The Corsair
2022 Corsair Pirate Awards, Part 1. For the next two weeks, I am awarding Pirates to the Best and Worst Media, Culture and Political Figures of 2022
Worst Candidate of 2022 Pirate Award: Herschel Walker. First off — there were no werewolves in the 1985 film “Fright Night.” It was a film about vampires in their various fictional forms. Let’s put that one to rest once and for all. That having been said, I have no idea what film Georgia Senate candidate and horror cinephile Herschel Walker was talking about in that rally. Former President Obama — a skilled forensic infighter on behalf of Raphael Warnock skewered the former Heisman trophy winner. “Since the last time I was here, Mr. Walker has been talking about issues that are of great importance to the people of Georgia,” Obama said at the rally. “Like whether it’s better to be a vampire or a werewolf.”
The former President continued in a positively citric manner: “This is a debate that I must confess I once had myself … when I was 7. Then I grew up.” That’s the night, dear reader, that the lights went out in Georgia. Herschel Walker, probably thoroughly embarrassed by entire sloppy proceedings, conceded almost immediately on election night. And we are all now trying, like Herschel, to put that hot mess of an Atlanta dumpster fire behind us …
Time to Retire: Former Governor Charlie Crist. For more than twenty years Charlie Crist has been running, sprinting, relaying and sometimes just jogging for any position of power in the state of Florida. But there is a sense of morbid finality in his resounding defeat by Ron De Santis. This new, scarlet red Florida, with an unofficial capitol at Mar a Lago, no longer seems a state of centrist republicans, or democrats or independents — or whatever it is that Charlie Crist is, actually. A twenty point loss to De Santis when Crist has basically a hundred percent name recognition in the state is the clearest signal that it is time to collect on that well-earned government pension and catch some rays on the beach. Gag him with a fork, chef, Charlie’s done.
Best Podcast of 2022: Rachel Maddow’s Ultra. This year, podcasts finally and truly came of age. If the COVID years provided the medium with an enthusiastic, if captive audience, it was the intervening years that allowed some of the masters of the craft to perfect their Art. Of all the podcasts I’ve listened to, Rachel Maddow’s Ultra won the year. “So you make it about 23 minutes into the episode, feeling like you’re in Amelia Earhart and D.B. Cooper territory, when finally you start to realize what you’re actually doing there: Of COURSE this business about Senator Lundeen and the mysterious plane crash was apparently somehow related to a Nazi agent infiltrating Congress as part of a plot to overthrow the US government,” Joe Pompeo wrote in Vanity Fair. Ultra is an eight-episode series about a Nazi agent in the U.S. who colluded with members of Congress to overthrow the government in the leadup to World War II. Yesterday it was announced that Maddow is partnering with Stephen Spielberg to bring the story, with obvious allusions to the January 6th Insurrection, to the screen. To paraphrase Marx, history repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as episodic podcast. Runner up: Tom Scharpling’s The Best Show.
Most Shocking Moment of 2022: The Slap. On that night at The Oscars in March, Bobyrigmous was the sense of confusion — was this a part of the ceremony? Chris Rock is, after all, a comedian, so — was this all for comic effect? It took roughly a day for the truth to come out, so skilled was Rock as a presenter in glossing over what must have been a very uncomfortable moment in his professional career. Bad News: He had indeed been bitch-slapped in front of a billion people. Good news: His next comedy special will belong to the highest bidder. Of the Slap I wrote in March:
Chris Rock will more than survive the slap heard round the world – he will thrive. It should be added that Rock continued the presentation, barely missing a beat, even after the slap. He made a very poor joke, to be sure, but he handled the aftermath like a man. Further, it must be added that Rock acquitted himself elegantly, declining to file a police report after the incident, even though he could not have been happy about being bitch-slapped on an international broadcast. He was, of course, the talk of the after parties.
Chris Rock clearly does not see himself as a victim, and Progressives really shouldn’t either. Quite the contrary. Chris Rock is about to become the subject of a remarkable speculative bidding war for the rights to his next comedy special, where he discusses the incident, at comedic length, whether for Netflix or for HBOMax or for Amazon or for Hulu or what-have-you. Chris Rock is about to become a very, very rich and celebrated comedian – even richer and more celebrated than he already was the day before the Oscar ceremony.
And I stand by those words.
Media Mystery of the Year: What Happened to Tiffany Cross? It has been several months after the fact and we still don’t have a clear answer as to what the hell was actually behind the network’s decision to let go Tiffany Cross. The move blindsided everyone because the ratings were fine. “After all, the show drew an average of more than 600,000 last month, according to Nielsen, though it captured fewer viewers than its time-slot rivals on Fox News and CNN,” wrote Brian Steinberg at Variety.
Cross, one of the few African-Americans with a show on the network, was popular in black media circles. It is said that morale dropped at the network over all; after the firing. And Black Twitter — particularly the popular actress Yvette Nicole Brown — have been brutal on the network and it’s President in particular.
What makes this story even more complicated and confusing is that she was let go by MSNBC President Rashida Jones, the first African-American president of the Progressive network. Jones has been doing damage control for as long as the story has been out, to little avail. And the lack of a clear narrative as to what happened continues to unnerve. Cross is taking the high road of relative silence on the matter, while anonymous sources at MSNBC are leaking mean-spirited accounts, which amount, imho, to naught. But what actually happened that led to that strange, unpopular decision that resonates to this day through Black Twitter remains shrouded in … mystery.
Biden launches 'China House' to compete with Beijing's global influence. (SEMAFOR)
Multiple Prominent Journalists Suspended by Twitter as Elon Musk Cracks Down (THR)
2022 as you saw it on Wikipedia. (Ed Erhart)
2022: The Year of the Implosion. (VF)
“Furthermore, media coverage of Musk works in much the same way that the deluge of Trump stories once did.” (Laura Miller/Slate)
How Asia found herself. (WSJ)
What the Paris Review staff read in 2023. (Paris Review)
Heroin is so passé. (The Dandy Warhols)