MEDIA RARE

"The boyfriend who doesn't want you makes you want him more."

Ellen Fox

May 11, 2000

Have you ever been part of a press horde? It's just like in the movies: the camera guys stand around before the action starts, the TV reporters dangle their microphones, the photographers wear those multi-pocketed vests. Everybody acts like an old hand, but it's all very self-conscious. The kid from AP sports a fedora and a trench coat.

This is what the public must see as the monolithic media with a capital "M" -- and despite all our fawning, Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, in town to do a radio show at the ESPN Zone, seems as wary of us as he is of the two-party system:

How can young people be sure your straight-talking personality isn't just another gimmick? "I think it's the fact that they can tell that I'm not rehearsed."

What do you think of the new golden dollar depicting Sacagawea? "Who's that?" She's the Native American teen who helped Lewis and Clark. "Oh, uh-huh. Well, our Lewis and Clark graduated." What? "See, you threw one at me, so I'll throw one back at you," he counters proudly, explaining his reference to some University of Minnesota basketball stars.

What do you think of the Elian thing? "This is a no-brainer. The boy belongs with his father," he explains. "It's dragged on because the media drags it on. I've actually had people wanting O.J. back."

This gets Ventura on a roll, and he spends much of the remaining time razzing the press when he's both on and off the radio (which, I suppose, he does not construe to be part of the Media).

"I'm gonna educate you, Chicago media. That was a joke, joke, joke!!!!" he warns after telling us he couldn't run for office in Chicago because he's not good at getting graveyard votes.

"They always love to stir it up. They always love to take a quote, and try to create," he starts again. "Oh, I'll tell ya, these media people, they're all jealous of me. They're jealous of me because I've never had one formal day of writing and yet I have a New York Times bestseller and they don't!"

We all laugh like old hands at that one. Before he leaves, he's on the air again, plugging what just may be his next bestseller: "I Stand Alone: Going to the Mat Against the Two-Party System and the Media Jackals."

None of this deters us jackals from following him out in a herd for his Michigan Avenue walking tour. "That's part of the appeal," a PR woman offered. "The boyfriend who doesn't want you makes you want him more." (05/11/2000)