Frank Miller's Holy Terror
"Holy terror' - Frank Miller's new graphic novel, will, I predict, be the subject of an upcoming U.S. media contretemps and quickly become a cable net subject that's argued over-and-over, and, in any case, is already getting newspaper columnists denouncing it in Sweden.
Miller has definitely struck a raw nerve in Europe, where accommodation is the preferred mode in dealing with uncomfortable subjects that touch close-to-home for the majority of Europe's mainstream media.
After digesting that, the 'Arab Street' will swing by that flag store in Cairo & Damascus that never runs out of U.S. flags suitable for burning, and after some coffee or tea, or a Power Bar, assemble in the streets to denounce something that they too have never seen or read, and claim that this is how all Americans think, because, well...
They'll have no facts to support that supposition, but that hardly matters, right?
Who needs facts?
Why should this time be any different than the last?
The perpetually jaded foreign news media will then hit the protests with cameras to film the milling crowds of unemployed Egyptian college grads, making them look larger in size than they are, complete with the latest Obama effigy 2.0, and then it will suddenly get mentioned in the next-to-last news segment on a network TV newscast because some news producer saw a piece online about it while looking for something else.
And then we begin to see the ripples of it back here...
Voters in Iowa, again getting first crack at presidential candidates, will say when asked by shivering TV correspondents embedded in Iowa corn fields, "What the hell is all that protesting about?," even though the product itself is being pitched towards their teenage and college-age sons and daughters.
And there you have it
The only question is when it will happen over the next few months.
USA Today already bit at the apple two weeks ago with their 'Holy Terror' undone by patriotic revenge fantasy
Sweden's largest newspaper, Aftonbladet, with a huge online presence, and a frequent subject and source here on this blog, had a column today by Martin Aagård in their Culture section titled, Seriemördare i Breiviks anda, i.e. Serial killer in Breivik's spirit.
Here's what the teaser for it looked like on the newspaper's main web page:
Yes, that's NOT the least bit inflammatory.
The column itself is at: http://www.aftonbladet.se/kultur/article13824092.ab
Even now, lots of copies of this article are already being emailed from Sweden to family and friends back in the Middle East.
Just saying...-----
Frank Miller's official homepage: http://frankmillerink.com/
