Think MTV

As reported in today's Boston Herald, the Think MTV website has two videos that portray holocaust scenarios playing out in modern settings to show young people the reality and gravity of the past.

Though it seems unthinkable for anyone old enough to be on the internet to not know about the holocaust, these 30-second videos offer a modern perspective to the atrocities of the past.

In the first, shown below, commuters are abruptly forced off the subway and aggressively organized by armed men on the train platform. The second shows a family being forced from their home and into the back of a truck by the same machine-gun-wielding men.

The most striking thing about both videos is that at the end the action freezes and transforms into a real picture of holocaust victims in the same position, followed by a white screen with large black letters that read: "The holocaust happened to people like us."

I don't feel like Think MTV has had as big of an impact as it could and should, but the pieces it puts together to raise all kinds of awareness, from discrimination to politics and environmental issues, are poignant and should be paid more attention.

The site is very user-friendly and interactive, as viewers can become members, upload their own videos and pictures, and start their own blog or discussion.

Celebrity Deaths

For the second time in a week a young actor was found dead in what appears to be a drug-related incident.

Heath Ledger, a 28-year-old Australia native died this afternoon in his New York City apartment. The talented actor, perhaps best known for his performance in the controversial film Brokeback Mountain, leaves behind a two-year-old daughter, who he had with ex-girlfriend and fellow-actor Michelle Williams.

Following the apparent drug-related death of another young actor Brad Renfro, 25, last Tuesday, the media frenzy around Ledger's death is something to be discussed. Renfro was laid to rest today.

The site TMZ.com has posted up to the minute information and video on the story that is surely feeding fan curiousity, but some of it may go too far. While speculation on the cause of death is newsworthy, I'm not sure the minute and a half video of the body being removed from his apartment is entirely necessary.

Also on TMZ, there is a video of a clearly distraught Lindsay Lohan being heavily pursued and asked about the death of her reportedly close friend.

As one CNN anchor points out on a TMZ video, the coverage was so immediate and intense it's possible that Williams would have learned of his death through the media.
I'm no lobbyist for celebrity privacy, but it seems they have the least of it in death and although this shocking story is devastating and newsworthy, the coverage has been somewhat disturbing.


Boston Globe obituary

Golfweek controversy

Today Golfweek vice president and editor Dave Seanor was replaced after his controversial decision to run an attention-grabbing cover that was to be released tomorrow.

The image of a noose along with the headline "Caught in a Noose" were in reference to a Golf Channel commentator who was suspended after a poor choice of words suggesting, in jest, that Tiger Woods' opponents "lynch him in a back alley."

Despite achieving the goal of grabbing attention, this cover was created in poor taste if the history of lynching in this country and the highly offensive nature of this incident is not the subject of the main piece, and that piece doesn't belong in Golfweek.

Read more coverage by the AP in the Boston Globe.