Saturday, May 31, 2008

Sometimes a Scarf is Just a Scarf, or Sorry, the Hoi Polloi Isn't Buying the Rachael Ray, Terrorist Spin



If you haven't heard this story, it goes like this:

1. Rachael Ray has an ongoing gig hawking Dunkin Donuts.
2. A stylist dressed her in a fringey scarf for a commercial.
3. Right-wing blogger Michelle Malkin (and others) claim that Ray is wearing a "jihadi chic keffiyeh." (No linkee to Malkin. Not gonna do it.)

In other words, Ray is adorned in unpatriotic terrorist garb, etc. and so forth. In response to the criticism, DD pulled the ad.

When these things happen -- and by the way, nothing much did happen except a well-known woman did a donut ad in a scarf until Malkin put her special spin on it -- what the right will say is predictable. So too with the left.

What's not so predictable is what people who aren't looking at the donut ad from a political angle will say.

I stumbled on a Donutgate article while looking for Lost articles, and what interested me -- I'm a sucker for news story comments -- is that in comments almost everyone decried the Rachael-Ray-dressed-as-terrorist spin as the pure and total nonsense it is, and they criticize Dunkin Donuts for overreacting, allowing themselves to be manipulated, etc.

During moments like this I have hope that our country's critical thinking skills haven't left us completely.

2 comments:

Bee said...

No trenchant analysis to offer . . . but it did make me laugh.

I think that Rachael Ray is probably way too busy with her many cooking spin-offs to foment revolution, but who knows? That dinner in 30 minutes thing might be a highly coded activity.

BTW, are you in the Love RR camp, or in the She Totally Annoys Me camp? (I suppose there is also a third camp: Indifference.)

Bitty said...

That dinner in 30 minutes thing might be a highly coded activity.

Ha! At very least, it would free up a lot of time to plan the jihad.

This has been such nonsense, truly.

I suppose I'm in the indifferent camp, but trending toward liking her. I've only seen one of her shows once, but she's ubiquitous enough that I certainly know who she is. She hasn't intrigued me enough to inspire me to investigate her any further, but someone I know who is a great cook likes her cookbooks.

So someday I may look into her some more. Not today.