Inside Television 563
Publication date: 7-29-11
By: Hubert O’Hearn
If death is your thing, you’ve had an awfully good week. If you find that statement to be off-putting, it really shouldn’t. Perhaps not ironic in the strictest sense, but I was starting to put together notes for my proposed talk (I loathe the word lecture - it just prepares the audience to come prepared for being bored out of their skulls) on modern writing. This was at the same time as the news was filled in short order with the tragedy in Utoya Norway, the death of Any Winehouse and the true shock any sentient Canadian must have felt upon seeing Jack Layton at his press conference.
I had been thinking, ‘Now what is the favourite topic of people generally?’ And only slightly morbidly I was considering it was death. Oh? You disagree with me? Your mind leapt to sex, now didn’t it (you rogue you)? Well your mind may have but your tongue doesn’t necessarily follow - so to speak.
Consider: You can walk up at any usual time of day to anyone you have a reasonable acquaintance with, and say, ‘Did you hear Bill died?’ Presuming you’re not just making this up and Bill himself doesn’t come strolling down the hallway with an armful of files and a cheery whistle on his lips, the person to whom you addressed this comment will change course on whatever it was they were about to do or say and will immediately start discussing Bill, his loss to the world, and whatever should we all do to help out.
If you walk up to the same acquaintance and say, ‘Did you hear Bill had sex?’, you will be treated as the office freak. And rightfully so.
The news - both television and written forms - either shine or collapse in the face of death. This past week showed us both. As it happened to fall on the week of the late Marshall McLuhan’s one hundredth birthday, you couldn’t help but observe it closely. Let us also not kid ourselves: news loves death. Death makes people feel weak and sad. We don’t like feeling weak and sad so what can snap us out of it? Let’s throw to commercial and here’s Fabio selling Old Spice. I’ll feel better if I buy some cosmetic thing - aaaahhhhh. Death is money and not just in the insurance and mortuary businesses. I’ve never formally looked it up and a Google search would ruin an otherwise instinctive call, but I’d be willing to wager that four out of seven days a week that average North American paper has a death or an immenent one somehwre on its front page. In TV news, the line is: ‘If it bleeds, it leads.’
Publication date: 7-29-11
By: Hubert O’Hearn
If death is your thing, you’ve had an awfully good week. If you find that statement to be off-putting, it really shouldn’t. Perhaps not ironic in the strictest sense, but I was starting to put together notes for my proposed talk (I loathe the word lecture - it just prepares the audience to come prepared for being bored out of their skulls) on modern writing. This was at the same time as the news was filled in short order with the tragedy in Utoya Norway, the death of Any Winehouse and the true shock any sentient Canadian must have felt upon seeing Jack Layton at his press conference.
I had been thinking, ‘Now what is the favourite topic of people generally?’ And only slightly morbidly I was considering it was death. Oh? You disagree with me? Your mind leapt to sex, now didn’t it (you rogue you)? Well your mind may have but your tongue doesn’t necessarily follow - so to speak.
Consider: You can walk up at any usual time of day to anyone you have a reasonable acquaintance with, and say, ‘Did you hear Bill died?’ Presuming you’re not just making this up and Bill himself doesn’t come strolling down the hallway with an armful of files and a cheery whistle on his lips, the person to whom you addressed this comment will change course on whatever it was they were about to do or say and will immediately start discussing Bill, his loss to the world, and whatever should we all do to help out.
If you walk up to the same acquaintance and say, ‘Did you hear Bill had sex?’, you will be treated as the office freak. And rightfully so.
The news - both television and written forms - either shine or collapse in the face of death. This past week showed us both. As it happened to fall on the week of the late Marshall McLuhan’s one hundredth birthday, you couldn’t help but observe it closely. Let us also not kid ourselves: news loves death. Death makes people feel weak and sad. We don’t like feeling weak and sad so what can snap us out of it? Let’s throw to commercial and here’s Fabio selling Old Spice. I’ll feel better if I buy some cosmetic thing - aaaahhhhh. Death is money and not just in the insurance and mortuary businesses. I’ve never formally looked it up and a Google search would ruin an otherwise instinctive call, but I’d be willing to wager that four out of seven days a week that average North American paper has a death or an immenent one somehwre on its front page. In TV news, the line is: ‘If it bleeds, it leads.’
We had both the worst and the best of it this week. Regarding Norway, the treatment of the eventual investigation and the horrific days it must be for the Norwegian people has been respectful and sensitive. However, possibly the most sheer Orwellian moment of my life came in the immediate speculation that the slaughter was instigated and carried out by Muslim terrorists. According to Christopher Hitchens’ Slate column, there was even an Al-Qeda offshoot ready to rejoice. Of course, it turned out that the publicity-seeking lunatic gaily smiling at the cameras in fact hated and feared Muslims. He believed the hype. That revelation should have given a lot more people pause than what I suspect it has.
Regarding Amy Winehouse, the creepy crawly side of the coverage was the pundit pomposity in saying through wobbling cheeks and wattles that this death was ‘predictable and expected.’ If so, then what precisely did you do to prevent it? And one wonders how much the endless tumbleweed of paparazzi trailing Winehouse - one wonders if her phone was hacked - contributed to her stress, drug abuse and death.
With Jack Layton, Canadian media deserve a collective hug. I did not watch Sun - there are limits to the lengths I will go to for my readers’ enjoyment. I haven’t heard anything awful about Sun’s coverage of Layton’s visually evidenced terminal illness either, so I think they can even be included with the Big Three English networks in providing truly empathic and calm coverage. In fact, I haven’t heard anyone say what I just wrote: based on visual evidence, this fine and good Canadian politician is dying. I don’t blame the TV news for not stating that. Not at all. I hesitated writing it. Equally, there was no leadership hype. The possibilities for the future were mentioned on both CBC and CTV, but no one speculated as to when the pistol at the starting line might be fired.
What do we learn from all this? It so happened that Dana Fuchs, the great singer who I wrote about last week, sent out an email regarding Norway. She had spent four days there last summer in the company of a young girl Oda who had been scheduled to be at the Island. Circumstances prevented her from going and likely dying. Oda wrote this to Dana Fuchs: ‘This tragedy has taught me one thing. We'll never stop fighting for socialism, peace, and anti-racism.’
It was a most instructive week. Be seeing you.
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