Mr. Basile showed further vision, by not only permitting the Reproducing 
these articles to I-A Internet Lists, but Transmits them, so we don't have to 
go "digging" for them and "retyping" them. A gracious I-A community service!  

"Media Watch"/ Jim Scalzitti reports on initial infractions.

"Sempre Avanti"/ Bill Dal Cerro reports on meaningful responses by the 
activist community to those infractions

Editor Paul Basile states: "In order to qualify for Bill’s column, the 
response has to rise above mere press releases and scattered e-mails, and 
involve some form of organized protest — e-mail or letter-writing campaigns, 
press conferences, face-to-face meetings, etc. — and/or some kind of positive 
or negative response from the offending party". 

"In recent months, Jim’s columns have been getting longer and longer and 
Bill’s columns have been getting shorter and shorter, which means that we are 
experiencing a flood of infractions and a famine of meaningful responses. How 
about putting your heads together and giving the offenders a run for their 
money?!"

This message will transmit this month's "Media Watch"  column by Jim Scalzitti,
a following message will transmit the "Sempre Avanti" column by  Bill Dal 
Cerro. 

Scalzitti's column covers:
(1)  LET'S ALL GO TO "SOPRANOS STREET"!
(2)  LOVE US/HATE US
(3)  HE REALLY LIKES US
(4)   “ANALYZE” YOURSELF
(5)  MONEY MATTERS    
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MEDIA WATCH
by James Scalzitti

LET'S ALL GO TO "SOPRANOS STREET"!

“Hi, boys and girls! Today’s letters are ‘F’ and ‘U’. ‘F,’ ‘U.’ Can you 
say that, boys and girls? I can say that: It’s easy! Listen to me say it: 
F-U. There, isn’t learning the alphabet fun? Now don’t go anywhere, because 
next, we’re going to show you how to whack someone.” What’s gotten into 
Jimmy, you may be asking, once again? Well, I was just wondering what would 
happen when Edie Falco, otherwise known as the person who plays Tony 
Soprano’s wife on the HBO show “The Sopranos,” shows up to host “Sesame 
Street” this month. No, I am not making this up. One of the stars of the 
show, whose characters have the foulest mouths and the most violent natures 
on TV, is going to host the season premiere of “Sesame Street” on PBS on 
Feb. 2. What could she possibly be there to teach the children who watch this 
show, and what on earth were the folks at PBS thinking when they booked her? 

Let’s pretend for a moment, that “The Sopranos” is not an evil show that 
perpetuates untrue ethnic stereotypes. Let’s pretend that we’re among that 
group of people who enjoy “The Sopranos,” who say that “it’s well-acted” 
and “it’s the best thing on TV.” Great: If you love the show so much, have 
its actors host “Saturday Night Live,” not “Sesame Street.” What is it 
saying to the children who watch the show, that its producers have let one of 
“The Sopranos” host the season premiere? I’m not entirely sure what happens 
when kids watch “Sesame Street,” but I can imagine that the kids might say 
to their parents, “Mommy, daddy, who’s that lady?” I know if someone whom I 
was not familiar with turned up hosting one of my favorite shows, I would 
want to know who that person was. So what will their parents tell them? “That 
lady is on a show that mommy and daddy don’t want you to watch.” Imagine the 
mayhem that will ensue in homes across the country when parents tell their 
kids that they can’t watch “The Sopranos” and the kids then demand to watch 
the forbidden show. 

I admit that I’ve never watched a full episode of “Sesame Street,” but I 
have seen video clips, on PBS, in fact, of Nathan Lane, who’s currently in 
the Broadway production of “The Producers,” and I believe at another time, 
Luciano Pavarotti, singing with the “Sesame Street” characters when they 
hosted the show. I’m also pretty sure that “Sesame Street” has had its share 
of professional musicians host the show. But all of these people have been 
established musicians of some renown. Edie Falco is not a singer, musician or 
comedian, and she’s really only known for THAT SHOW, so what is her place on 
“Sesame Street”? 

