I really did believe we were talking about Edward Scissorhands
October 2, 2015 9:07 AM   Subscribe

Jon Hendren spent an entire segment talking about Edward Scissorhands instead of Edward Snowden. No one noticed.
posted by Windigo (58 comments total) 23 users marked this as a favorite
 
This one has better audio.
posted by smackfu at 9:16 AM on October 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


I NOTICED.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 9:16 AM on October 2, 2015 [6 favorites]


He filled 6 minutes of air time, which is all they care about.

Now he's getting them extra web publicity, so, complete win on all levels for CNN. What, you thought they were reporting, or doing policy analysis? In America? On CNN?
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:17 AM on October 2, 2015 [7 favorites]


Time to wake up the guy from Green Day.
posted by drezdn at 9:19 AM on October 2, 2015 [10 favorites]


Why does every cable news presenter or personality appear to be a soulless android?
posted by Nevin at 9:21 AM on October 2, 2015 [12 favorites]


...Besides, establishing a common understanding of what the words you're using to make talk-pretend gestures actually refer to is just so much pedantic argument over semantics when you think about it.

(People really do only communicate by coincidence like the characters in a Pynchon novel, don't they?)
posted by saulgoodman at 9:23 AM on October 2, 2015 [7 favorites]


"Why does every cable news presenter or personality appear to be a soulless android?"

The real question is: Why aren't they helping the tortoise?
posted by I-baLL at 9:29 AM on October 2, 2015 [50 favorites]


To test the governor's argument, Vossoughian decided to run it by prominent Twitter user John Hendren. Unfortunately, her staff did not book John Hendren (@johnhendren), the Al Jazeera journalist, but rather Jon Hendren (@fart), comedian and troll.
- NY Magazine
posted by griphus at 9:35 AM on October 2, 2015 [31 favorites]


Oh come on, she's staying on script and is probably not allowed all that much flexibility in where any segment can go and will wrap it up in 30 seconds anyway. He did not emphasize the movie names and for all she knew was making technical allusions to be tech clever rather than absurd clever. Where would she take it? Ask him if he's being a jerk intentionally?
posted by sammyo at 9:36 AM on October 2, 2015 [4 favorites]


Does the exchange matter, I wonder? They are both there to fill time between commercials, we get a few chuckles, this gives the show free publicity, and she comes off as an unflappable pro, which will help her land a higher paying job at a better network. I laughed, but I feel a little like I'm part of the disease by consuming it. Mixed feelings!
posted by a lungful of dragon at 9:36 AM on October 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


"comedian and troll"

This is why I cringe when people call cyberbullying "trolling". One is a form of culture jamming, the other is being a bully.
posted by I-baLL at 9:39 AM on October 2, 2015 [16 favorites]


I have often pondered putting my DevOps League certification on LinkedIn to see if anyone notices.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 9:42 AM on October 2, 2015 [10 favorites]


the thing i don't understand is how the staff didn't notice that the Jon Hendren they booked had the twitter handle '@fart'
posted by murphy slaw at 9:43 AM on October 2, 2015 [14 favorites]


the thing i don't understand is how the staff didn't notice that the Jon Hendren they booked had the twitter handle '@fart'

"I'm paid to generate the lower thirds, not to think about them."

Host probably had some producer shouting the next question into her earpiece while Hendren was talking so she couldn't have heard him if she had been trying. If you watch enough of this stuff it becomes pretty clear that the hosts are only half-listening to their interviewees' responses. At best.
posted by Mothlight at 9:46 AM on October 2, 2015 [2 favorites]


the thing i don't understand is how the staff didn't notice that the Jon Hendren they booked had the twitter handle '@fart'

I'm sure some of the staff have their own embarrassing email addresses or Twitter handles. I'm looking at you, xBongzilla69x.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:46 AM on October 2, 2015 [5 favorites]


Jon Hendren is a national treasure. Tremble before the awesome might of his digital branding advice.
posted by saladin at 9:48 AM on October 2, 2015 [7 favorites]


Anybody who'd poke a hole in a waterbed ought to be ashamed. Now, back to the news.
posted by mule98J at 9:48 AM on October 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


i guess what it really comes down to is that many of the most powerful organizations in the world are, in some sense, run by unpaid interns
posted by murphy slaw at 9:49 AM on October 2, 2015 [18 favorites]


"i guess what it really comes down to is that many of the most powerful organizations in the world are, in some sense, run by unpaid interns"

Sssshhhhh! Not so loud! Somebody might catch on!
posted by I-baLL at 9:56 AM on October 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


Oh come on, she's staying on script and is probably not allowed all that much flexibility in where any segment can go and will wrap it up in 30 seconds anyway.

