American culture has changed much in this century—and not always for the better, says Business Report Publisher Rolfe McCollister.
“Just look at the global media coverage of and public attention to the Vanity Fair cover of Caitlyn (Bruce) Jenner,” McCollister writes in his latest column. “What does this media and social media frenzy say about American culture and the direction we are moving? That is something you should think about. Not because of the prominence it gives to Jenner’s transgender story, but because of what it says about our priorities.”
McCollister says he knows what people would have said about this story back in 1976, the year Bruce Jenner won the Olympic gold medal for the decathlon.
“In fact, I doubt anyone but the National Enquirer would have even published a transgender story,” he writes. “Now, Jenner’s transition is mainstream news and proclaimed as bold and courageous, and if anyone is critical of it—or the Vanity Fair cover—they are attacked.”
McCollister points to Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker, who recently wrote: “What concerns me here is the cultural, primarily media, treatment of the Jenner case in particular—and the assumption that we all need to be a part of this. From the interview in April with Diane Sawyer, to the Vanity Fair cover, to the breathless media coverage this week, one’s overwhelming sense is that Caitlyn Jenner—and only incidentally, transgenderism—is the Next New Thing!”
McCollister says Bruce Jenner has every right to decide his gender and his name.
“But there is no doubt the Jenner story is good for TV ratings and sells magazines for Vanity Fair—as well as puts millions in Jenner’s own pocket,” he writes. “Jenner even says so in the Vanity Fair article regarding the Kardashian family docu-reality TV show: ‘If I can make a dollar, I certainly am not stupid. [I have] house payments and all that kind of stuff. I will never make an excuse for something like that. Yeah, this is a business.’”
“In a world that now seems to decide what is important by what is trending on Twitter, ‘Caitlyn’ has the new record for reaching 1 million followers in the shortest time: 4 hours, 3 minutes,” McCollister writes. “She broke the record of President Barack Obama, the leader of the free world. That is scary.”
Read the full column, in which McCollister also touches on the BREC commission’s recent vote to effectively raise taxes and the commission’s $110 million vision for a new Baton Rouge Zoo.
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