I spent a good part of today passing by the relentless, repetitive news reports of the untimely death of "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin who, unless you have been struck blind and deaf in the past 24 hours and don't know, was killed by a stingray while filming an aptly-named documentary called "Ocean's Deadliest" in Australia.
The news of Irwin's unexpected death is sad, to be sure. He was only 44 years old, and he is leaving behind a very young family and friends who are grieving tonight. But the kind of media treatment his death is receiving is way over the top and demonstrates, yet again, the kind of messed up priorities that exist in the Western world today. Irwin was a t.v. personality, for goodness sake. He wrestled crocodiles for a living and had a t.v. show about animals. On cable. But they are treating his passing like we lost a head of state. It was the lead story on at least 3 news websites that I surveyed today, and it was all over the news tonight. Not even the legendary Mr. Rogers (God bless him) got this kind of play when he died. And of course, there is the obligatory, after-the-fact, "Oooh, if he only knew what was coming" interview with Larry King that is being replayed on CNN tonight, and probably for the next three evenings. (For the record, they did this for Mr. Rogers too.)
Maybe it's because Mr. Irwin died young and unexpectedly. Maybe it's because he was a happy-go-lucky white guy who looks like us, was very likeable and a strong environmentalist, who died doing what he loved. His death is certainly tragic. But Australia is talking about giving him a state funeral. Are you kidding me?! That would be like Mexico giving a state funeral to Cesar Millan, The Dog Whisperer. Or us giving one to Jack Hanna. Does that make any sense? Even when Princess Diana died, they had to convince the Queen to give her a state funeral.
Am I the only one who thinks this news coverage is fucked up? No disrespect to Mr. Irwin, but how many kids died in Africa today? How many people died in Iraq today? Weren't they being massacred at a rate of fifty people per day two or three weeks ago?
This happens every time a high-profile celebrity or actor dies -- it's not just limited to Mr. Irwin. It's part and parcel of the unwarranted media frenzy that surrounds celebrities generally in this and other Western countries. If you recall, right before 9/11 five years ago, we were feeding on an incredible amount of superficial media garbage, like a bunch of gossipy piranha. "Is Michael Jackson going to get convicted? I heard they got a picture of his yoohoo that they're showing to the jury!" "Is Britney Spears a virgin or not???" Lately, it's "What happened to Nick and Jessica?" "When are we going to see baby Suri -- is she real?" "Did you see that picture of John Travolta kissing a man?" BRAN-GEL-INA, BEN-NI-FER, I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!
9/11 supposedly changed our priorities for good. For the better. For awhile, we had bigger issues to worry about. Like whether our daily subway commute was going to be fatally interrupted by a man with a plan. Sadly, it does not appear that much has changed in the past five years.
Of course, none of this is Mr. Irwin's fault. This is not about him. It's about our celebrity worship and very short memories. May Steve Irwin rest in peace. And may we come to our senses soon.
2 comments:
It's hard to say. Is the amount of attention he has received unprecedented? Possibly. But he clearly touched a lot of people. When you hear the news, it's sad. And if sheer volumes of people have as much significance as the amount of service he did for the world would, then the affluent remembrance tautology is justified.
I don't think the amount of attention is unprecedented. JFK Jr. and Princess Diana got much more attention when they died. I guess that to me, it seems that what's happening is a little beyond the scope of this man's significance in the grand scheme of things. Maybe I am underestimating and undervaluing his service, as you put it, and what he meant to people.
In fact, the more I have thought about this, the more I believe that each person's reaction to the death of a celebrity is a very subjective thing that can't really be understood. For example, I was pretty upset when John Ritter died. John Ritter. I watched every interview and read every website about him. Couldn't get enough of it. Most people didn't give a shit. It's not like Ritter was a public servant or even a fantastic actor. He just happened to be on one of my favorite shows when I was a kid. When Lee Majors dies, I'm going to weep like a grandmother.
So, maybe the problem here is that I just wasn't that big a follower of The Crocodile Hunter or Mr. Irwin, ergo I wasn't as moved as most people when he died. Also, watching video clips of him dodging crocodile teeth and snake bites over the past two days, it seems to me that he was in a very dangerous line of employment. It's pretty freakish that he died this way and was killed by a stingray of all things. Unbelievable.
Still, whether it's me reacting to John Ritter's passing, or people reacting to the death of Steve Irwin, I do feel that there is something amiss in the human psyche when hundreds of thousands of nameless people can die in a tsunami, and people just don't react the same way as when a single famous person dies under tragic circumstances. It doesn't make sense to me, and I am still trying to understand it.
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