They could probably just pretape her parts, like radio DJs, would be just as useful.
posted by smackfu at 9:56 AM on October 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


I often wonder about things like this when I listen to radio interviews. "Well, Terri, that was the first time I literally ate a child. Yes, I engaged in cannibalism which I am now revealing to you."

"Now, in 1987, you were in New York City, would you say it was a dangerous time to be there?"

How do you not follow up on things that are interesting, ffs.
posted by boo_radley at 10:00 AM on October 2, 2015 [16 favorites]


One is a form of culture jamming, the other is being a bully.

Trolling has evolved a bit beyond culture jamming, and is popularly perceived these days as just causing people grief for personal kicks. It's not a huge leap from there to bullying.
posted by JHarris at 10:04 AM on October 2, 2015 [2 favorites]


Greg Nog nails it, as always.
posted by JHarris at 10:05 AM on October 2, 2015


"causing people grief for personal kicks. It's not a huge leap from there to bullying."

Uh, isn't that the definition of bullying?
posted by I-baLL at 10:10 AM on October 2, 2015


Trolling has evolved a bit beyond culture jamming, and is popularly perceived these days as just causing people grief for personal kicks. It's not a huge leap from there to bullying.

I think the whole punching up/down aspect should be considered when discussing trolling. Are you mocking a major corporation, or people who get angry about rainbow colored chips and gender neutral toy marketing? Or are you picking on a single person or people because of their religion, gender, or reviews of gaming culture?
posted by filthy light thief at 10:10 AM on October 2, 2015 [7 favorites]


...the followers of at-fart, on twitter dot com...

ugh these new Dune novels are getting worse and worse
posted by griphus at 10:13 AM on October 2, 2015 [39 favorites]


Uh, isn't that the definition of bullying?

The word bullying carries with it connotations of oppression and real harm, one can troll in a light way without intending to actually hurt. filthy light thief gets to some of it.
posted by JHarris at 10:18 AM on October 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


Us olds need to admit there's been a goal post shift on the meaning of "troll" from the early days of the net (and i do say that with a heavy heart). But it's done, it's lost to the fuckbags and douchnozzles. It's time to move on.
posted by bonehead at 10:22 AM on October 2, 2015 [12 favorites]


Now he's getting them extra web publicity, so, complete win on all levels for CNN.

clearly a HUGE win for CNN, a network which did not air this interview
posted by RogerB at 10:25 AM on October 2, 2015 [10 favorites]


bonehead, interesting. Do you mean it used to be a less negative term?

In reading this Wikipedia article on internet trolls, I would currently side with the notion of an internet troll as someone who does something to inflame others via incendiary comments, which is generally a bad thing. But sometimes the target is considered to be a suitable target, due to broader morals, as I referenced above. Then again, it might be another shift in the definition of troll, lacking a different term to cover culture jamming of the less "jamming" and more "mocking" sort.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:26 AM on October 2, 2015


I was a bit "meh" at the beginning until he started actually naming him and said "just because he has scissors for hands" at the moment they put his Twitter handle on the screen and "just because he was created on top of a mountain" and she did not flinch and now I am ded.
posted by billiebee at 10:27 AM on October 2, 2015 [8 favorites]


What Hendren did here is a classic troll in the non-harassing sense. He's making a fool of a stuffed shirt for a third-party audience. That's the way I grew up understanding the playful use of the the word, in the tradition of a.f.u or Kibo or Something Awful (which is where Hendren started). It's an old, old idea, going back through HL Mencken, even to the fools in Shakespeare, and arguably things like the celtic bardic traditions of satire.

