Since MTV made the decision to air the show, I think they should have made Adam's death at the hand of addiction a focal point. They need to make it clear that addiction is a chronic disease. Showing someone go through 30 days of rehab doesn't guarantee that a person is "cured." The general public doesn't understand this. Addiction is one of the only diseases that people feel ashamed for having. The first step to having society recognize it as any other medical disorder is to present all of the facts. MTV is denigrating Adam's work by not showing the whole picture. #djam
Here we go again. If you think that MTV (or TLC, or ANY REALITY TV OUTLET) feels ANY responsibility whatsoever to its "stars" and the ramifications of their respective behavior, YOU ARE DANGEROUSLY NAIVE.
We do not watch tightrope walkers to see them be successful. It's the potential spectacle of failure that draws us in. #djam
For me, it's not a question of if someone dropped the ball, it's how could so many people drop the ball.
If you start with the basic assumption that many of these people have encountered and dealt with addicts before (e.g. his manager who also manages Eminem, a man who has admitted drug problems), his show and death become a clusterfuck of malfeasance.
The thing that I find most egregious about the way the people around DJ AM present this is that they act as if there were no signs even though his therapist, his manager, and all these other people are talking about how he started sweating while holding a crackpipe.
How do you witness that and not apply the brakes? #djam
It's upsetting to me to realize that Adam was the one who approached MTV, seemed pretty insistent on cashing in on the reality show gravy train. When they weren't interested in his initial pitch they came back with this. While we can cluck our tongues at MTV, we can't deny the type of personality that seems to be drawn to appearing in these shows. And it always ends badly... #djam
Seems like Adam was too much a fragile spirit to host that show. Didn't know him personally but it was probably asking too much of his sobriety, especially after the plane accident.
Having him pick up a crack pipe? Over the line, clearly. He was a crack addict and not fairing too well. Just looking
We can just say it: MTV should've been more aware of this. On the other side of it, who sees some of these things coming? Nobody.
I don't know...I feel like people could have seen this coming if they gave any thought whatsoever to Goldstein's mental health. Didn't anyone at MTV ever think about how the plane crash could have affected him emotionally? Not to mention the high probability that pain meds could have a destabilizing effect on a former addict? #djam
Frankly, I'm disappointed with how MTV handled this whole thing. They don't want to be blamed for DJ AM's return to using (even if he started again before the show went into production, who knows), so instead of just canceling the show they decide to remove any and all references to him holding a crack pipe during filming, as if that solves everything. They give him an "In Memory of..." type tribute during the show's credits, but they don't mention that he died of a drug overdose. It just seems like they are only being as respectful as they have to be in order to get away with all of it instead of being as respectful as they should be. #djam
@mattchew03: Yes. I got the same feeling from the NYT article, when it described how Mr. Goldstein's death had provoked the MTV execs to do some "soul-searching" about vetting -- a point that was immediately followed by a description of how insurance companies may start requiring a more thorough vetting process. Like, they'll do as much "soul-searching" as required by their bottom line. #djam
@mattchew03: A deeper message about how we should support our friends in recovery and try to steer them away from being in contact with drugs and drug users would've certainly been the most genuine and helpful way of talking about addiction, but then it would've completely undermined the show itself and MTV's "brave" decision to air it.
I never felt for the guy before this particulary story, but it hits home in a lot of ways and reminds me of people I've lost. You shouldn't treat the overcoming of addiction like a vacation from the drugs or the alcohol, something that you can eventually return to if you feel better and "can control" yourself; you should treat it like a death, something that is removed and gone and buried. Watching people return once they're "better" only to fall apart again is an accepted part of (eventual) recovery, but on the flipside it can also lead to horrific death, and I just think considering where we're at as a society, and how damning addiction has become, we should be trying, even as television networks, to help one another out. Having viewers is useless if a chunk of them end up dead because of misinformation via clever editing about the recurrence of addiction. #djam
@ampersandparade: You made my point far more eloquently than I ever could have. And I totally agree, it bugs me when shows expose addicts to drink or drug just to see how they "handle" it, as a sort of litmus test for how ~recovered~ they are. Sometimes they just need to stay away from the damn stuff if they want a better chance at surviving.
Does that make any sense? I'm trying to write comments during commercials for Desperate Housewives *cough gay cough*, so I'm not sure if I'm explaining things adequately.
@mattchew03: You're doing fine, sir. I'll grade your comments on the same curve I grade ABC television, if that makes you feel better, but you do a good job of engaging in intellectual dialogue without the disclaimer. #djam
"...it's the kind of thing that mangles this story into too many different pieces to put any kind of score on."
Well said, Foster. Overall, I thought the NYT article captured that feeling.
This analogy, however, felt off to me:
"'If you want to stay monogamous with your wife, don’t get into a hotel room alone with a woman — even if you’re only in there to fix her Wi-Fi. It’s not a good idea,'" [a family medicine doctor with a specialty in addiction] said. #djam
The most anyone can learn about this—and most non-media savvy folks should learn about this—is that reality TV is basically just a hi-tech freak show. Nothing more. Nothing less. #djam
@SpyMagician: This is actually an incredibly valid point. There is a distinction between the documentary as art or as a means of education about a topic, and a commercial reality television show. The idea that one wants to pretend to be the other just leads to confusion and weird things like this come out the other side. My comment is convoluted, but yours is precient, and I agree with it 100%. #djam
Where does this "the President can't have a Blackberry" myth come from? As long as the e-mail he's sending and receiving is synced with the official White House e-mail servers he can do whatever he wants. It's not necessarily smart for a President to have a lot of e-mails obtainable through the Public Records Act but as long as those e-mails are archived then it meets with the requirements.
