Borkowski Media Trends: Barton, Boris & MORE
Viral hit 'May-December' and another politician joins Cameo
Barton, Sexism, and the Punditry Paradigm in Football
Joey Barton’s recent remarks on women’s football have been widely condemned as sexist and outdated. His views have sparked a significant backlash, with numerous critiques highlighting and denouncing his bigotry and misogyny.
However, you only have to watch 90 seconds of his interview with Piers Morgan to find the critical flaw in his logic. Barton calls himself a “bonafide expert” when raising his football credentials and discusses journalist integrity and standards when describing the current standard of football punditry.
While Barton’s on-field experience is undeniable, it’s essential to recognise that playing and analysing football are distinct skill sets. While some argue that firsthand experience lends credibility (e.g., Joey Barton has the credentials to be a thought leader in football thuggery), others, like the data-driven journalists from The Athletic, demonstrate that thorough, articulate analysis comes from those who may not have playing experience but possess high-level journalistic insight.
The evolution of more varied and comprehensive analysis in modern-day punditry remains inaccessible to a wider audience, as insights are often confined behind paywalls and have yet to significantly influence mainstream televised punditry.
Take Sky Sports - the prevalence of ex-footballers relying primarily on their playing experience for analysis is undoubtedly the norm. Excelling on the pitch does not inherently qualify them as comprehensive experts in all aspects of the game. This situation is further complicated by the protective stance of television executives towards these high-profile ex-footballer pundits. Jamie Carragher’s infamous spitting incident could’ve ended his career, but his reputation is completely intact, suggesting that the star power of ex-footballers trumps all.
But would one of Sky’s female pundits have the same protection? Perhaps an unrealistic hypothetical, but it does circle us back to Barton. While he’s faced criticism for his views, the response has not been universally condemned. This situation reflects the broader issue of sexism in football. There is a growing concern that female pundits must demonstrate higher expertise and professionalism than their male counterparts, who leverage their playing careers as their primary credentials. This challenge is further exacerbated when influential figures like Barton, who hold significant sway in the industry, publicly express disparaging opinions about women’s football. Such dynamics suggest an uneven playing field where female pundits may not only face tougher scrutiny but also have to contend with entrenched biases in the sport.
Camp Controversy: May-December
The film getting Twitter talking this week was not the latest Marvel release or the Hunger Games prequel, but rather Todd Haynes’ new Netflix/Sky Cinema release May-December, starring Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman. Based loosely on the real-life story of Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualauu, the film follows an actress (Portman) visiting the home of a Letourneau-alike (Moore) as she prepares to play her in a biopic.
There’s an inherent strangeness to the idea that a film ostensibly about abuse can be seen as “meme-able”, but Twitter has, perhaps inevitably, run away with itself, everyone desperate to have the final say about the film of the moment. Much of this seems rooted in the fact that May-December is ‘camp’, a word that has rather lost its meaning in internet parlance. Todd Haynes himself rejected the idea in an interview with Sight & Sound, but it persists in the online discourse surrounding it – the film is certainly melodramatic, but melodrama is a specific tone that is now, in the age of the blockbuster, seemingly lost on audiences.
May-December is not the only film to receive this curious, if positive, response. Earlier this year, the Cate Blanchett/Todd Field film Tár, a classical music meets cancel culture drama, was memed extensively online, including the production of ‘Lydia Tár Innocent’ t-shirts. For a nigh-on three-hour drama about Mahler and sexual predation, this response was remarkable and showed how the process of cult-ification, once played out privately in bars and basements, now happens almost instantaneously online.
Netflix is no doubt delighted with the free PR, but the response demonstrates how all cultural reaction is now immediately filtered through the prism of social media and its trends, sometimes to the chagrin of the artists in question. No one expected a film like May-December to be the week’s Twitter talking point, but the combination of its true crime appeal and alleged camp bonafides have driven the conversation, highlighting again how tapping into existing dialogues, knowingly or not, can be the key to success.
Boris Bumbles ON
As the COVID inquiry trundles on, Boris Johnson took to the stand this week for a look back on some of his greatest hits. From Partygate, to Barnard Castle, to herd immunity, it was a reminder of the extraordinary immunity Johnson himself seemed to have to negative publicity during his time at No10. Not one to often appear contrite, Johnson did bring some level of sartorial polish to the solemn event, in a suit less rumpled than his usual attire and hair that seems to have least crossed paths with a comb in the recent past. Whatever long-suffering stylist implemented this mini glow-up (Carrie, one presumes?) would have been bereft by the image covering several national papers on Thursday morning of Johnson, head in hand, looking frazzled but at least repentant.
The Guardian bucked the trend by displaying a more jovial Boris, resplendent in his signature silly bobble hat and League 2 football manager jacket, exiting the inquiry. Johnson’s presence here might not exude self-awareness, but it was at this moment when he was in fact being heckled by protestors representing the friends and families of COVID victims. Perhaps the slight smirk is an unfair moment captured by a canny photographer, but maybe it’s also the vision of a man who believes he’s once again dodged the reputational consequences of his actions.
Lies, Cameo, Action - The George Santos Story
In an era where fame knows no bounds, even the notorious can find ways to capitalise on their notoriety. The latest case in point: George Santos, the recently expelled congressman who has seamlessly transitioned from the hallowed halls of Congress to the infamous stage of Cameo.
Santos, a political newcomer with a mere 11 months in office, has made headlines not for his legislative feats but for becoming the sixth lawmaker in history to face expulsion from the House of Representatives. His downfall wasn’t just political; it was a sensational unravelling of a storybook of lies that has left Americans (and the world) questioning how he wasn’t found out sooner!
It began with the brazen misuse of campaign funds, as he and his staffers allegedly charged donors’ credit cards without permission. A recent report showed how he used donations for about $6,000 worth of purchases at the luxury store Ferragamo and botox treatments and elsewhere, campaign dollars paid for subscriptions on OnlyFans. Beyond this, Santos claimed to have survived an assassination attempt just a month after his election. He even recounted a summer mugging on Fifth Avenue where, purportedly, an assailant relieved him of his shoes, briefcase, and watch in broad daylight. But the most shocking fabrication he has maintained in spite of concrete evidence against it, is the false assertion that his mother worked in the World Trade Center on 9/11. Last week, a damning House ethics report accused him of fraud and lies, leading to his expulsion from Washington.
Despite the shockingly audacious nature of his deception, Santos has managed to defy expectations and turn his infamy into profit. Enter Cameo, the platform where Santos, now self-proclaimed as the “former congressional ‘Icon,’ peddles personalised video messages at $350 a pop. Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman posted a video he purchased, where Santos gleefully advises another Senator facing bribery charges. “Make them put up or shut up!” Santos grins, seemingly unburdened by his own predicament. Rumours abound that he has already surpassed his Congress salary, having booked more than $170,000 worth of ‘work’ in just a week. Beyond this, HBO has reportedly acquired the rights to Santos’s tumultuous story, and rumours are swirling about his potential appearance on “Dancing with the Stars”.
In an age where the line between shame and fame blurs, George Santos’s journey from disgraced politician to Cameo sensation proves that even the most outlandish lies can lead to a lucrative second act in this modern digital age... Let’s hope Bojo doesn’t get any ideas.