moby teeth and the media circus

Yesterday was full of distractions, not least the developing story of country singer Toby Keith uncorking on my friend and former Tennessean colleague Peter Cooper in the press room of the ACM Awards on Sunday night. Music, an irate egomaniac and journalism ethics in one story!? My kind of thing. For background, read this account of the tongue-lashing from CMT.com, but it began with a major story in the new Rolling Stone by actor Ethan Hawke about his hero Kris Kristofferson...

The remarkable lead of this huge career profile recounts a story from about six years ago in which an unnamed country star (described so he could only be Keith) is alleged to have made a perfect ass of himself to Kristofferson, only to have Kristofferson verbally smack down the cocky Keith in front of Willie Nelson, Ray Charles and others. If true, it would be starkly humiliating for TK, and many of us read it as such with a bit of gleeful schadenfreude. 

Peter wrote a heads-up item in the celebrity news column of the paper that repeated the details of the incident with the humorous twist of noting that it seemed that mystery artist could only be somebody whose name rhymed with Moby Teeth. And Keith, presumably because he ran into Cooper before Hawke (who was NOT covering the ACM Awards), unleashed his bile on Cooper (for ten minutes in the ACM press conference) for "super-sizing" the story, as if the Tennessean is bigger and more influential than Rolling Stone.

This would be boring if it was just Keith being a blowhard. Nothing new about that. But I'm concerned that amid all the rip-and-read accounts of the story metastasizing on the web, none of them have dealt with the core question: Did the incident happen or did Rolling Stone let Hawke get away with embellishment and/or fiction and hide behind not using Keith's name?  Kristofferson kind of threw Cooper and Hawke under the bus by issuing a statement early in the day that he didn't REMEMBER the incident, which much of the media took to mean Keith was vindicated. Critically, however a source close to Kristofferson says A) Kris himself told the story of the dispute to multiple people right after it happened and B) his memory at 73 is frankly terrible. Keith says it was 100% false, which is hard to believe given it means Hawke (who was reporting first hand having been there that night) made up an excruciating tale that could well be libelous for the magazine. RS has issued a statement saying it stands behind the story, but it  hasn't offered a corroborating account or disclosed its fact-checking on the story.

As for Peter Cooper, he's a brave and hearty soul. Keith upbraided him for not checking the story or quoting him in his recapitulation. An interesting question, but Cooper's in the clear. Had he been writing a reported profile of Keith, using the RS anecdote without verification would have been awful. But the paper's celebrity news column frequently quotes stories dropping in other publications to alert Nashville about what's being said about whom. One is entitled I think in cases like this to assume Rolling Stone did its due dilligence. But I very much wonder if they did here, seduced by the growing appeal of celebrity journalists. How did Hawke remember the original incident anyway? Did he keep notes? Was he constructing it from memory? And how inclined would RS be to tell its very famous "journalist" that his splashy lead didn't hold up to rigorous scrutiny.

I want to know more, but it would be just like the modern entertainment media to 1. Get the original story wrong, 2. Cover the celebrity eruption that resulted without gathering more fact, and 3. Forget the whole thing and move on to some other ego eruption.

Comments

[Ken Tucker]

Well done, Craig. I've been in the ACM press room the last three years and Toby has never come back, so I have to wonder if he came back specifically to rail on Peter Cooper. He may have been coming back to talk about his film award, as the CMT blog suggests, or he may have had Cooper's column on his mind. His conversation with Melinda Newman suggests he came looking for Cooper http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/2008-12-6-the-beat-goes-on/posts/2009-4-5-exclusive-toby-keith-looks-for-a-showdown.

[Peter Cooper]

Hold on, Craig? Are you insinuating that The Tennessean is NOT bigger and more influential than Rolling Stone? Oh, we're going to have it out. You have messed with the REAL Big Dog Daddy.
Kidding, of course, though certain folks don't appreciate the humor thing. I knew full well that Toby was coming back, and that he was coming back to rail on me. Film award had nothing to do with it. Not sure why he was madder at me than at Rolling Stone or Ethan Hawke, but there ya go. Mostly, I think he wanted to turn the deal into a WWF event. As for whether he actually came "looking for Cooper," I had offered to meet him in private earlier in the day, but he wanted to do all of that in front of the press. More people to write about it that way.
I do want to say that Kris in no way tried to throw me under the bus. He is a wonderful guy, and he called me on Monday to talk about this whole silly deal. I would endure a thousand Moby Teeth tongue-lashings in exchange for one listen to "Here Comes That Rainbow Again" or "Sunday Morning Coming Down." Kris tried to calm the whole situation down.
In the end, I get to be famous for a day (hey, folks, if you're reading this, my SUPER SWEET duo album with Eric Brace is climbing the HIGHLY INFLUENTIAL Americana charts), Toby gets to be the lead story at an awards show at which he didn't win an award, and Kris Kristofferson released a statement in which he said we were friends. I just wish I hadn't worn my cowboy boots to the awards show. Next time, running shoes.
-Peter Cooper

[Ken Tucker]

Thanks for telling your side, Peter. It confirms a lot of what I was thinking.