rrizzo@bbncca.ARPA (Ron Rizzo) (11/13/85)
I thought it was the best TV drama on a gay theme that I've seen outside PBS. I wish the gay characters depicted in such productions weren't so predictably upper-middle class or didn't wear such near-blank expressions most of the time (the latter may be the result of the usual expurgation of erotic gestures done by ratings-anxious directors: only chaste kisses and "supportive" embracing, and for god's sake don't portray sexual arousal in any form!). But the half-hour NBC News program at 11:30 pm, "AIDS Fears, AIDS Facts" really stunk. Designed to allay the fears of an anxious public that knows little about AIDS, it probably maintained if not increased their anxiety level and stimulated them into thinking more about "curtailing" civil rights and liberties. Tom Brokaw was a little stiff and uncom- fortable it seemed, and the questions selected for the AIDS researchers and administrators briefly interviewed (as well as some of the answers) were somewhat bizarre in what they emphasized and left out, given the purported fear-allaying aim of the program. For example, when asked a fairly open-ended question about public fears, Harvard Medical's Haseltine baldly stated that they were completely justified, period, with no further qualification or explanation! Worse: liberal Henry Waxman (D-Ca.), one of the staunchest supporters of both AIDS funding and civil rights for gay people in the Congress, utterly collapsed in replying to a similar broad query from Brokaw whether time-honored basic rights might be altered or curtailed to fight the epidemic: Waxman shockingly answered, "Of course!", with no further qualification or comment, and then proceeded to disagree about a specific and absurd proposal that Newt Gingrich of Georgia, another interviewee believe it or not, had just raised, namely that everyone should be required by law to carry ID cards recording how they'd tested for HTLV-III. Why the odd media "doctrine of balance" should require a Jesse Helms clone & rancid ideologue like Gingrich to make the case for curtailment of rights when many other nonrabid and legally knowledgeable advocates of such measures are available, I don't know. NBC News seems to be in the throes of an AIDS hysteria of its own. So it seems we still must monitor not only the media but even would-be medical and political supporters for AIDS coverage and lobbying. Groan! Why is this country so f*cking wierd these days? No international body awards medals for national wierdness. Unglued from the Tube (for a while), Ron Rizzo
sdyer@bbncc5.UUCP (Steve Dyer) (11/13/85)
> I thought it was the best TV drama on a gay theme that I've seen outside > PBS. I wish the gay characters depicted in such productions weren't > so predictably upper-middle class or didn't wear such near-blank > expressions most of the time (the latter may be the result of the > usual expurgation of erotic gestures done by ratings-anxious directors: > only chaste kisses and "supportive" embracing, and for god's sake don't > portray sexual arousal in any form!). I thought the handling of physical contact between the lovers was quite weird, too, although I was expecting even more sterility. As it is, one could "read between the gestures", as if they were deliberately suppressed for the camera. A bit more convincing than "Consenting Adult's" gay-person- as-eunuch, if only a little. When they walked into their kitchen to make pasta, I turned to my SO and asked "why don't we live like this?" -- /Steve Dyer {harvard,seismo}!bbnccv!bbncc5!sdyer sdyer@bbncc5.ARPA