Photo by Bowena
As I observed James Gandolfin, Marcia Gay Harden, and Hope Davis signing autographs and talking to people after the show I was consumed with a wonderful feeling. Some actors are sweet and decent people. I have met actors before like Denzel Washington, when my Brother Chris did Richard III with him in the park years ago, and he was nice and down to earth. But lately I’ve noticed the news media has fallen in love with either provoking actors, intentionally catching them at bad times or just downright stalking them.
There are a slew of shows dedicated to this negativity and it reminds me of a story I heard about John Kennedy Jr. once. He returned to his apartment in New York one day and there were cameramen outside. He smiled and said,” I guess it must be a slow news day.” That story reminded me of a guy I worked with on my second Independent film years ago. He worked for a news station and told me,” News producers are miserable people who sit around and wait for planes to crash all day.” Years later I heard from a friend who has worked for four news stations and told me how the news is selected, edited, and presented-Scary!!
Now, actors are people with good days and bad days and I’m sure some are nicer than others but I would have loved to read how some reporter wrote about how nice generous actors were at the stage door after a live performance. But it will never happen. It’s not negative enough. We have become trained to be shocked and appalled in this sensationalistic era of news reporting. The news preys upon our fears just to get a headline.
That very same night we left the Jacobs Theater in New York we discovered Michael Jackson had died. Five hours earlier Farrah Fawcett had also passed away-Two 70’s icons from my childhood were gone. No doubt the inevitable tributes will follow and the news will spend more time on this than Iraq again proving my point about the obsessive and negative news media.
The news loves to report about death, disease, and disaster. If you are lucky they will sneak in a human-interest story at the end. Out of a half hour news show you get one minute of life affirming news. That is a sad statement on society and I swear if it weren’t for PBS and the BBC I would never watch the news again. I guess it was only fitting that this article was inspired after seeing a play called God of Carnage. After all, the majority of our news-makers have become our true Gods of Carnage.
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5 Responses
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The news media especially TV and print are in trouble. It’s amazing to see how much the quality of their content has deteriorated over the last few years.
The scary and exciting part is now that people can essentially create their own news or versions of it through the internet. It’s even sadder to see what yahoo posts on it’s front page everyday.
Good point and sad indeed!
Too true. How long was O.J Simpson n the news during and after that high speed chase in his white Bronco?
However,I still believe we have many great print reporters out there(New York Times,Newsweek and Time Magazines) who write in depth articles about important topics and many who still risk life and limb in places like Iraq and Somalia. I also believe part of the problem with the press and the Paparazzi is they are feeding and appetite for gossip and scandal that has become insatiable in our society. I believe we choose to escape into the misery of others rather than face the uncertainty and fear in our own Lives. We simply”Can”t handle the truth”. as a result, we often villainize our heroes and celebrate our monsters pandering to our prurient curiosity.
Observe how many criminal investigations on TV crime shows spend an excessively amount of time examining gore and carnage in minute and morbid detail .
Yes , yo are correct in wagging a a finger at the media(Fox Noise and the like) but I believe they are giving the American public what it demands and is willing to pay for!!
I’m afraid that’s true as well. Our culture has long-equated “celebrity” with “greatness”, and its directly reflected in/promoted by the Media. Let’s face it: A side view of Lindsay Lohan’s tits will sell much more copy than a story about how much money an actor raised for AIDS or to fight world hunger. Don’t even get me started on the television programs that are dedicated to sheer celebrity gossip. Sad. Sad, but society supports and rewards that type of behavior with consumer dollars. Until that practice ceases, mindless celebrity drivel will continue to spew forth from the mouth of the Media.
Thanks Brothers-:)