[adduncan]

Cheers to Star Jones - standing up for GLOs. She dropped a hint to which D9 GLO she belongs to, but didn't say the letters. I wont' either, out of respect for the org, but she went toe-to-toe w/ Barbara Walters. Which leads me to......

Jeers to Barbara Walters. "I'm totally against sororities." That says it all right there. Closed mind, locked door, moving on to the next one.

The first interviewer (forget her name) pressed her for specific facts, but that last for about 60 seconds of this 5-6 minute feature. For the most part, her "findings" were accepted as gospel w/out challenge. Also picked on the the NPC orgs for wanting to maintain their privacy and prevent dishonest people from poking around their org. I wouldn't be suprised if the "rape coverup" Robbins mentioned was the V's. Funny how that Houston courtroom apology didn't factor into this discussion.

More negatives: reinforcing divisions between "historically white" and "historically black" GLOs. We have enough race relations problems in this country, we don't need any more wedges driven.

Big negative: Bawbwa Walters was all too happy to make sure each and every person in the audience got a free copy of the book.

I realized why talk features like this are a problem: the information is dropped quickly, then the topic shifts suddenly. This way, there is no time for the viewer to critically analyze or ask questions of what was presented. Education via advertising.

Bottom line, same script, different day. No real suprises.

ETA - this reminds me of a Life Magazine article I found on Ebay that was printed in the 1950s. It was a 4-page feature called "Sororities: A Growing Social Problem." Same criticisms of the NPC, same claims of "investigation., same "inside story" of the recruitment (then: rush) process. Ever since the NPC orgs were founded there has been hostility against them. I guess beating off the Philistines at the gates is going to be business as usual always.

--add