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sandybryant

sandybryant
Professional ballroom dancer and all 'round geek!

sandybryant's Blog

Why is this such BIG NEWS?

Friday, January 25th, 2008, 12:27 pm

Another celebrity crashes and burns, dies young and tragically. I feel for his friends and family. Really I do. But why is this headline news for day and days and days? Why are huge pages of newsprint in reputable newspapers dedicated to memorializing him and speculating on why this tragedy occurred? And why, tell me WHY is it so important to find out the funeral details?

When did it become more important to all of us that some cute actor died than all the other things going on in this country and the world?

We’re coming up on a tragic anniversary for my dance studio "family.” About 10 years ago on President’s Day weekend, one of my fellow instructors met with his estranged wife then shot her and himself. Both died, leaving their two sons (one of whom was still in high school) orphans. We were all shocked and devastated. And the only mention anywhere of this real tragedy was 1 line in a weekly newspaper and a short mention on the nightly news. So what if he wasn’t a movie star and she was not some celebutante? Why are their deaths less worthy of note than some movie star’s? I can tell you that our pain was no less real, that our world was no less darkened by their deaths.

Why should I really care that some movie star, who in the grand scheme of things will probably have LESS impact on the world than my co-worker did (my co-worker's day job had some importance), probably died through his own stupid actions? 

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jayfurr

I dunno, Sandy.

I think people like to feel like they're in the mix, up to date with all the hot gossip and news and stuff. In the absence of anything really exciting happening in one's own life, people like to discuss the horrible tragedy of their favorite contestant getting voted off American Idol or the death of the flavor-of-the-week drug-addled celebrity. Not having an opinion simply isn't an option for most people. They've GOT to or they're not hip and cool.

I once got dragged off to have lunch with some employees of one of the sites I was training at. Didn't want to go. Went grudgingly so I wouldn't appear to be a real party-pooper. The meal consisted entirely of ill-informed speculation about celebrities, political issues, and movies. Most of them were about as up to date on their facts as, say, the average goldfish. I realized that there was no point trying to clue them in and just ate my meal in silence. When they eventually realized that I was being quiet, they demanded my opinion. When I told them I didn't have one, they couldn't BELIEVE it. I *had* to have an opinion. The remainder of the meal was spent trying to persuade me that I cared, DEEPLY, about all these banal trivialities.

Sigh.

jayfurr 1/28/2008 3:58pm

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