NOTE: I have no idea why I saved this as a draft and never published it live, but here ’tis.
My friend Emil Guillermo has a solid piece about Chen’s surgery that chides Chen for selling out to “the man” and getting the surgery.
I know a lot of people think that way, but I’m not so sure it’s as easy as that, especially if you were in the news field almost two decades ago.
It’s easy for us to stand in judgement today, but imagine if you really had the most powerful agent in the industry agreeing with the dumbass news director from a small-market station, and telling you you need surgery if you want to climb the markets and get to New York as a network anchor.
I applaud Chen for going through such tribulations early in her career, and even more so for going public with it all today.
Thanks for re-posting. In my piece, my real objection to Julie Chen’s surgery is not that she had it done so much but that she missed an opportunity to expose the racist attitudes that were prevalent in the news business. You could sue, or you go along to get along. Chen made a choice. She didn’t just go along, she had “self-improvement” surgery, which is as extreme as it gets racially. Few of us every see racism so blatantly.When someone wears a “SUE ME” T-shirt and you don’t do anything about it, it’s far worse than just personally selling out. There was an opportunity to help everyone understand the racism. Instead, she left it for an activist to handle another day, if that person ever shows up. But what does a careerist care about community, society and civil rights. She got where she wanted to be. And look at all the people who admire her and say, “Go Julie!” And now she uses it because she wants ratings? I guess she didn’t have an anorexia or a drug problem she thought could both pull ratings and community sympathy in quite the same way as claiming her secret “victimhood.” Stay in touch Gil. Thanks for posting your thoughts.
Good points…. Likewise, Emil, keep up the good work.