Some people have made the suggestion that there may be a connection between 
“The Sopranos” and “Sesame Street” since AOL-Time Warner owns HBO, which 
produces “The Sopranos,” and AOL is also an underwriter of “Sesame Street.” 
I do not necessarily believe that, nor do I see how having Falco host “Sesame 
Street” would benefit HBO, since the audience for “Sesame Street” are 
children and the audience for “The Sopranos” are adults. Kids (I hope) are 
not the ones turning on HBO on Sunday nights nor are they the ones ordering 
HBO because they’ve heard the buzz about “The Sopranos.” It’s the parents 
who do these things. Now if the parents haven’t tuned in to “The Sopranos” 
already, since it’s been on for a couple of years, how will putting Edie 
Falco on “Sesame Street” convince them that they have to watch that show? I 
would think that by now, everyone who has a TV set has formed his or her 
opinion of “The Sopranos.” Maybe the people behind “Sesame Street” are part 
of that group of people who are enamored with the show and its characters. 
Many of these people, if they could, would love to get up-close and personal 
with a real-life mobster, but since most of these mobsters are in jail, the 
next best thing is to cuddle up to the fictional mobsters in “The Sopranos.” 

Italian-American activist Steve Antonuccio has very eloquently expressed his 
horror at the idea of Falco hosting “Sesame Street” in a letter which he 
sent to the staff of “Sesame Street,” as well as the Parents TV Council, 
located in Los Angeles. Antonuccio addressed the great inappropriateness of 
having someone who’s on a show which promotes violence, misogyny and racism 
host “Sesame Street.” 

 “I don’t know how you feel about the use of guns as a way for people to 
solve problems. I don’t think that is something you ever promoted on ‘Sesame 
Street.’ You have to go no further then the logo of ‘The Sopranos’ to get an 
idea where that show is coming from. Instead of the letter “R” in the word 
Soprano, the series producers have replaced it with a gun. The show very 
openly teaches young people that they can solve their problems with guns. 
Exceedingly violent, the show uses violence as a very effective tool to 
develop an audience. In almost every episode Italian Americans, primarily 
using guns, murder people in graphic detail and rarely find themselves in 
prison. In fact they are rewarded, honored and respected for their use of 
violence.

 “Even if you disagree with me that ‘The Sopranos’ is a racist and violent 
show, how about the misogyny? All the female characters on ‘The Sopranos’ 
are either evil, victims, or sexual objects. In the past season, by far the 
most violent of the three, David Chase features a woman graphically being 
raped, and in another incident, shows a pregnant stripper graphically being 
beaten to death. Now I am sure that there are people who watch that kind of 
behavior and are repulsed by it. I’m certainly one of them. But you and I 
both know there are also people who watch that kind of behavior and get off 
on it and try to duplicate it.

“The show features in almost every episode the Bad-a-Bing club, a strip club 
filled with women who are prostitutes and are exploited as sexual objects. 
This allows the producers to give their predominately male viewers plenty of 
gratuitous sex to watch. Now I don’t have a problem with nudity or sex, 
except when it is demeaning to women and gratuitous. Why do you want a 
misogynistic show associated with ‘Sesame Street,’ a program created by a 
woman and certainly a show that features the creative talents of many capable 
women? I would hate to have some young child flipping through the channels 
and then stopping on ‘The Sopranos’ because it has the same nice lady he or 
she saw on ‘Sesame Street.’ That is the message you are sending to children, 
the actors of ‘The Sopranos’ are to be respected, so why shouldn’t the show 
be respected as well.”

This brings up an interesting point. I wonder if it has ever crossed the 
minds of the producers of “Sesame Street” to call upon (when they were 
alive) gangsta rappers Tupac or Eazy-E, or Ice Cube, of “Cop Killer” fame. 
Why, they all have enjoyed quite a bit of popularity in segments of the 
popular culture, and they were singers, too, so they’ve got at least one more 
qualification to host the show than Edie or any of the other “Sopranos.” By 
the way, what’s next, the girls from “Sex in the City” visiting “Sesame 
Street”? Maybe they can call that episode “Sex on the Street.” 