Trolls could even then, in the late 80s early 90s, also describe anti-social arseholes too (e.g. alt.syntax.tactical--a early attack forum, similar to the way 4chan can function now), acting only for their own amusement, rather than to communicate with a broader audience. These are and were then the harassers.

But current usage, particularly in the broader media, has simplified the meaning to include pretty much only the second one, and that's largely reflected in the Wikipaedia entry. This second usage now far outweighs the first in most people's minds in my estimation. But it does mean a re-adjustment for people who grew up with the pre- and early web net before the millenial boom.
posted by bonehead at 10:44 AM on October 2, 2015 [10 favorites]


Something Awful (which is where Hendren started).

Speaking of which: David Thorpe on G4, ca. 2006
posted by griphus at 10:51 AM on October 2, 2015 [5 favorites]


(Come for the trolling, stay for the hideous prescient vision of the web in 2015)
posted by griphus at 10:52 AM on October 2, 2015 [2 favorites]


This guy's most impressive feat was managing to lock down the twitter handle @fart.
posted by Atom Eyes at 11:19 AM on October 2, 2015 [6 favorites]


clearly a HUGE win for CNN, a network which did not air this interview

HLN (formerly first CNN2, then Headline News, then CNN Headline News) is an American basic cable and satellite television channel that is owned by the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner. The channel is a spin-off of the U.S. Cable News Network.

Excuse me, let me rephrase, "a win on all levels for CNN2, a 24 hours news network somehow even less professional than real CNN".

Better?
posted by T.D. Strange at 11:28 AM on October 2, 2015 [4 favorites]


Who is this person and why is she standing in an Ikea catalog?
posted by wam at 11:33 AM on October 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


I guess we'll have to go back to "performance artist", or whatever it was they called Andy Kaufman back then.

We could also bring professional wresting terms like kayfabe to the news, it often better describes what's going on.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 11:34 AM on October 2, 2015 [2 favorites]


Good god, I am so glad someone explained what HLN derived from. I hadn't lever neard of it before.
posted by mwhybark at 11:38 AM on October 2, 2015 [3 favorites]


Jon Hendren is a masterful troll in the best sense of the word. It's one thing to get on TV and say something stupid or shocking, but his ability to completely deadpan and bullshit from the initial contact that lead to setting up the interview up through and including "scissors for hands", with the cordial and professional "thank you" at the end of the segment, is incredible.

He was still playing it straight on Twitter after the fact. This was the funniest thing I've seen in 2015. True performance art.
posted by smokysunday at 12:00 PM on October 2, 2015 [17 favorites]


for all she knew was making technical allusions

Oh God I missed this comment first time around and now I'm laughing even harder at the idea that "he started sculpting shrubs into dinosaur shapes and whatnot" could be read as an allusion to someone leaking classified documents. I am in love with this whole thing!
posted by billiebee at 12:34 PM on October 2, 2015 [9 favorites]


Best part is that Snowden has his Halloween costume sorted.

(he's going to be Finn from Adventure Time)
posted by robocop is bleeding at 1:04 PM on October 2, 2015 [2 favorites]


This was hilarious!
posted by Phormio at 1:29 PM on October 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


I was in hysterics. I almost posted this here the day it dropped. Then I thought of some poor sonofabitch fact-checker kicked to the curb in a hard economy.

This is perhaps what is called concern-trolling, but I did it to myself. I will never stop giggling when this prank occurs to me.
posted by Countess Elena at 2:27 PM on October 2, 2015


I often wonder about things like this when I listen to radio interviews.

This sort of thing makes me scream at the radio sometimes, especially when it occurs on NPR, from whom I expect a bit more professionalism. Some politician lies through his teeth and the interviewer blithely goes on to their next scripted question. That's not reporting , it's free PR.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 2:54 PM on October 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


I do wish we had a better word for this than trolling. It's not quite performance art, because that overlooks the key element of being kind of a dick to someone but it being ok because they've pretty much walked right in to it (I'm thinking here also of the classic vaping teen incident, where the NY Times tried to turn an unsourced, unchecked Twitter interview in to an article and got exactly what it deserved). It's mean, but not excessively so or in a harmful way, and it's generally to people who deserve it; it doesn't come anywhere near the level of harassment that the word trolling evokes nowadays.

