MediaWatch: October 1991
Vol. Five No. 10
Published: 10/1/1991 2:14 PM ET
Table of Contents:
Study Bites
Downplaying the shock value of NEA-supported "art," even omitting important facts, happened more than once:
- On July 13, 1990, ABC reporter John Martin's last sound-bite came from a smirking "performance artist," Holly Hughes: "If I were really making pornography, I wouldn't need to apply to the NEA because I would be making a lot of money." ABC didn't tell viewers that Hughes' stage act included a scene where she places her hand up her vagina, saying that she saw "Jesus between Mother's hips."
This March, Human Events reported that Hughes had received a $15,000 NEA grant for No Trace of the Blonde, a lesbian stage act "for up to five performers with two pubescent girls, black and white, about 12 years old, as the main characters." ABC ignored this, too.
- On July 26, 1990, Peter Jennings reported "a new attack" on "The Dinner Table," which Jennings said was "exhibited to great acclaim in other parts of the world." ABC aired a few fleeting pictures of plates on the dinner table that had vaginas sculpted into the center. But Jennings never explained the subject matter.
- When CBS reporter Rita Braver covered Todd Haynes' NEA-funded film Poison this March 29, she failed to tell viewers about the film's homosexual rape scenes: "In fact, most of the film's sex scenes are not graphic; leave much to the imagination." Daily Variety had a different analysis: "One prisoner stalks another in an episode spiked with multiple glimpses of rear-entry intercourse and one of genital fondling." Braver, who reported that anti-NEA activist Donald Wildmon hadn't seen the movie, made sure the rest of us didn't see or know much about it, either.
