Sun 12 Oct 2008
One of Israel’s leading news portals, Walla.co.il, has posted a poll at the entry page for it’s culture section. This is a screen shot of the October 12th culture section page:
And here is the poll, appearing on the bottom left, enlarged:
The poll question, in Hebrew, is this: Who will portray Obama in the movie that will be produced about his assassination?
The options are: Jamie Foxx, Denzel Washington, Will Smith, Mos Def or Chris Rock.
Although it’s clear that this poll was put up humorously and intended as a jest (before the Secret Service storms Walla’s offices I must say, in their defense, that I know some the editors and writers there, and that they are liberal clowns, not hate filled zealots) I for one got the chills from it’s matter-of-fact tone. I couldn’t quite decide if this is bad taste incarnate, or a glib way to say something that they fear of or just a macabre joke - clowning both America’s trigger happy racism and Hollywood’s money-starved grave-robbery - done badly and ill-timed.
And in case you were wondering, as of posting time, 197 people voted in the poll. 28% of them chose Will Smith, 27% picked Denzel Washington.
What do you think?
And this is my poll:






October 12th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
I say it’s appalling, and as for it being a grim joke about the American propensity for violence, I would think that following the events of the holiday weekend, and the dispiriting light they shed on the violence and bigotry that run through our culture, we might hesitate before pointing fingers at others.
October 13th, 2008 at 7:08 am
how weird. my husband and I watched the news last night, i guess it was channel 10 or something, and i just turned to him and said (not for the first time, of course) “they’ll kill him, the only question is will it be before or after he’s chosen as president”. I think what walla did was in very poor taste, this is no joking matter. there is something glib and silly about it, but not cute silly - downright stupid silly.
October 13th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
[…] doesn’t seem to make sense. And yet, from Israel’s top Web site idly wondering who will play Obama in the movie about his killing, to general worry that his opponent is […]