In the latest attempt by elected officials to reach America’s youth, the House Judiciary Committee has posted a critique of Barack Obama’s immigration stance that relies heavily on gifs of young white celebrities.
The press release features images of actors and pop stars – including Emma Stone, Britney Spears and Jennifer Lawrence – alongside comments accusing the president of not enforcing immigration law.
The National Council of La Raza, a Latino civil rights advocacy group, asked “Has the House Judiciary Committee Majority Lost its Mind?” in a blog post responding to the content of what it described as an “asinine ‘press release’”.
“On the odd chance that you’re looking for a case study in how to ignore facts and turn a heartbreaking situation for millions of American families into a juvenile BuzzFeed rip-off, you’re in luck,” NCLR said in the post.
Along with concerns over trivializing a key political issue, questions have also been raised about the decision to use a gif of The Little Mermaid’s main character Ariel because she is from “under the sea”.
The Washington Post’s The Fix blog concluded that under existing immigration laws, which the president is enforcing, “coming to the United States would be difficult for Ariel”.”
There is also an ironic twist in the judiciary committee using the images that are primarily sourced from popular films and television shows, wrote ZDNet blogger David Gewirtz. He said these images tread the line of fair-use and could be seen as copyright violations. This, by the committee that oversees copyright law.
Gewirtz also pointed out that many of the members of the Judiciary committee are the same people who sponsored the maligned Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) – which sought to give the government more power to take illegal content off the internet. Bill sponsors included current House Judiciary Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte and members Lamar Smith, Steven Chabot, John Conyers, Judy Chu and Ted Deutch.
It is the second time this year that the House has employed pop culture gifs to challenge the Obama administration’s plans. Staffers for Speaker John Boehner – the top ranking member of the House – used Taylor Swift gifs to criticize Obama’s plan to provide free community college to Americans in January.
“Does that mean he intends to try to pay for his ‘free’ plan with a tax increase on millions of Americans?” Boehner’s staffers ask in the post. The response: An image of Taylor Swift repeatedly striking a vintage car with a golf club in her music video for Blank Space.
Source: The Guardian
