not Mante Te’o pining for Lennay Kekua living a lie.

OK, James Taylor sang live. So did Kelly Clarkson. Beyonce chose not to. Performer’s choice,really.

Beyonce’s for real. We know that. Of course, those who are appalled are probably still upset about that bad Beyonce movie of a couple years ago.

 It’s a bit of an acting job to lipsynch a song. To mouth it like you mean it. 

But is there a doubt that she has the chops to back it up?

Frankly,  I’d be more concerned if Obama was lip-synching his speech.

 

 

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Manti denies he’s in on hoax, speaks to ESPN: “No, never ever would I be a part of this.”

On Friday night, Manti Te’o broke his silence on the dead girl friend prank heard ’round the world. In an off-camera interview with ESPN, he denied being part of the prank, saying that “never, ever would I be part of this.”

The report said three people were behind the prank, led by Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, a friend of Te’o’s who confessed to him earlier this week by Direct Message on Twitter (naturally).

Te’o laid out a timeline for ESPN that said the internet relationship with someone named “Lennay Kekua” began three years ago on Facebook.  It was intermittent until 2011, when more phone and web contact took place. A first meeting on New Years Eve 2012 in Hawaii ended in disappointment when Kekua did not show up.

But the relationship didn’t die, and Te’o told ESPN, when he learned Kekua had leukemia, the two conducted long sessions on the phone and internet studying the Bible. Even Te’o’s parents took part.

It was the day after Te’o’s grandmother died that he got a call from someone saying they were a relative of Kekua with news of her death.

He mourned by sending flowers to an alleged home in Carson, California. But a few months later he was stunned when he got a call from someone who said they were Lennay.

Manti gets a big hint here.  It was on Dec. 6th. “I didn’t know what was going on,” he told ESPN.

But he carried on with the tale, and admits to some fudging, his “biggest regret.”  By now he’s thinking what we are all thinking. This guy is in love with someone he never met. Now she’s dead. So he wasn’t absolutely truthful at this point saying, “I didn’t want people thinking I was some crazy dude.”

OK, he’s not crazy. Just a young, gullible kid who got played.

Tuiasosopo wasn’t available to ESPN, so maybe that’s the imaginary interview we should do. If Te’o’s the victim, he’s the perp. But he’s nowhere to be found.

Te’o was in Florida when he talked exclusively to  ESPN.

“I think it started out as a joke, a joke that got out of hand,” said Te’o, who told ESPN his pranksters never asked for money.

And now that Te’o has spoken, do we know the whole truth?  The off-camera interview was recorded for audio, accompanied by still photos.  The restriction wasn’t explained. Why couldn’t he face up to the world? So while ESPN scored a news coup that leaves us closer to the truth,  there are still some questions that remain about the three perps (supposedly a Tuiasosopo and two women)  For all we know, they could be imagined. Like O.J.’s real killers. And Lennay Kekua.

That’s the level of trust we’re left with when it comes to Manti Te’o.

 

See my original post on the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund blog.