This kind of reminds me of that other actor… who’s incredibly famous now… that i forget… oh yeah, Russell Crowe. He’s in a band. I heard (repeat, I heard) that they had a show in Austin that sold out - not because of the music, but because of this supposedly super-sexy famous actor guy.
I’d really hate to be in a band w/ a celebrity. (Unless the band itself were basically celebrities, but…)
Since we are on the subject of idiot news people
When (I think it was Tiger Woods, I do not watch much sports) was about to make a record breaking superimportant, once in a life time, championship put, the Weatherman interupted to say there were Thunderstorms on the way. Who the fuck cares. There are always thunderstorms here!! No one gives a shit! They station got so many calls and so many flaming letters. If I had been a golf fan I sure would have been pissed!! The newspaper compared it to the time when some network missed an NFL comeback to play some stupid regularly scheduled sitcom.
Man I am sure full of details arent I. Did anyone else hear about this?
Ok this part I know what I am talking about. I talked personally with this lady…
The funny story about the people dying and the news informing the family reminded me of a real incident here. A State Trooper was shot in his car on the interstate. Instead of having the sad news delivered to her by formally dressed officers in a dignified way, she saw the Breaking News on tv. The helicopter was hovering over the car and you could see the officer. There was a white sheet covering his body but I think that is still disturbing. She new it was her husband because of the HUGE numbers on top of the police car. They were just recently married. He was only like 22 and a 6 month rookie. By the time the officers knocked on her door, she already new everything.
Then there are the times the news films live coverage of hostage situations, letting the hostage taker see the SWAT teams setting up outside the building. Really smart!! I think they recently passed a law against this.
Brings to mind the news crew covering that big Mexico City earthquake back in '85. We got the evening update from a crew set up in the rubble of a large hospital that had collapsed. They were running from a generator since all power in the area was out. They got about 30 seconds into the report when a messenger ran up shouting that the racket from their generator was drowning out the cries of the trapped victims.
So the christless sons of whores lowered their voices slightly while they finished their prepared broadcast. They didn’t even hurry. The generator was blaring full blast all the time. You could hear a slight disturbance off to the side where the news crew was restraining rescue workers from shutting down the generator. They were literally standing on the still kicking carcasses of the victims as they broadcast. Gosh, I wonder why those simple folk down in Mexico hate us gringos?
How about six months later when the space shuttle Challenger blew up? Was it strictly necessary to replay the explosion 457 times an hour? Did we need to see that tight close up of the scraps of the command module spinning through the sky, where we were assured most of the crew was undoubtedly still alive and conscious? Did we need to get reaction shots from each and every friend and family member they were able to hunt down as they were shown the clip over and over?
I especially enjoyed the well framed closeups of that nice astronaut lady’s kid and his entire third grade class having a sobbing breakdown on the floor. It was so stimulating to watch as a young person’s protector and role model got Kentucky fried and then smashed into puree before his dewey little eyes. And to hear the happy cheers turn to shocked screams of outrage and desolation. Watching the little darlings shriek themselves hoarse before finally settling into that expressionless hard time stare really balanced out the coverage and capped off my day.
And just last year after the Columbine school shootings, when those nice young men from the news station pushed a camera into the face of a young woman who had just seen three of her best friends blown away before her horrified eyes. It was such a help to me the way they violated the worst wound of her young life by drawing her into a graphic, sobbing description of how she huddled on her knees under a table and begged for her life. And how each of her friends was executed one at a time in front of her so close the brains sprayed onto her clothes. Artfully combined with the footage of gore covered victims crawling away from the scene still spurting blood, it was a pleasure to watch. And I’m sure it’s a big help with her eventual recovery to have those memories available on video anytime she cares to relive them. Or see them randomly flashed across a news screen over and over while she’s trying to move on and get back on her feet.
And the list goes on.
to be accurate, it was the movie Heidi, the event is known as the Heidi Bowl. they learned their lesson.
hijack–
kinda like (or not) when the (i wanna say) december 63 issue of a comic (again, i wanna say Superman) came out and had President Kennedy in it. the comic was out either right before he was shot, or right after. anyway, comics rarely have any ‘real’ people in them, because of that.
ok, that really doesn’t follow. 'cept that the respective media learned their lesson.
Thanks! I knew you guys would fill in the ‘details’!
I believe that was 1967 or 68, and it was the AFC championship game between the Raiders and Jets. One team was winning by like 13 points, with less than two minutes left, then they switched the “Heidi.” The newsline the next day jokingly credited Heidi with 14 points.
Actually, here’s a link to the event:
http://www.nfl.com/news/981109heidi.html
It was actually a regular season game, and not a playoff game. However, it was a greatly anticipated matchup, as both teams were among the class of the AFL, both being 7 and 2 at the time. (These two teams would later meet in the AFC championship game for the right to play in Super Bowl III.)
In fact, when NBC cut away, the Jets were NOT leading by thirteen points. They were leading by three and the Raiders HAD THE BALL! It wasn’t at all wildly improbable that the Raiders could have won that game (in fact, they scored almost immediately, then recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff and scored again!)
Many of the fans first learned of what happened via a “crawl” with the final score of the game. Needless to say, Jet fans were not pleased.