Ken Burns: An Accurate Reproduction of an Image or Leaving Out A Group?

The Ken Burns documentary "The War" (http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/ny-fftv5382202sep23,0,2620347.story) is an interesting example of "Everybody matters." When stories came out about World War II, they mainly focused on the white male who left home at a young age and how he either returned home or didn't. But, in this documentary, Burns has been criticized for leaving out the Latinos who fought in the war. He did add a couple of shots that showed pictures of the Latino soldies in the war, but what I find puzzling is that Burns is the one taking the heat for something that previous films and documentaries didn't have to face nearly as much for making a film about something from 60 years ago. If Burns was making a film about the Iraq war and leaving out diversity, I could understand the criticism, but on this topic we are making somewhat uninformed conclusions as to how predominant each ethnic group was in WWII.
Now, that having been said, we have to realize that "Everybody matters." I think that instead of attacking this documentary for not featuring enough Latinos, it would be much more powerful to have a documentary that only featured Latinos from the war. From an outsider's perspective, I just don't see how one full scene in a documentary would make the Latino community any happier about Burns documentary. There would be a sentiment of "Why were we only in one scene?" However, if the Latinos from the war were featured in, say, half the documentary, it would be an inaccurate portrayal of the war. So why not have a program that featured just the Latinos from the war? For one, we would learn much more about their story than we would from one scene in Burns documentary, and we wouldn't be hearing the same old story that every WWII documentary has.

Disability Stereotypes

In the media, news coverage hasn't established very many stereotypes about people with disabilities that come across to me as negative. That's not to say they aren't out there, and I am not saying I'm the expert on the subject, but if I sit and think about it, I can't think of anything that news coverage does that portrays people with disabilities negatively, which may mean they are under-covered. The only example I can think of is in the form of autism, where kids with autism are portrayed as smart kids who have good physical ability, but can't function well with other children. I'm not sure if that stereotype is correct or not, but that seems to be the constant story that the news feeds. Mass media, on the other hand, is a much different story.
In mass media, there are more stereotypes about disabilities that keep popping up. The most popular has been for people who are handicapped, specifically people in wheelchairs. In the mid to late 1990s, there were two movies that created the stereotype that people who are in wheelchairs are grumpy and think everyone else's problems are miniscule compared to theirs. They were put across as rude and out of line. In "There's Something About Mary," Ben Stiller helped his boss move into his new apartment. His boss, who was in a wheelchair, had Stiller carry ridiculously large pieces of furniture, while hounding him for complaining about the items being too heavy. In "The Big Lebowski," Jeff Bridges, who plays Jeffrey Lebowski, meets a man of the same name who is in a wheelchair. The second Lebowski talks about how he was able to accomplish twice as much as normal men without the use of his legs and no one can understand that.
I don't know that the stereotype is completely true or false. I have met some people in wheelchairs who fit the stereotype, but several more who don't. However, it's true that you meet rude people everywhere you go, so I don't think it's a stereotype that they are fitting into. The new stereotype has been the one by Joe in "Family Guy," who is handicapped, but good-natured about it. The show does go over the line with his handicapped jokes sometimes, but his character in the show is a good friend who has strong values and lives a normal life. The critics of his character can say what they want, but would they rather have Joe be who he is or see him as Jeffrey Lebowski?

Playing a little catch up on the blogs this week, after this they will be updated once a week as planned.
When I get news, I will either go online (almost always CNN.com) or I'll turn on MSNBC on the television. I have found that if I take the time to read up on a story in the newspaper, I get too aggravated if I sense too much of a liberal or conservative twist on the story from the writer's perspective. If I only read the headlines before it gets too in depth, I'm more likely to form my own opinions about the story before it gets too watered down or too twisted.
I usually only get the news when it's an out of the ordinary story. My top 3 I can think of in recent memory, in no particular order, are Hurricane Katrina, the Virginia Tech shooting, and Steve Irwin being killed by a stingray. I'll glance at CNN once or twice a week, but I don't turn the news on and leave it on. I'll probably get into it around July of next year when the presidential race is finally narrowing down into two candidates. I am sure the reason I avoid the news so much is because both of my parents can sit around the television for hours just watching the news, and by the time they're done, I don't get to hear their views on anything, just their news anchor's opinions instead. So, I usually try to avoid the news, but I will check it out occasionally.
As far as news media towards different races, genders, sexualities, and disabilities goes, I think it varies. It's amazing that whole groups of people could be left out, like Native Americans. We only live an hour from Oklahoma, home to several Native American tribes and nations, but the only thing most of us know about those tribes is what casinos they own. One problem that contributes to the polarization between white America and the Hispanic, Latino, Mexican, and South American communities is that the media fails to differentiate between the different groups. There is usually an umbrella term, which seems to switch between Hispanic and Latino depending on what a style book decides is correct that year. Even if I don't tune in that much, I tune in enough to see that there's a problem.