Voyeurism
I'm as aghast as everyone else is about this tragedy involving the space shuttle Columbia, believe me, but this morning some coverage just pushed my buttons.
My morning routine is pretty predictable. I wake up around 7, or as late as James and Bob let me when they're running around shrieking and playing with loud toys (this morning that was about quarter to six). After a cup of coffee and a quick check of e-mail on the PowerBook, I usually fire up the television and watch a morning show while the kids get ready for school. More often than not, it's Good Morning America -- and it has a lot more to do with the local ABC affiliate in Boston than it has to do with Diane Sawyer or Charlie Gibson. Besides, it's background noise while we round up the kids' backpacks, winter gear, homework and so on.
As anyone who has a TV in North America can attest, news coverage since Saturday has been almost singularly obsessed with the Columbia. It's a sad story, obviously. And a lot of people both within and without NASA are trying to make sense of what happened, for good reason.
Good Morning America ran a piece on the music the shuttle astronauts listened to every morning of the voyage. I found out that one was a Talking Heads fan. Another seemed obsessed with bagpipe music. Yet another listened to pop tunes. That's when I realized just how voyeuristic and how emotionally manipulative this whole segment was.
Although the entire nation, and indeed much of the world, no doubt, is trying hard to establish some firm emotional connection to the seven people who died, it's disingenuous for most of us at best, and it's about the same as trying to establish an emotional connection to seven people who died in a carpooling accident.
These astronauts died spectacularly -- in a shower of flames and debris at 18 times the speed of sound almost 30 miles above the surface of Texas. But outside of the grisly aspect of their demise and the reminder that, almost half a century into it, space travel isn't perfectly safe, there really isn't much to connect Joe Public to the Columbia Seven.
The fact is that most of us didn't know those seven were up there until they found out the Columbia exploded, and up until that moment, most folks didn't give a shit. It's a cruel truth that space travel and NASA in general has lost much of its romantic luster since JFK's message to Congress on Urgent National Needs really provoked America's involvement in the space race almost 42 years ago.
Nowadays many see the entire program as of questionable value and extraordinary cost. Americans spend more on home pizza delivery than we do on the space program, which tells you where Joe Public's priorities lie.
Media outlets have to -- as a matter of basic economic survival -- capitalize as much as they can on whatever disaster or conflagration it is that captures our attention at that particular moment in time. We saw the same sort of single-minded obsession during O.J. Simpson's trial; during the Gulf War; when hostages were taken in Iran; when the World Trade Center fell. It's a vicious cycle that feeds itself: People are hungry for info. News outlets are desperate to give it to us -- even if it means an owl-eyed reporter standing outside the scene telling the world he doesn't have anything substantive to add to the coverage.
This isn't specific to the Columbia tragedy. I just wish that some of the producers of these news broadcasts would take a moment to ask themselves, "Is this really newsworthy? Am I really bringing anything of value by broadcasting this?" Because more often than not, the end result tells us that they aren't.
Comments
"in a shower of flames and debris at 18 times the speed of sound"
Don't forget, CNN said it was 18 times the speed of light.
"Americans spend more on home pizza delivery than we do on the space program, which tells you where Joe Public's priorities lie."
I blame Apple, for telling me that .Mac is cheaper than 1 pizza a month - which made me realize I should order pizza more often.
But of course it's all about providing little to no value in a news broadcast. If there's nothing seriously newsworthy, something will have its importance bumped up until it's impossible to avoid.
What was the big news story this past summer? Elizabeth Smart.
What was the big news story before 9/11? Chandry Levy.
The media loves to take what they can and run with it. And this is why I don't watch the news.
Posted by: Dan Dickinson | February 4, 2003 10:02 AM
I'm sorry those seven brave explorers died. I wouldn't have wanted that to happen. I'm glad it's being honored and I'm glad people take those things seriously. I'm sorry for the families and especially the spouses that have to raise children from here on in by themselves. It hurts my heart to even consider it.
That being said, places like India and Africa have more people die of diarrhea inside of an hour than have died in the entire history of the space program. When will that be newsworthy, I wonder?
Posted by: Corey | February 4, 2003 10:38 AM