Here We Go... Again
Sep. 5th, 2006 06:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
waitingmanAnd so the media circus comes to Queensland...
I, like a lot of other people I'm sure, am saddened by the death of Steve Irwin ~ the world is a more monochrome & monotonous place without him. But I'm glad he went out doing what he loved doing... getting up close & personal with wildlife. It would have been tragic for him to die in a car accident, or something equally mundane (compared to the exotic way he did go).
But within hours of the news breaking yesterday, the grief hype was already kicking into overdrive. Even the Sydney Morning Herald set up one of its Your Say pages for people to leave messages about Steve. Location maps were created, for those of us who don't know where North Queensland is, or needed to know the exact lat & long position of his demise. Decades-old stories of the last time someone was killed by a stingray were found, dusted off & updated with new photos of the location. Thank you, but I know what Coogee beach looks like & I can't see a stingray in the picture, so what's the point? And all the Your Say page revealed to me was how the standard of written English has plummeted... I refuse to believe it was grief that caused so many blatant typos, misspellings & just plain bad grammar.
Sitting in a Balmain pub last night, I saw the commercial news & current affairs spend almost an hour on what was really a 5 minute story. And that's all it is, ultimately. "Steve Irwin, media celebrity, killed by a stingray while diving in North Queensland. And now for the weather..."
What I don't need to see is footage of his poor wife & kids boarding, then alighting from, a private plane, endless vox pops from anyone on the street who stood still long enough to have a TV camera pointed at them, "exclusive" reports from journalists who seem to think that broadcasting from NQ makes the story more valid, or exciting, or something... then more vox pops, old interview footage ~ mostly from USA TV, because nobody in Australia, except Denton, had much time for him until now, then more vox pops with boat-owners & anyone who's ever dived underwater...
Oh ~ & lots of footage of Steve jumping on crocodiles, holding snakes & mugging for the camera in his inimitable way... & if I saw the images of him feeding a crocodile while holding his infant son once, then I saw it a dozen times...
And today's even worse... interviews with marine experts, childhood friends & schoolteachers, staff at his zoo, staff at the Sydney Aquarium, German tourists... & my favourite ~ a contentious quote from the reliably cantankerous Germaine Greer, who said that the animal world had its revenge. Attagirl Germaine... Controversy at any cost!!
Tributes from the PM & Alexander Downer & the offer of a state funeral from the Queensland Premier smack more of opportunism than emotion to these jaded ears.
7 News had a slightly boastful story about how demand for information had crashed several news websites, but "Yahoo 7 managed to stay online"... no tragedy is too great for a quick bit of self-promotion it seems... This was followed by an interview with a child psychologist, instructing us on how to break the news of Steve's death to our children. Her advice... "Honesty is the best policy"... Well, thank god you're here doc!!!
Today Tonight promised stories of "... the millions Steve Irwin gave to charities. How the 'real' Steve Irwin touched our lives..." Move over Mary Mackillop, here comes the Crocodile Hunter in a late bid for sainthood.
None of this makes me feel any sadder, better, or worse about his passing. It just makes me angry that the media are trying to create & exploit an inappropriate wave of emotion. Which does nothing but strip Steve Irwin's death of any dignity. And I don't think even he would appreciate that.
I'm sure his wife & kids don't either.
I, like a lot of other people I'm sure, am saddened by the death of Steve Irwin ~ the world is a more monochrome & monotonous place without him. But I'm glad he went out doing what he loved doing... getting up close & personal with wildlife. It would have been tragic for him to die in a car accident, or something equally mundane (compared to the exotic way he did go).
But within hours of the news breaking yesterday, the grief hype was already kicking into overdrive. Even the Sydney Morning Herald set up one of its Your Say pages for people to leave messages about Steve. Location maps were created, for those of us who don't know where North Queensland is, or needed to know the exact lat & long position of his demise. Decades-old stories of the last time someone was killed by a stingray were found, dusted off & updated with new photos of the location. Thank you, but I know what Coogee beach looks like & I can't see a stingray in the picture, so what's the point? And all the Your Say page revealed to me was how the standard of written English has plummeted... I refuse to believe it was grief that caused so many blatant typos, misspellings & just plain bad grammar.
Sitting in a Balmain pub last night, I saw the commercial news & current affairs spend almost an hour on what was really a 5 minute story. And that's all it is, ultimately. "Steve Irwin, media celebrity, killed by a stingray while diving in North Queensland. And now for the weather..."
What I don't need to see is footage of his poor wife & kids boarding, then alighting from, a private plane, endless vox pops from anyone on the street who stood still long enough to have a TV camera pointed at them, "exclusive" reports from journalists who seem to think that broadcasting from NQ makes the story more valid, or exciting, or something... then more vox pops, old interview footage ~ mostly from USA TV, because nobody in Australia, except Denton, had much time for him until now, then more vox pops with boat-owners & anyone who's ever dived underwater...
Oh ~ & lots of footage of Steve jumping on crocodiles, holding snakes & mugging for the camera in his inimitable way... & if I saw the images of him feeding a crocodile while holding his infant son once, then I saw it a dozen times...
And today's even worse... interviews with marine experts, childhood friends & schoolteachers, staff at his zoo, staff at the Sydney Aquarium, German tourists... & my favourite ~ a contentious quote from the reliably cantankerous Germaine Greer, who said that the animal world had its revenge. Attagirl Germaine... Controversy at any cost!!
Tributes from the PM & Alexander Downer & the offer of a state funeral from the Queensland Premier smack more of opportunism than emotion to these jaded ears.
7 News had a slightly boastful story about how demand for information had crashed several news websites, but "Yahoo 7 managed to stay online"... no tragedy is too great for a quick bit of self-promotion it seems... This was followed by an interview with a child psychologist, instructing us on how to break the news of Steve's death to our children. Her advice... "Honesty is the best policy"... Well, thank god you're here doc!!!
Today Tonight promised stories of "... the millions Steve Irwin gave to charities. How the 'real' Steve Irwin touched our lives..." Move over Mary Mackillop, here comes the Crocodile Hunter in a late bid for sainthood.
None of this makes me feel any sadder, better, or worse about his passing. It just makes me angry that the media are trying to create & exploit an inappropriate wave of emotion. Which does nothing but strip Steve Irwin's death of any dignity. And I don't think even he would appreciate that.
I'm sure his wife & kids don't either.
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-06 02:11 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-06 12:15 pm (UTC)To protect against harmful rays.
Not mine.
- Eug