burlesquegate

29 Jul 2009

After much debate here, and here, I’ve had a change of heart. Allow me to paraphrase the situation as I now understand it:

• Adam Kleinheider, blogger-cum-journalist for the Nashville Post, received a tip (from a neutral, disinterested third party, I’m sure – a concerned citizen, if you will) that one person (someone in this picture, at a private party) looked like another person (lobbyist Rose Cox).
• Bound by his journalistic duty, Kleinheider investigated, asking Rose Cox multiple times via Facebook if it was her.
• She said no, but also asked the Tennessean to remove the pictures, seemingly admitting guilt - and thus, being caught in a lie.
• Kleinheider posts a triumphant moral exposition, highlighting Cox’s despicable deception.

Initially I argued that this was a seemingly pointless exercise of creepy fixation and a disturbing use of journalistic authority towards public castigation. But I now realize that I was wrong. Not only am I wrong, but I’ve been remiss. You see, many times – recently and in the past, as well – I’ve seen someone, online or in person, and thought that they resembled another person. Not only did I not report it to the media on these occasions, it didn’t even occur to me. Think of all the opportunities to catch someone in a lie that have been lost because of my carelessness. Think of the hundreds, thousands, perhaps, of people out there – right now – that have pictures of themselves on the Internet which resemble other pictures of people on the Internet, with their veracity and likeness competely unchallenged.

Well, no more. From now on, in the interest of keeping the wheels of journalism (nay, democracy!) thoroughly greased, when I see someone that looks like another someone, I intend to report it to Kleinheider, post haste. To help kick things off, here is a short list of resemblances I’ve noticed:

• Check out the person in the bottom lefthand corner of this picture. Now look at lobbyist Betty Anderson. Hard to say if they are the same person, but hopefully the truth will come out.
• Now see this picture. The caption says that’s “Kelly Kupres” on the left. But, a quick google search for “kelly kupres” yields only one result. A fake name, perhaps? Can’t wait to see the fallout from this one.
• Lastly, there’s this gem. Call me crazy, but is that registered lobbyist Andrea Arnold?? It doesn’t really look like her, but that’s for rigorous journalistic confirmation to decide.

I hope that these stories and others get the rigor and investigation that they deserve – so that we see the truth come out, here. I encourage you all, as well, to send as many of these “coincidences” to Kleinheider, so that we can get the real scoop we all deserve.

** Apologies in advance to the random people I pulled out of a google search to make my banal, sarcastic point.