Media Burn: What’s in a Name?

Abstract

BURN IS AN EVOLVING SET OF IDEAS about effects of television and fame on personalities. I made up name in 1970 during Chicago Conspiracy Trial (aka the Chicago 10, or 8, or 7). It was my first exposure on a daily basis to who were not on TV or in movies. There were no cameras in courtroom. I was reporting every day on phone (radio to Pacifica and local Chicago stations). The differences between experience in courtroom and how principals performed on TV news conferences every day and night were remarkable. I was struck by how being on camera and seen on TV affected ongoing behavior of characters. Included in Chicago Eight were defendants Rennie Davis, David Dellinger, John Froines, Tom Hayden, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Bobby Seale, and Lee Weiner. Their lawyers, Bill Kunstler and Leonard Weinglass, were also primary characters whose personas were affected by appearing on TV. Judge Julius Hoffman appeared on TV. The defendants, particularly Abbie Hoffman, were keenly aware that public perception of trial was determined by TV, and Hoffman did everything he could to make judge object of ridicule. One day, immediately after a recess, when an undercover policeman had given potentially damaging testimony about intent of defendants, Abbie stood on his head on defendants' table. Of course, that was courtroom sketch that was used that night on TV, an image that essentially obliterated testimony reported on television. For nearly six months straight, usually five days a week, I was in courtroom and close to media circus, as it was described on television news every day and night. I constantly discussed our ideas about this new form of spectacle with my friend John Schultz, author and world's expert on events of Chicago 1968 and trial, who wrote No One Was Killed and Motion Will Be Denied. With John's encouragement, I developed and articulated first concept of Media Burn in 1971: BURN: A NEW CONCEPT-No doubt, lots of people have felt this way many times in history, but we have now arrived at a point where what's REAL is only if it's on TV. This trial has been most emotional and political watershed in my lifetime. I have been one of about 100 people who saw it live-or ever will. Yet images and impact created here have constant consciousness of millions as a new episode plays out on TV every night for all these months . . . despite fact that there were no cameras. What's TV and what's real about it? Who these people are, what they represent, their guilt for these charges based on an insane conspiracy law, are all far less important to me than who they become and how world finds out about them by seeing them only on TV. This is something new. They aren't elected officials or TV game show hosts, newscasters or paid performers. They are stand-ins for our generation, for our beliefs, hopes and antiestablishment identities. Because of this process of being on TV, they have become genuine celebrities. The distinctive nature of their fame as it has been generated by TV has a direct effect on who they are and how they behave, both on camera and in courtroom and ultimately on their personalities and lives. Defining, examining and understanding process is what I have termed MEDIA BURN. (Weinberg 1) Almost immediately after Chicago Conspiracy Trial, tools of portable video suddenly became available, and power to show celebrities and characters on television and video shifted from corporate to individual and artistic. In early 1970s, we used first tools of portable video and discovered how phenomenon of being videotaped involved a lack of inhibition resulting in powerful self-fascination that is triggered and enhanced by appearing on-screen. An early example took place in 1972, in The World's Largest Television Studio by TVTV (the first portable video ever broadcast on TV). …