Written by Lee Schneider
Awards shows are not my preferred form of media. It’s sorta nice to see beautiful actors stumble over themselves trying to thank their agents, but after a few teary speeches I reach for the nachos and consider a nap. The Genesis Awards were different.
The Genesis Awards honor those in media who expose cruelty against animals and work for animal protection. The awards were held last Saturday in Beverly Hills, and they amplified the work of good people like Jane Velez-Mitchell, honored for segments on her Issues program on CNN Headline News.
“These awards are changing the world,” Jane said. Really? Yeah, I think so. And not just because she said it really loud.
You put a lot of celebrities in a room and whaddya know, photographers show up. The public is curious. Media builds awareness. It does that every day for Coke, Pepsi, the New York Yankees, the New York Mets (well, maybe not the Mets, unless they become un-pathetic) and lots of other commercial interests. 
The thing that’s different about the Genesis Awards is that the media-makers honored become role models who encourage others. Their works become powerful forces attracting the problem-solvers and solution-makers, connecting the passions and ideas we need to fix everything. Everything? Just about.
Louie Psihoyos
Take The Cove for example, honored on Saturday with a Genesis Award (and, recently, an Oscar). The film is a documentary with pop culture reality-show appeal that exposes the dolphin slaughter going on in Japan. It was director Louie Psihoyos’ first film. He told me, “If I can do it almost anybody can do it. I had a lot of help, not to disparage the real professionals making this film.” Did he think it would motivate others to make movies or take action? “I wanted this film to inspire a legion of activists, and it’s happening. Over a million people have signed up to help on this issue and other ones.”
Moby
I also spoke with Moby, a vegan who has found that media is helping even diehard New Yorker meat-eaters consider where their flesh is coming from. They’re still going for the flesh, but they’re trying free range and grass-fed – more sustainable and healthier. Moby has edited a new book along with Miyun Park that looks at factory faming and food safety. It’s called Gristle.
“Cruelty can’t survive the spotlight,” said Wayne Pacelle, President and CEO of HSUS. “None of us can be a bystander.”
He’s right. Events like the Genesis Awards draw attention to the issues and use celebrity awardees and presenters to do that. But when you make a good movie even more magic happens. You get the problem-solvers interested in the issues. Then media doesn’t only advocate change but it actually engineers change. The media celebrated at the Genesis awards advocated a new model of service. Generating action, inspiring involvement and, perhaps most importantly, bringing the problem-solvers to the table who can really fix things.
All photos by Lee Schneider
Moby and the media
Nicole Lapin of CNN
Written by Lee Schneider, founder of DocuCinema
Derek Jeter is actually Superman, right? Even better if he wore a cape to games, but then he might trip over it on the way to receiving his friggin’ World Series trophy.
When I say I hate the Yankees, I know I am in good company. A quick check of Twitter reveals many thoughtful critiques of the team.
I’m just going to lie down on a psychoanalyst’s couch, preferably one made of soft baseball glove leather, and sort out my Yankee feelings. Hand me that baseball autographed by Sandy Koufax, will you? Thanks. Let me turn it over in my hands and think about this.
Reason #1. Steinbrenner fired Yogi Berra in 1985. Yogi once said, “That restaurant is so crowded nobody goes there anymore.” It wasn’t right to fire a linguist like that. But, yeah, I forgot – it’s all about winning.
Reason #2. The new Yankee stadium cost $1.5 billion including financing, the most expensive sports venue in America. Want to go online to snag a seat at Thursday’s game? How’s $3,000 sound?
“It’s always George’s philosophy: This is the Yankees, everything has to be done first-rate. We wanted … to create a stadium that, when you go in, there’s a ‘wow’ factor.” — Randy Levine, Yankees president
How about, “wow,” why does Steinbrenner have his hand down my pants? Oh, sorry, he’s just reaching for my wallet.
The Yankees did put up most of the bucks to build their palace, so somehow they have to pay for it. But does that mean I have to get a loan at Citigroup to afford a friggin’ ticket? Just cut out the mayo in your sandwich, you might be able to afford a cheap seat on StubHub.com. Makes you want to scream.
Reason #3. But wait, screaming at people is Steinbrenner’s job. Oh, you say, “It’s good to scream at people — gets them motivated!” Not true.
In the 1960s, a psychologist named Daniel Kahneman listened to some Israeli air force flight instructors talk about how they got their students to fly maneuvers.
“I’ve often praised people warmly for beautifully executed maneuvers, and the next time they always do worse,” said one flight instructor. “And I’ve screamed at people for badly executed maneuvers, and by and large the next time they improve.”
The instructor was wrong. Kahneman and a scientist named Amos Tversky studied patterns of human behavior, and learned that screaming is not a powerful educational tool. As Leonard Mlodinow put it in his book “The Drunkard’s Walk”:
The answer lies in a phenomenon called regression toward the mean. That is, in any series of random events an extraordinary event is most likely followed, due purely to chance, by a more ordinary one.
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As you practice anything, catching a baseball, flying fighter planes, your skill improves slowly and is not always noticeable from one day to the next. Your good days and bad days are mostly a matter of luck. A Steinbrenner will not necessarily have any effect on your performance. It’s not about the yelling, or the praise, but about the practice.
In 2002, Kahneman was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics. How many Nobel Prizes has Steinbrenner won? I can tell you without pausing to look it up: Zero. Why? Because he yells at people and he fired Yogi Berra in 1985.
Don’t ask me about the Mets.
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