Maybe pranking?
posted by Itaxpica at 3:07 PM on October 2, 2015


Considering the status of HLN (as it WANTS to be referred to now), as the 'little brother' of CNN, I think they cringe more when somebody identifies it as happening on CNN rather than HLN. Yes, there's no such thing as BAD publicity, unless it's misidentified elsewhere, even worse when CNN can use it to denigrate little-old-HLN (the Nancy Grace Network) even more. And that anchor's chances of 'graduating' to the (formerly) prestigious network have gone way down.
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:41 PM on October 2, 2015


I do wish we had a better word for this than trolling.

I do wish we had a better word for apocryphal trivia than factoid.

That is well within the original usage of (internet) troll, whereas things like doxxing and straight up harassment weren't.
posted by ernielundquist at 4:56 PM on October 2, 2015


That is well within the original usage of (internet) troll, whereas things like doxxing and straight up harassment weren't.

I mean, yeah, but words have an unpleasant tendency to change their meaning over time and if you aren't willing to roll with that you become that person who insists that actually Chinese crackers stole the OPM database and 'hackers' are unfairly maligned by the media. It's a losing battle.
posted by Itaxpica at 6:34 PM on October 2, 2015


It's a losing battle

I'm sure that's right as far as common usage goes, but in both cases — as you say, "troll" is much like "hacker" in this regard — there may be something to be said for fighting it anyhow. At least, it seems like preserving and occasionally sticking up for the original meaning of these words is also a way to keep alive some sense of the now-largely-vanished culture of the pre-commercial Internet, its norms and culture and sense of humor.
posted by RogerB at 6:43 PM on October 2, 2015


Plenty of people use hacker in its original form as well, and when people use it in the 'cracker' sense, they often use adjectives like black hat or malicious, because they know that's not the only sense it's used in.

And significantly, there isn't a widespread alternative term for hacker that I'm aware of, either. That is also how language works: You can't just create new terminology by fiat.

Same deal. People use the term troll to mean different things, often depending on context. The solution is for people to be aware of that.
posted by ernielundquist at 7:22 PM on October 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


When journalist John Hendren -- the interviewee they'd actually intended to book -- was asked for comment on this incident, he responded:
I think Edward Scissorhands was a well-meaning but misunderstood genius who turned a disability into art
posted by moss at 10:51 PM on October 2, 2015 [11 favorites]


At least, it seems like preserving and occasionally sticking up for the original meaning of these words is also a way to keep alive some sense of the now-largely-vanished culture of the pre-commercial Internet, its norms and culture and sense of humor.

I sympathise with your goals but language doesn't work that way. It's time to move on, unless you want the kids to conclude that the pre-commercial internet was mostly full of humorless scolds and grammar Nazis itching to lecture someone about the word "momentarily."
posted by No-sword at 12:10 AM on October 3, 2015


The real question is: Why aren't they helping the tortoise?

I don't know why Tyrell always cares so much; they've never done anything for me
posted by thetortoise at 2:41 AM on October 3, 2015 [2 favorites]


Am I the only one who heard Neil Degrassi Tyson?
posted by thetortoise at 2:42 AM on October 3, 2015


Trolling?

I prefer to call it serving a bowl of Just Deserts, or if you prefer, a small slice of Comeuppance Pie. Do we need a word for doing that?
posted by mule98J at 7:49 AM on October 3, 2015


From their John Oliver clip: "In journalism we have to accept that some mistakes will be made."
posted by sweetmarie at 9:48 AM on October 3, 2015


If you're just willing to use the word "oldschool", everyone can win.

"That was some classic oldschool trolling."

Bam. People who are familiar with the old meaning of trolling understand you. And people who have never heard the original definition of trolling are immediately clued in that you're using "trolling" in a different sense than the one they normally hear, because you put a modifier in front of it.
posted by Bugbread at 9:49 PM on October 4, 2015 [1 favorite]


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