Greg Mitchell's Blog, page 135

College Football Star Comes Out

Startling if inevitable: A college football all-American has come out as gay--and likely will become the first out NFL player (unless another is brave enough to take step). And probably will hurt his draft status. 

As Michael Sam, a defensive lineman, began to speak, he balled up a piece of paper in his hands. “I’m gay,” he said. With that, Mr. Sam set himself on a path to become the first publicly gay player in the National Football League.

“I looked in their eyes, and they just started shaking their heads — like, finally, he came out,” Mr. Sam said Sunday in an interview with The New York Times, the first time he spoke publicly about his sexual orientation.

Mr. Sam, a 6-foot-2, 260-pound senior, went on to a stellar season for Missouri, which finished 12-2 and won the Cotton Bowl. He was named a first-team all-American. He was the defensive player of the year in the Southeastern Conference, widely considered the top league in college football. Teammates voted him Missouri’s most valuable player.

 UPDATE  Long Reads has exclusive behind-the-scenes look at how Sam came out.  The Eagle Had Landed. 

Keller Leaving 'NYT'

Bill Keller, increasingly an embarrassment at the NYT as a columnist--after an up and down tenure as chief editor--announced tonight he is exiting the paper, just a month after he drew wide scorn for a column bullying a cancer victim, which was not mentioned in the Times' release.  

Bill Keller, a columnist at The New York Times and its former executive editor, will leave the paper to become editor in chief of The Marshall Project, a nonprofit journalism start-up focused on the American criminal justice system.

“It’s a chance to build something from scratch, which I’ve never done before,” Mr. Keller said, “and to use all the tools that digital technology offers journalists in terms of ways to investigate and to present on a subject that really matters personally.”

Keller had also recently supported a U.S. attack on Syria--apparently learning nothing from his boosterism of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.  He also famously mocked Julian Assange (after exploiting all those WikiLeaks leaks).   Did not allow his paper to call torture torture. Held that James Risen scoop--for a year--that might have elected Kerry in 2004.  Mocked Baby Boomers with far less money that he has for expecting so much in "entitlements."  I could go on.

But maybe he gave up his gig after failing to get Obama to bomb Syria--and the cancer victim to stop tweeting.

Note: Keller figures prominently in my book on the U.S. media and the Iraq war, "So Wrong for So Long."

Context

When the Beatles were singing "I Want to Hold Your Hand" on the Sullivan show, Dylan was writing this:

Jimmy's 'Last Waltz'

Just catching up to Fallon closing his "Latenight" gig with "The Weight,"  singing and drumming as Levon with the Muppets as The Band.

Sunday Morning in the Church of Beethoven

Continuing my weekly feature: This, of course, would be my favorite Mandela story.  It's the tale of a well-known Welsh pianist who moved to South Africa and refused to play for apartheid audiences. Then he let his rehearsal space be used as a secret meeting place for Mandela and his colleagues.  To drown out their discussions he would incessantly practice one of Beethoven's greatest pieces, his Piano Concerto No. 4 and would be hailed as a hero to the cause.  “Happily the music was very loud, and if there were any bugs, all the security police would hear would be Beethoven and not us planning resistance to apartheid.  Beethoven would have been happy.”  Cool photo of Rubens--with George Bernard Shaw.

Also note: After the change in power in South Africa, the country did not yet have a new national anthem--so at the 1992 Olympics the music played for its winning athletes was, aptly, Beethoven's "Ode to Joy."  My new film and book on Beethoven's 9th.

Now here's a terrific rendition of the 4th, with Helene Grimaud.

The Ballad of Rosanne Cash

Happy to tout NYT op-ed just posted by recent acquaintance Rosanne Cash--you may have heard she has an acclaimed new album and has written a couple of well-regarded book.  It explores "the ballad tradition," with mentions of her Dad, John Wesley Hardin and Dylan, Paul Brady, and song written by her ex- and current husbands, plus classics like "Arthur McBride" (see below)  to a cut off her new album.

Excerpt on the latter:

I don’t usually revisit my songs after being immersed in writing, recording, mixing and mastering them for an album and hearing them dozens of times while doing so, but I still listen to “Master” every couple of weeks to remind me of the unpredictable sources of inspiration, of long-cherished goals finally achieved, of the importance of the ballad tradition, of time travel, family and, of course, the Unions: with our pasts, with people we once loved and those we love forever, between our singular attachment to home and our mutual devotion to realm, and the wrenching, magnificent union between who we were and who we are.

Woody Respond? He Just Did (Plus Updates)

Saturday: Dylan Farrow has now responded, in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter.   She again denied any coaching from her mother and blasted "the latest rehash of the same legalese, distortions, and outright lies he has leveled at me for the past 20 years...Woody Allen has an arsenal of lawyers and publicists but the one thing he does not have on his side is the truth. I hope this is the end of his vicious attacks and of the media campaign by his lawyers and publicists, as he’s promised. I won't let the truth be buried and I won't be silenced."

Friday night: A couple of days back we reported that NYT public editor Margaret Sullivan had revealed that Woody Allen had requested space to respond to last Sunday's column by Nick Kristof and blog post by Dylan Farrow, claiming that he had sexually abused her at the age of 7.  Sullivan said the Times would have the option of rejecting such a piece, if it arrived, but tonight they posted it.  Read it yourself. (Note: Also tonight, Maureen Orth, who has written two detailed stories on the case since 1992, presents what she says are 12 undeniable facts, which undercut Allen, at Vanity Fair.)