Want to let the good people of “Sesame Street” know how you feel, write to 
them at Sesame Street Workshop, One Lincoln Plaza, New York, NY 10023, or 
e-mail Ellen Lewis, acting vice president of communications at 
Ellen.Lewis@sesameworkshop.org. And be nice: Remember, this is children’s 
programing we’re talking about!

LOVE US/HATE US 
On the last “live” Saturday Night Live broadcast of 2001, Rudy Giuliani made 
his final appearance as mayor of New York City. He chose, as his vehicle to 
say goodbye on the show, its “Weekend Update” segment. Giuliani acknowledged 
the thunderous applause of the crowd, as well as the fawning over him by the 
two “anchors” of “Weekend Update,” Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon. The segment 
was kind of goofy, but managed to convey the admiration that New Yorkers and 
all Americans have developed for Giuliani. However, it was less than 
gratifying to see that, less than a minute or two before they lauded Rudy, 
the SNLers, specifically Tina Fey, took a cheap shot at Italian Americans. In 
one of the “news” items she read, she reported that Playboy will soon 
manufacture its own line of men’s underwear. OK, admittedly, this seems 
rather silly, and lends itself to any number of punch lines. But what did Fey 
choose to say and whom did she choose to ridicule after this item? Well, as 
soon as she finished reading the straight news item, she added that the 
underwear “will be popular only with Guidos.” She may just as well have said 
“Dagos” or “WOPs,” for that’s who she meant, didn’t she? While the line 
got some laughs, how is it funny? Yeah, I know what the mental picture people 
have is: Of some guy dressing like a nightclub bouncer on the outside but 
like Hef on the inside, and that guy is most likely an ethnic white guy, 
probably Italian. I’m not a comedy writer, so I won’t get into what is funny 
and what isn’t, or how they could have made this funny without attack Italian 
Americans. The thing is, though, why is it acceptable to attacking Italian 
Americans in this manner, and when did this term, “Guido,” become an ethnic 
slur? I know that those who use this term say that it does not attack all 
Italian Americans, but only a very small segment who are caricatures in 
themselves. They may also say that fictional Italian-American mobsters are 
not meant to represent all Italian Americans either. I suppose then that they 
will use that same argument when they start to vilify or parody 
Italian-American car salesmen, accountants, academics, writers, lawyers and 
civil servants. Where does it stop? And why does it remain acceptable to 
skewer us, no matter what they call us? 

HE REALLY LIKES US 
Readers of Fra Noi know the story by now of Gene Fedeli, the master gift 
wrapper who was profiled by Joe Stella in these pages last month. While it 
would be expected that a profile in Fra Noi would shine a positive light on 
Americans of Italian heritage, the same cannot always be said of the 
mainstream media. But in his Dec. 18 column in the Chicago Tribune, John Kass 
not only wrote about Fedeli, but celebrated his Italian heritage. In his 
column, Kass opined that Christmas presents wrapped by women look like proper 
Christmas presents, but those that are wrapped by men generally look like 
they were wrapped by a butcher. “It takes me about 15 seconds to wrap a 
Christmas present,” wrote Kass. “It also takes me 15 seconds to wrap a veal 
roast.” 

He wrote that because women are so much better than men at wrapping presents, 
they have license to ridicule men because of this. “Now, though,” wrote 
Kass, “the ridiculing season is over.” He continued, “Meet Gene Fedeli, 65, 
of Rockford. He’s the world-champion gift wrapper of America. And he’s 
Italian.” After telling his readers that Fedeli “defeated four nationally 
acclaimed female wrappers in a Christmas gift-wrapping contest in New York,” 
he then added a two-word sentence, “Semper Fedeli!” Kass didn’t say outright 
that Italians make better gift-wrappers, but he certainly provided plenty of 
evidence for that argument, especially when he later related that, to win the 
contest, Fedeli had to wrap a tennis racket, a tricycle and a trampoline. “We 
talked to him for a half-hour and I still can’t understand it. He used the 
paper they gave him,” Kass said. “He used tape and a fine brain, from 
artistic Barese-Sicilian stock.” 

