Cherished Heroes and Detested Villains
Bias in the bios
More than ten years ago I wrote a blog post in defense of marketing as a style of journalism. It was called “Embrace the Bias,” and it appears to be erased from the internet, and that’s probably a good thing as it wasn’t my best work.
The idea of the blog post was basically: it’s impossible for journalism to not be biased, so why not just go all in? Fast forward to now and many people believe news and reporting has become more polarized and biased than ever, thanks in part to content marketing and other vested interests.
Ground News is one of the few news outlets I’ve found that spots biases and strives to be objective. Recently I heard about another non-partisan podcast called Tangle, although I haven’t listened to it enough to form strong opinions. Regardless it’s fair to say people are increasingly hungry for more truth and less partisan perspectives.
In retrospect my “embrace the bias” blog post was wrong in advocating for marketing through the guise of journalism. It’s fun to take creative, persuasive liberties with the written word, but unless it’s an op-ed or any type of editorial opinion piece, journalism should be transparent, factual and honest. (Alas it’s easier to find work in marketing rather than truth-telling.)
For tonight’s non-journalistic Substack experiment, I am playing with bias. I’m starting with Dolly Parton because she’s my hero so obviously she’ll be hard to write negatively about (a creative challenge), and also I know a lot about her so I don’t have to research too much for my weekly word bangout. She’s hard to take down because she’s one of the least polarizing figures in modern pop culture. Everybody loves her. Here we go!
Dolly Parton Positive Bias
Look no further than Dolly Parton if you’re keen to see a heart warming American rags to riches story. Born in a Tennessee mountain shack to 11 siblings and hardworking poverty-stricken parents, Dolly came into this world barefoot and playing banjo, determined to become a country music star. As a young woman she made her way to Nashville without a cent to her name. Now at 78 Dolly is valued at $650 million and has made it her life’s mission to give back to the community she came from. With initiatives like her children’s book gifting program, The Imagination Library and donations to hospitals, vaccine research and all kinds of contributions in her hometown of Sevierville, Tennessee, the Backwoods Barbie (as she calls herself) stays true to her roots (whatever color they may be) while she continues to make hits and achieve goals. She was recently introduced to the rock and roll hall of fame and she’s won 11 Grammys.
Dolly Parton Negative Bias
Look no further than Dolly Parton to see examples of how fame and vanity are destroying our country and the world at large. Parton proudly touts her plastic surgeries and her senseless beauty buys, setting impossible standards and disastrous examples for future generations. A childless millionaire who is funded by Jeff Bezos, it’s wild that she became a darling of the left. The biggest hightlight of her mediocre-theme park (Dollywood) is a steam train that burns five tones of coal every day for tourists entertainment. Dollywood sells lots of plastic products from China, despite the owner’s attempts to market herself of a woman who loves to support local. Left-leaning celebrities like Miley Cyrus and Beyoncé pay homage to her regularly, yet Parton keeps her politics private, and she’s even blatantly stated that she’s not a feminists. She loves Jesus and she loves law enforcement. Not endorsing a political candidate is clever for her broad, doting audience, keeping her straddling the delicate acceptance fence with her rhinestone-adorned cowgirl boots, likely not made in America. One can’t help but wonder, who is she really?
I didn’t mean a word of it Dolly! Please forgive me!!
It was really hard to write a Dolly Parton critical piece, but after I’ve done it I am slightly reevaluating my worship of her. I will always love you, Dolly, but there’s a side to every story (and person). In creating two biased pieces on Dolly, side by side, I am thinking more critically about other cherished heroes and detested villains.
More biased caricatures might be on the way. Please subscribe to see what happens. ;)
I won't even read the negative take on Dolly because I know it can't possibly be true :)
Your opening commentary on truth and journalism made me think of a book I read last month, Alex, called 'How We Got Here' by David Shields (https://sublationmedia.com/product/how-we-got-here-melville-plus-nietzsche-divided-by-the-square-root-of-allan-bloom-times-zizek-squared-equals-bannon-by-david-shields/).
The thesis of the book is that philosophers from the 1800s, like Nietzsche, started to challenge truth in pretty profound ways - "There are no facts, only interpretations" - that kind of thing. Then, you had WW1 and WW2 which reconfigured our understanding of modern humanity, and left-learning philosophers and left-leaning media became more and more invested in not being hard-line about truth: there were always multiple sides to a story, news should be open to perspective and relativism, etc.
And, at the same time, right-leaning media and right-learning academics (especially in conservative colleges) were focusing on what is 'true' - Jesus is true, family values are true, old-timey gender roles are true, and so on.
But then, things started to flip - right-learning politicians and right-leaning media started using the language of truth-challenging philosophers as part of their vocabulary: "alternative facts", Rudy Giuliani saying "The truth is not truth", and of course now we observe daily that nothing in that space has any sort of certain reality.
And, as things flipped on the right, things flipped on the left, too - the New York Times advertises that "The Truth matters". The Guardian, the morning after the election, ran ads saying "This is the moment for truth, help us protect it". Papers that once, at times, upheld a more pluralistic approach to perspectivism, were now hammering down on certainties, in the face of their opposition.
I thought that was interesting to consider, in relation to what you said, in reflection of your old blog post about marrying journalism and marketing - and, in the spirit of pushing back on bias, I did read the negative take on Dolly and still think she's the best thing ever :)
PS. At the risk of going too far off-topic, an artist (Holly Herndon) who uses machine learning / AI in genuinely interesting ways did a cover of Jolene two years ago, employing a fully synthetic copy of their (Holly's) voice to sing the tune. It didn't too bad, but it's no Dolly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPAEMUzDxuo