Since when did the New York Observer turn into TigerBeat? John Koblin and Zachary Woolfe have a total squeefest over NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, declaring her a “secret gay icon” and using the moment as an opportunity to indulge in some Kanye-esque grammatical hijinks. Dudes, we also love Andrea (she’s cold, sassy, brassy and married to Alan Greenspan), but that’s no excuse to put 23 exclamation points in a row.
Once the duo calmed themselves down, they made some salient points about what makes Mitchell different from your usual gay icon:
There is a large difference between Mitchell and many of the other women we would call “gay icons,” and that’s her power. Real Political Power in the Real World! It’s a cliché, by now, that most gay icons are victims–vulnerable, volatile women. It’s interesting how many of them come from Culture, how few from Media. And then there’s the vultures-circling-the-carcass aspect of gay male idolatry: their icons need to be, in some fundamental way, dramatic losers–even if they don’t literally die (and sometimes they do! R.I.P., Judy), they’re fat, or their nose is too big, or they lose the election. (It was
palpable, in New York in the early months of 2008, that the worse Hillary was doing, the more gay men were getting excited about her candidacy.) Andrea, on the other hand, is a winner, and pretty much always has been: rich, powerful, influential, funny, a little off-color–what is his nickname, if not Mr. Chairman? In fact, never mind! We didn’t ask! She’s scrappy, all the scrappier for still working so hard when she’s so rich. She’s like the random rich teacher in every elementary school, the one who doesn’t have to work but wants to.
hardmannyc
I was stupified when I read this. Even by the standards of the terminally shallow Observer, this was one piss-poorly researched, lazy, stupid non-story.
ggreen
Andrea Mitchell is one of the beltway gasbags that thrill to the sound of her own bullshit. She looks like the puppet “Madame†(only older) and is married to the number one villain in the current depression/recession “Ayn Rand asshole†Alan Greenspan. I hope Andrea gets an STD from kissing Sally Quinn’s ass.
ChicagoLIberal
Andrea Mitchell Gay Icon – how bout US Traitor ICON. She should be hauled before a congressional committee about her involvement in the false information in the run up to the Iraq war, her involvement in the leak of Valerie Plames covert identity and finally for being duplicitous in her reporting on the economy while her husband Alan Greenspan (who now at least accepts responsibility) deregulated Wall Street and trashed our economy.
She should be stripped of her press credentials and sent to Fox News/Noise as a commentator.
Darth Paul
Bump that old yenta. My favorite point in her career was when she was shoved and shaken by Sudanese officials at a press conference back when Darfur started making headlines. That ROCKED.
An Other Greek
for those of us with -attention spans-, Mitchell is a shill and apologist of a system she is well invested in. Let’s not forget her “journalism” and coverage of the Bush administration and the war while the polls leaned favorable. Mitchell was certainly an active “part of the problem.”
Her marriage to Greenspan is a surreal, literary curiosity, and that’s being kind.
And now she is a gay icon? Wow. I didn’t know. Probably yet another reason for gays to feel outside “their” culture…
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