Allen opens tonight:

I naïvely thought the accusation would be dismissed out of hand because of course, I hadn’t molested Dylan and any rational person would see the ploy for what it was. Common sense would prevail. After all, I was a 56-year-old man who had never before (or after) been accused of child molestation.

Better left unsaid:

Justice Wilk was quite rough on me and never approved of my relationship with Soon-Yi, Mia’s adopted daughter, who was then in her early 20s. He thought of me as an older man exploiting a much younger woman, which outraged Mia as improper despite the fact she had dated a much older Frank Sinatra when she was 19. In fairness to Justice Wilk, the public felt the same dismay over Soon-Yi and myself, but despite what it looked like our feelings were authentic and we’ve been happily married for 16 years with two great kids, both adopted.

And yes, he goes there....

I pause here for a quick word on the Ronan situation. Is he my son or, as Mia suggests, Frank Sinatra’s? Granted, he looks a lot like Frank with the blue eyes and facial features, but if so what does this say? That all during the custody hearing Mia lied under oath and falsely represented Ronan as our son? Even if he is not Frank’s, the possibility she raises that he could be, indicates she was secretly intimate with him during our years. Not to mention all the money I paid for child support. Was I supporting Frank’s son? Again, I want to call attention to the integrity and honesty of a person who conducts her life like that.

And then this:

Undoubtedly the attic idea came to her from the Dory Previn song, “With My Daddy in the Attic.” It was on the same record as the song Dory Previn had written about Mia’s betraying their friendship by insidiously stealing her husband, André, “Beware of Young Girls.” One must ask, did Dylan even write the letter or was it at least guided by her mother? Does the letter really benefit Dylan or does it simply advance her mother’s shabby agenda? That is to hurt me with a smear. There is even a lame attempt to do professional damage by trying to involve movie stars, which smells a lot more like Mia than Dylan. 

Shooting in Movie Theater

Surveillance video release of the incident where ex-cop shot and killed man who was texting re: his daughter.  Not easy to see but it's there.   It does appear to show--perhaps--that the victim, as alleged, reached forward and grabbed some popcorn to toss at the shooter. Of course, even if true, it hardly warranted the shooting at point blank range.  

Woody Respond? He Did

A couple of days back we reported that NYT public editor Margaret Sullivan had revealed that Woody Allen had requested space to respond to last Sunday's column by Nick Kristof and blog post by Dylan Farrow, claiming that he had sexually abused her at the age of 7.  Sullivan said the Times would have the option of rejecting such a piece, if it arrived, but tonight they posted it.  Read it yourself. Opens:

I naïvely thought the accusation would be dismissed out of hand because of course, I hadn’t molested Dylan and any rational person would see the ploy for what it was. Common sense would prevail. After all, I was a 56-year-old man who had never before (or after) been accused of child molestation.

Better left unsaid:

Justice Wilk was quite rough on me and never approved of my relationship with Soon-Yi, Mia’s adopted daughter, who was then in her early 20s. He thought of me as an older man exploiting a much younger woman, which outraged Mia as improper despite the fact she had dated a much older Frank Sinatra when she was 19. In fairness to Justice Wilk, the public felt the same dismay over Soon-Yi and myself, but despite what it looked like our feelings were authentic and we’ve been happily married for 16 years with two great kids, both adopted.

And yes, he goes there....

I pause here for a quick word on the Ronan situation. Is he my son or, as Mia suggests, Frank Sinatra’s? Granted, he looks a lot like Frank with the blue eyes and facial features, but if so what does this say? That all during the custody hearing Mia lied under oath and falsely represented Ronan as our son? Even if he is not Frank’s, the possibility she raises that he could be, indicates she was secretly intimate with him during our years. Not to mention all the money I paid for child support. Was I supporting Frank’s son? Again, I want to call attention to the integrity and honesty of a person who conducts her life like that.

And then this:

Undoubtedly the attic idea came to her from the Dory Previn song, “With My Daddy in the Attic.” It was on the same record as the song Dory Previn had written about Mia’s betraying their friendship by insidiously stealing her husband, André, “Beware of Young Girls.” One must ask, did Dylan even write the letter or was it at least guided by her mother? Does the letter really benefit Dylan or does it simply advance her mother’s shabby agenda? That is to hurt me with a smear. There is even a lame attempt to do professional damage by trying to involve movie stars, which smells a lot more like Mia than Dylan. 

Just Another Day in Gun Nutty USA

Boy, 13, dies out in state of Washington after friends fool around with shotgun in his home (let's presume it was Dad's and unsecured).    Best friend accidentally shoots him in the chest. 

Police and neighbors call the shooting senseless, totally avoidable and a tragedy that did not have to happen.

“I don’t understand why people aren’t more secure of their things that they have in their home that are deadly to kids.  You see it all the time you’d think the kids would even realize they shouldn’t be playing around with things like that,” Sharick said.

UPDATE:  And today, boy, 14, accidentally shots and kills brother, 9, in Boston.