The News Is On...
Being a long time news junkie, I keep the TV on CNN in the living room (on mute) and the radio in the kitchen tuned to NPR while I’m working. That way, when I break from my writing to get another cup of tea (decaf—doctor’s orders!) or emerge from my hole to see why the dog is barking madly and throwing herself against the window, I can get an update on the world.
(BTW, before you think, ‘Gah, NPR! She’s a lefty, liberal, bleeding-heart!’ let me say this about that--NPR is the only talk radio I can stomach, where people don’t yell at each other, bellow that the opposition is wrong because they’re all ‘fat drunks,’ and actually take a look at both sides of the issue. And for the record, I’ll cop only to being a lefty--in the writes crooked, can’t use a can opener, tends to die younger than most righties sense of the word.)
Anyway, yesterday, I popped into the living room to see CNN’s on-going coverage of a jet with screwed up landing gear trying to land. They’d been focusing on this “breaking story” for hours and at one point the announcer said, ‘We’ll stay with this as long as it takes, we want to see this plane land;’ what she didn’t say was…’and watch it explode in a fiery, tragic disaster we can then replay until everyone gets sick.’
I, of course, was riveted. Just as I was riveted to coverage of the Taunton, MA dam a month ago that was gonna give and flood the town. Just as I’ve been to any TV images of disasters/tragedies. Why? It’s partially empathy, feeling for the poor suckers stuck in such an untenable situation, wondering what I’d do and how I’d react. I think it’s also something primal. We human beings are natural rubberneckers. We want to SEE.
My rubbernecking career began early, back in the old neighborhood, where the police or fire department made a visit a couple times a week. I still remember the faces of two young kids being led from their apartment by police, blankets wrapped around them, after their mother was murdered by their father (not at home, thankfully). I remember watching the fire department spread grass fires so they wouldn’t have to come back when some enterprising young arsonist lit the other side of the field (at least that’s what my 10-year-ol mind thought they were doing—maybe they were trying to spread it so the whole Project would catch—who knows!). And I remember every detail about the day some boys were buried alive at the construction site across from the playground. Alerted by the alarming number of sirens, the whole neighborhood turned out to stare and pray and hope and hold their breath while the boys were dug out. It was not a happy ending. I’ve since written about that day several times, trying to capture the horror of what I saw and how I felt.
So maybe that’s why we watch, to witness, to feel, to connect, to understand. To remember. Maybe that’s why TV news covers such things from beginning to end, to help with the process. Or maybe, as the cynic in me says is more likely, it’s for the ratings.
Janet – No power in the ‘verse can stop me…
(BTW, before you think, ‘Gah, NPR! She’s a lefty, liberal, bleeding-heart!’ let me say this about that--NPR is the only talk radio I can stomach, where people don’t yell at each other, bellow that the opposition is wrong because they’re all ‘fat drunks,’ and actually take a look at both sides of the issue. And for the record, I’ll cop only to being a lefty--in the writes crooked, can’t use a can opener, tends to die younger than most righties sense of the word.)
Anyway, yesterday, I popped into the living room to see CNN’s on-going coverage of a jet with screwed up landing gear trying to land. They’d been focusing on this “breaking story” for hours and at one point the announcer said, ‘We’ll stay with this as long as it takes, we want to see this plane land;’ what she didn’t say was…’and watch it explode in a fiery, tragic disaster we can then replay until everyone gets sick.’
I, of course, was riveted. Just as I was riveted to coverage of the Taunton, MA dam a month ago that was gonna give and flood the town. Just as I’ve been to any TV images of disasters/tragedies. Why? It’s partially empathy, feeling for the poor suckers stuck in such an untenable situation, wondering what I’d do and how I’d react. I think it’s also something primal. We human beings are natural rubberneckers. We want to SEE.
My rubbernecking career began early, back in the old neighborhood, where the police or fire department made a visit a couple times a week. I still remember the faces of two young kids being led from their apartment by police, blankets wrapped around them, after their mother was murdered by their father (not at home, thankfully). I remember watching the fire department spread grass fires so they wouldn’t have to come back when some enterprising young arsonist lit the other side of the field (at least that’s what my 10-year-ol mind thought they were doing—maybe they were trying to spread it so the whole Project would catch—who knows!). And I remember every detail about the day some boys were buried alive at the construction site across from the playground. Alerted by the alarming number of sirens, the whole neighborhood turned out to stare and pray and hope and hold their breath while the boys were dug out. It was not a happy ending. I’ve since written about that day several times, trying to capture the horror of what I saw and how I felt.
So maybe that’s why we watch, to witness, to feel, to connect, to understand. To remember. Maybe that’s why TV news covers such things from beginning to end, to help with the process. Or maybe, as the cynic in me says is more likely, it’s for the ratings.
Janet – No power in the ‘verse can stop me…
posted by Janet at 11:50 AM
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