Unless there's some other law I'm not familiar with I don't see where the problem is, legally speaking.
@Itsjustcatnip: I was wondering that, too. With all the ways you can intercept phone calls nowadays, this must be causing the Secret Service headdaches, too.
He could completely unravel. This could be bad. At least let him have brickbreaker or whatever stupid game is on his blackberry. Or let him *think* he's emailing someone. Do something about this! If it were me, I'd be abdicating or whatever it is president elects do to say NFW.
@GirlyWhirl: To a little server owned by the Secret Service. They can assign a couple of people to "write" him back and be his "friends". They can discuss newspaper stories and the latest music and culture with him!
@Xylo: They could use people in the witness protection program. It would be sweet. They could IM and LOL all day long. Barack would be soothed by it and not all balled up in a corner crying like I am when my bb goes down.
@JLynRedux: Awww. All kidding aside, I have confidence that Barry will be able to figure out this "national security-need to be a regular guy" algorithm. And he should be discussing these issues with the Secret Service; the Imperial Presidency concept has to be junked. He's not the king, he's the Chief Executive Officer of a gigantic non-profit organization; he has to know what the people in the cafeteria and the mailroom are thinking.
It is admirable that O. craves info and interaction from beyond a tight circle of sycophantic yes-people. This is the opposite of George W. Bush, who was more than happy having Rove and Cheney tell him every day what was "in the papers" and what "the people were sayin'."
Agreed. One of the reason he's so smart is that he has a broad awareness of what is going on with people, the country, the world. Why try and limit his perspective? It's part of his intelligence.
[[Diana Owen, who leads the American Studies program at Georgetown University, said presidents were not advised to use e-mail because of security risks and fear that messages could be intercepted.
"They could come up with some bulletproof way of protecting his e-mail and digital correspondence, but anything can be hacked," said Ms. Owen, who has studied how presidents communicate in the Internet era. "The nature of the president's job is that others can use e-mail for him."]] NYT
@Joe_Welcome: But do other high-profile government officials use email and are there similar security risks for them? Like, I would imagine the Cabinet and Pentagon to have loads of hack-worthy email correspondence just waiting to fall into the hands of the Chinese or whoever, but we don't hear about these people being forbidden from using email.
10/18/09
10/18/09
We do not watch tightrope walkers to see them be successful. It's the potential spectacle of failure that draws us in. #djam
10/18/09
If you start with the basic assumption that many of these people have encountered and dealt with addicts before (e.g. his manager who also manages Eminem, a man who has admitted drug problems), his show and death become a clusterfuck of malfeasance.
The thing that I find most egregious about the way the people around DJ AM present this is that they act as if there were no signs even though his therapist, his manager, and all these other people are talking about how he started sweating while holding a crackpipe.
How do you witness that and not apply the brakes? #djam
10/18/09
10/18/09
Having him pick up a crack pipe? Over the line, clearly. He was a crack addict and not fairing too well. Just looking
10/18/09
10/18/09
I don't know...I feel like people could have seen this coming if they gave any thought whatsoever to Goldstein's mental health. Didn't anyone at MTV ever think about how the plane crash could have affected him emotionally? Not to mention the high probability that pain meds could have a destabilizing effect on a former addict? #djam
10/18/09
10/18/09
10/18/09
I never felt for the guy before this particulary story, but it hits home in a lot of ways and reminds me of people I've lost. You shouldn't treat the overcoming of addiction like a vacation from the drugs or the alcohol, something that you can eventually return to if you feel better and "can control" yourself; you should treat it like a death, something that is removed and gone and buried. Watching people return once they're "better" only to fall apart again is an accepted part of (eventual) recovery, but on the flipside it can also lead to horrific death, and I just think considering where we're at as a society, and how damning addiction has become, we should be trying, even as television networks, to help one another out. Having viewers is useless if a chunk of them end up dead because of misinformation via clever editing about the recurrence of addiction. #djam
10/18/09
Does that make any sense? I'm trying to write comments during commercials for Desperate Housewives *cough gay cough*, so I'm not sure if I'm explaining things adequately.
10/19/09
10/19/09
10/18/09
Well said, Foster. Overall, I thought the NYT article captured that feeling.
This analogy, however, felt off to me:
"'If you want to stay monogamous with your wife, don’t get into a hotel room alone with a woman — even if you’re only in there to fix her Wi-Fi. It’s not a good idea,'" [a family medicine doctor with a specialty in addiction] said. #djam
10/18/09
10/18/09
10/18/09
-"I'm here to fix your Wi-Fi."
-"Come on in. I was just in the shower." #djam
10/18/09
10/18/09
10/18/09
11/27/08
Blame it on those igloo Canadians for inventing it. It's a national epidemic, eh?
11/27/08
11/26/08
Unless there's some other law I'm not familiar with I don't see where the problem is, legally speaking.
11/26/08
Barry: im s0 1337 taht i pwn ur ss @ss n00bs! W00t LOLZ!!!11!
11/27/08
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11/26/08
That would be sweet. "Simulated emailing" just so he stays in shape for after his presidency and jumps back into the game.
11/26/08
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11/26/08
Agreed. One of the reason he's so smart is that he has a broad awareness of what is going on with people, the country, the world. Why try and limit his perspective? It's part of his intelligence.
Let the man keep his damn Blackberry.
11/26/08
[[Diana Owen, who leads the American Studies program at Georgetown University, said presidents were not advised to use e-mail because of security risks and fear that messages could be intercepted.
"They could come up with some bulletproof way of protecting his e-mail and digital correspondence, but anything can be hacked," said Ms. Owen, who has studied how presidents communicate in the Internet era. "The nature of the president's job is that others can use e-mail for him."]] NYT
11/26/08
11/26/08