I’m not quite sure why Kass, whose column is on Page 2 of the Tribune, 
spotlighted Fedeli’s Italian roots. Perhaps it’s the influence of Mrs. Kass, 
whom he sometimes refers to in the column as “the Sicilian.” Or maybe he 
just likes us, I mean really likes us. In any case, in a culture where we so 
often suffer the consequences of untrue and unfair stereotyping, it’s nice to 
see a positive light shined on our “fine brains” and “artistic stock.” If 
this is stereotyping, it’s certainly of the good type, and there isn’t 
enough of it. 

I may as well add the following item from a column by Kass, too. On Jan. 9, 
he wrote about the news coverage of the Michael and Juanita Jordan divorce. 
In case you’re interested, he said that as long as it was news, for a few 
days, it should be reported on, then the media should just leave the family 
alone. Anyway, in that column, he wrote that the TV screens were filled with 
images of celebrity divorce lawyers talking about their trade, and 
sportscasters “prattling on about how sports media types in Chicago wouldn’t 
dare speculate about Jordan’s private life if they ever hoped to interview 
him again about basketball. This will go on for several days,” Kass said. 
“Perhaps it’s because this is one of those pre-Taliban stories, a story 
about celebrity before Sept. 11, when the commercialized Jordan and the 
fictional Tony Soprano were icons.” 

Hooray! What Kass seems to be saying here is; “Tony Soprano” is a fictional 
character, one not representative of Italian Americans, and, to the 
dunderheads who idolize and attempt to imitate the fictional Soprano, wake 
up, get your priorities in order and start living in the real world. Before 
Sept. 11, “Tony Soprano” may have been an interesting character and maybe a 
character people for some reason needed, in order to personify evil. We don’t 
need him or his apologists anymore. 

 “ANALYZE” YOURSELF 
Speaking about fictional Italian-American mobsters (and are really that many 
non-fictional ones left anymore?) if you haven’t heard, Robert DeNiro has 
signed on to reprise his role as crime boss Paul Vitti in a sequel to the 
1999 hit movie, “Analyze This.” For his work, DeNiro reportedly will receive 
a paycheck of $15 million. The sequel, to be called “Analyze That,” (how 
imaginative!) is scheduled to come out this fall. Now some of you may be so 
bold as to ask, “Why does Mr. DeNiro continue to demean himself and his 
heritage by continuing to play such roles?” You know why he’s doing this? 
Because he’s a whore! Why else? He’s an acting whore, and not even a good 
one at that, because he’s doing the same trick over and over again! Does 
DeNiro no longer have any creative desire left? I mean, the last really 
interesting movie he did was that one where he played the security guard who 
had a stroke and underwent painful rehab under the supervision of his drag 
queen neighbor. He has a great opportunity, as he gets older, to branch out a 
bit, to try roles that were not open to him when he was younger, and he keeps 
going back to the tired old mob movie vehicles. What a disappointment. 

MONEY MATTERS 
Just so the folks at PBS don’t get the wrong impression about me, I’d like 
to mention something good that I saw on that network recently. On a show 
called “Money Moves,” shown in December, which was about managing money, a 
man named Maurizio Cadalato was featured. Maurizio, who lives in Boston, won 
$1 million in a state lottery, yet after he won, while he had a greater peace 
of mind, he kept working 14 hour days at his family’s restaurant, Limoncello, 
which is next to the Paul Revere House in Boston. In addition to to Maurizio, 
his mother and brother, both of whom also work at the family restaurant, were 
also interviewed. The feature made a great deal of his Italian roots, 
especially since he spends most of his time in his family’s Italian 
restaurant, and kind of implied that it was his Italian character that kept 
him working, kept him grounded, and Maurizio said that the money wasn’t such 
a big deal, that he enjoys the restaurant and the people he meets there, so 
he’ll keep on working. Too bad programs like this get overshadowed by “The 
Sopranos Street.”  
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Look for: "Fra Noi"- Bill Dal Cerro-"Sempre Avanti"- Defamation Responses, 
Feb '02