This is the first in a series of posts where I will attempt to distill what I am learning about journalism. I have been given a lot to chew on (and put into practice) lately, and I feel I should document my ruminations. Forthcoming posts should address the tribalizing effects of the internet, the trend towards hyperlocality in news coverage, citizen journalism and the virtues of the E D I T O R.
But first, something fun.
The Yes Men are my journalistic heroes, and the reasons should be obvious.
The Yes Men are fine, upstanding impersonators. They have traversed the world pretending to be what they’re not: Republican supporters of corporate globalization and U.S. domination of world trade. Some call it lying; others call it identity theft; I call it civic performance art. Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonnano are concerned citizens who don costumes and then unmask their ideological opponents. They have perfected the hoax as protest, enlisting others along the way. Maybe you saw some Yes Men giving guided tours of New York city to Republican National Convention attendees. They were the ones outside the Metropolitan Detention Center proudly explaining that some have been held there for two years, without evidence, until proved innocent.
Bichlbaum and Bonnano first collaborated to create www.gatt.org, a mock-up of the World Trade Organization’s official website. The design closely mimics that of the real site, but the content reveals the hoax–primarily because it’s too honest. According to a November 2006 press release found on the site, the WTO announced an initiative for “full private stewardry of labor” in Africa. Private stewardship has, after all, been “successfully” extended to water, electricity, and DNA. WTO representative Hanniford Schmidt (who bears a striking resemblance to Bichlbaum) said that “full, untrammeled stewardry is:the inevitable result of free-market theory.” If only the real WTO was as forthright as Schmidt, who acknowledged “what free trade’s all about: the freedom to buy and sell anything–even people.”
The Yes Men are helping institutions like the WTO to be more honest; or maybe they’re just helping the world to be more perceptive. Either way they’re doing it with a sense of humor. Upon first glance, I thought cargillcorporate.com* might really belong to the multinational agriculture and pharmaceutical corporation. The design is clean and the language has that direct and personable tone so common to big businesses trying to come off as small. Then I saw a photograph of two mustached men that reminded me of Brokeback Mountain. The caption reads: “We provide a beefier beef to those with a beef against organic beef–some cowboys, for example.” The calling card of The Yes Men!
It’s this precision detail combined with over-the-top humor that makes The Yes Men so fascinating. They create masterful disguises and then, in one foul swoop, unmask both impersonators and impersonated. Just because they show all their cards, though, doesn’t mean everyone catches on. They have posed as “the world’s most powerful criminals” (their words) at conventions and seminars, in college classrooms and on television. Never have they failed to convince their audience and rarely has the audience challenged their often heinous proposals. And as each prank passes, The Yes Men are emboldened to speak with more frankness than before.
In the extensive FAQ section of their website, Bichlbaum and Bonnano describe their characterizations and speeches as “WTO dogma carried through to conclusions that are better left unstated in polite company.” At a seminar in Austria, The Yes Men suggested banning Spanish siestas and accused the Italians of having a poor work ethic. They also proposed a free-market democracy, where votes are bought and sold online to the highest bidders. Unfortunately, most of their listeners nodded passively, or agreed, demonstrating just how entrenched neoliberal illogic really is.
When asked why they call themselves The Yes Men, Bichlbaum and Bonnano responded, “You know how a funhouse mirror exaggerates your most hideous features? We do that kind of exaggeration operation, but with ideas. We agree with people–turning up the volume on their ideas as we talk, until they can see their ideas distorted in our funhouse mirror. Or that’s what we try to do, anyhow–but as it turns out, the image always seems to look normal to them.” Also like a funhouse mirror, the image of reality that The Yes Men reflect is both comical and frightening. We may be laughing at their golden suit with its three-foot phallus, but we’re also shaking our heads in horror at the men and women who swallow their outrageous presentations without thinking.
Maybe it’s effective, but isn’t it illegal to parade around as someone else, penetrating private events? Perhaps; no one seems to know. Lawyers have difficulty pointing to any specific law that might pin The Yes Men for criminal activity. The WTO–the most frequent target of their projects–once retaliated by calling them “deplorable.” That’s about the worst of it, and the free publicity only benefited The Yes Men. Most victims simply let the hoax pass, hoping it will fade from public memory. To respond is to risk further ridicule. The Yes Men justify their tactics by claiming, “The news is already full of hoaxes; the only reason ours stand out is that we don’t do them for profit.” Indeed, their deception is noble; it’s “identity correction,” not identity theft.
The Yes Men advertise “hundreds of thousands of job openings,” and this is no joke. A Yes Man, they proclaim, is anyone who exposes “the nastiness of powerful evildoers.” As Bichlbaum and Bonnano’s faces become more recognizable, they rely on a growing network of pranksters and activists to step up to the plate. All it takes is a little imagination, a little prodding from your friends, and a rush of adrenaline to agree your way into the private world of business. We’ve all heard the song and seen the dance; we know the routine by heart. It doesn’t take much to imitate your way into a corporate luncheon and return with some shaming behind-the-scenes stories to share with you family, your friends, or the press.
Continue reading ‘Lesson #1: The Yes Men’
I think Whir contains the (opposing and complimentary) perspectives of youth and age. Both are commanded to choose an identity, to make a name–one from the crushing promise of the future, one from the fat and drifting past. Yet neither one actually has a choice; their identities are tied to the inevitable and inexplicable. The recently born belong to their birthing grounds. The soon-to-be-dead self belongs to the moment. Each can pass the time wincing at the sharpness, the clarity, of life without option. Life, that is, with only immensity.
Life is painful. The years are unnavigable. But we can also craft a poem and hear this voice come through. A voice that joins the poles. A voice that marvels.
