|
Feb 8, 2003 September 11th saw the very symbols of capitalism and America itself tumble mercilessly to the ground and the world wept. News coverage was relentless and exhausting. In many aspects, news coverage took a new turn and that was a pioneering moment for the world of television journalsim. Like the Kennedy assassination where Walter Kronkite swallowed back tears to announce the president's demise, so too did forged anchors like Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather. We sat idle until just a few days ago where, on a calm and cool saturday morning the nation was rocked again. This time it wasn't the collective death of 3 thousand Americans, but the firey decent of another symbol of American inginuity and spirit, the Space Shuttle Columbia. Aboard, seven astronauts who had lived the ultimate dream, to reach the outskirts of orbit, were lost to the firestorm. It is one of the quintessential American moments that people will remember. It will be the common denominator to one of those "where were you" questions. I was parked in front of an accountant's office waiting for my fiancee' to do her taxes, playing "eat the doughnut" with my son when she burst out of the office building yelling that the shuttle blew up. I clicked on the radio and the media blitz began. For hours as we drove around running errands, we listened to witness after witness and former astronaut after former astronaut and we heard reporters describe the vapor contrails branching out as Columbia went from space vehicle to space debris. The video was shocking and tugged hard at the heart strings. The mission control communications audio was sobering with the last transmission from Shuttle commander Richard Husband responding to mission control's report that temperature readings in the left wing of the craft were abnormal. "Roger, buh", he said and then nothing but a sickening crackle. The red tracking line on the overhead jumbo tron screens at mission control stopped just over Central Texas. Suddenly we were aswim in a sea of Shuttle experts, dramatic music and computer generated TV graphics, all designed to grab viewers and run, all designed to bring information to the people. Saturday was full of Columbia coverage, with regular programming giving way to continuing coverage of the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. MSNBC had reporters scattered everywhere in Texas and CNN boasted that it was the first network with pictures of debris sent via e-mail from someone with a digi-cam who snapped a shot of what looked like a smouldering piece of mangled tin lying in a parking lot. By Sunday, the continuing coverage was replaced by 2 hour specials about Columbia, its astronauts and its mission. Hundreds of hours of video that NASA captures before and during launches was suddenly important where during past missions that same type of video had been shelved,never to be viewed by the public. Sunday gave way to Monday and slowly people were trying to get back to some sense of normalcy . But lo and behold talk radio just couldn't let go of the Columbia incident yet, instead of treating it as a national tragedy, which it was, and talking about it in light of that circumstance, which they should have done, a caller had to play kissie kissie to the talk show host who was "anti-Columbia" news coverage. Just like the talk show host had stated, this free thinking caller was irate that programming Saturday and Sunday had been suspended or altered to make room for the onslaught of Columbia coverage. he made fun of sweeping graphics depicting the televised headlines and criticized the stations using dramatic music to punctuate the event they were reporting on."I'm so sick of seeing it" the caller said. It became a slug fest with the News Media taking the punches. Now maybe this reporter is just cynical, or maybe this reporter is just too close to the business of television news to be objective. Perhaps this reporter is just right on the mark to point out that the caller had to have watched, with some level of interest, the news coverage to be able to discuss the content at length, the content that he so vehemently detested. The question is often asked, "Why do thay do that on the news", and people, I gotta tell you...It's because that's what you want to see. Here's a closely held TV secret. The purpose of television broadcasting isn't to entertain or inform. The root purpose of television broadcasting is to keep an audience of people tuned to a station long enough to watch commercials. That is achieved by giving the people what they want. What they wanted Saturday was continuing coverage of the Columbia tragedy. What they wanted Sunday were special reports during the day. By Monday what they wanted was to complain about everything they wanted over the weekend. Here's a sad set of circumstnaces. It took the death of 7 American heroes for America to want to know who these people were. It took the death of 7 American heroes to show video that NASA tapes for every shuttle mission but rarely gets seen. It took the death of 7 American heroes to bring the career of space science into sobering focus, revealing itself as the dangerous way of life it truly is. Seventeen years ago it took the death of 7 American heroes to get a park in Royal Palm Beach and a school in Stuart, Florida named. And just days ago, it took the death of 7 American heroes to jump start the collective conscience of America into realizing that a Space Shuttle launch is anything but routine. In the days, weeks and months that follow, NASA and the Space Shuttle program will be hot topics on everyone's mind. When they finally resume scheduled flights, the world will be watching. It will be interesting to see how many people complain about the graphics, music and continuing coverage of the "First launch after Columbia". But then again, the news media IS charged with the call to "give the people what they want". Email Bruno: gottico2@hotmail.com ------------ Comment on this column in the forum. ------------ |
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
|
