"Deeply saddened" by news stories?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I just read a story on CNN.com by Mr. Wolf Blitzer on the recent wave of shark attacks. The story began with the following sentence:

Something about this bothered me. Was Wolf Blitzer really “deeply saddened” about the shark attack? All right, maybe he was. If so, it must be really hard to be Wolf Blitzer, as I would imagine that he would also be deeply saddened by the constant news stories of death and tragedy that he is doubtless exposed to.

Then he begins the sentence with “Like all of you…” in effect saying “I assume that each and every single human being reading this article was deeply saddened by the news of this shark attack.” Well, I wasn’t. It’s a tragedy and all, but shit, I read about death every day and it just doesn’t deeply sadden me anymore.

Should we pretend that we’re emotionally affected by tragedies that we’ve long been inured to? Or is this just another layer of bullshit that our society doesn’t need? Or, if you’re not deeply saddened by shark attack stories, does that make you a heartless inhuman slime?

2

One person’s bullshit is another person’s tact.

3

I too have become pretty numb to the stories of human tragedy, except when they involve children near the age of my son. When he was a baby, any story involving babies had me gasping for air. Now it’s toddlers. (In truth, for the first year just about any “kid” story got me going. I was a big raw nerve. It’s only for the last year that I’ve been limiting my punched-in-the-gut feeling to stories about tots his age).

I suspect that any reporter who covers this sort of stuff gets to the point where it seems like “just another story.” But to not seem like a butthead, they’ve got to throw out those stock phrases so people don’t think they are insensitive to the fact that real people are involved. It probably helps stave off calls from the self-righteous viewers who’d say “Let’s not forget we’re talking about a human life lost!”

While the “deeply saddened” thing might just be a line, if I were that boy’s relative I’d be mighty pissed if he didn’t say something like that.

4

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Spoonbender *

I agree. It’s assuming, isn’t it? It’s also a “mechanism”, if you will, of drawing the audience into the story, and making the reporter seem a little more “human”. And it gets ratings.

But I also agree with Cranky, in that had he reported it in a dispassionate manner, we might have wondered if ol’ Wolf has a heart. The old style of “reading” the news has gone the way of the _________ (insert favorite extinct species here).

Here in Atlanta, our own Monica Kaufman (long time news anchor) has been known to express her sadness and anger with voice inflections and tears.

Having said that, however, I wonder if “deeply” might have been going overboard a bit. Did he know the family personally, and as the OP said: How many other things “deeply” sadden Mr. Blitzer?

My 2 cents.

Quasi

5

Any of y’all seen (and more importantly, heard) the footage from when the Hindenberg blew up?

I knew about it, the whole “Oh, the humanity” phrase, but I’d never seen the whole thing until I was almost out of journalism school.

In the time before I went to j-school, when I barely paid attention to the news, until now, when I can’t see news without analyzing it, I’ve never seen anything like the Hindenberg footage.

I believe it was one of those news reels that they used to show before movies in the theater, back before there was TV. I could be wrong. My history’s a bit muddy. The blimp is just kinda floating along lazily while the reporter happily chatters about what a marvel of science it is, all the famous people connected with the event, that sort of thing.

Suddenly, the whole blimp is in flames. The reporter is shocked. Overcome. He breaks down. He starts crying.

Can you imagine Dan, Sam, Peter, or even Ol’ Uncle Walter crying while trying to report the news? I know I can’t. Even if it’s the death of dozens of people unfolding before their very eyes. Because stoicism, I guess, is part of being objective.

(Some of us do make every effort to be objective. Laugh if you want. That’s what my good ol’ thick journalism hide is for. Hm, more stoicism…)

Of course, stoicism has its place. But that Hindenberg broadcast was the most powerful news event I’ve ever seen.

Though I quite agree about Wolf’s “deeply saddened” being a mechanism to draw viewers in.

But we are human. (Well, we print folks are, anyway. We’re not so sure about those TV folks.)

6

Didn’t Cronkite tear up when reporting on the death of President Kennedy? I pretty distinctly remember seeing that clip: Cronkite removes his glasses and is very noticeably choked up and teary as he says that the President is dead.

It’s also in the back of my mind that Rather has done something similar, but I can’t recall when that might have been.

So, yeah, I can imagine 'em crying. :slight_smile:

7

There are news stories that have left me ‘deeply saddened’, nearly always about tragedies involving children, in particular the cases of James Bulger and Sarah Payne, where the children’s deaths were caused by malicious and deliberate acts, but even when this isn’t the case (like the all-too-frequent beach drownings of young kids) it still chokes me.

8

Then it’s worth mentioning that that reporter was apparently driven out of broadcasting for his “unprofessionalism” on that event.

Apparently only false sentiments are professional.

9

I’m often deeply saddened by news stories.

When the victims are young, and their distressed families are shown, I’m often moved and upset by what I see.

Just a couple of days ago I was deeply saddened by the news that a father had taken the lives of his three young children in Sydney.

In what seems to be an act of selfishness, he killed his children (aged 6, 11 months and 11 weeks) after having a fight with his current girlfriend. The children had three different mothers.

I felt sadness for the mothers whose babies had died because their father was greedy and selfish. I felt sorry for the poor little tykes who didn’t have a chance at life before it was taken from them. I felt sad for all the people who loved those little kids and had them wrenched away by a man who couldn’t see past himself.

It was a disturbing story, and it distressed me. Too often we forget that what we see on the news is very real to someone, somewhere.

10

I, too, am a journalist. However, I have not had to opportunity to cover anything really nasty. More of a small-town newspaper type deal.

As for what bothers me like that, well, not much. I’m a pretty callous bastard, and I don’t really give a crap about just about anything.

On the other hand, the Columbine Shootings seriously bothered me. Any time I give it any more than a cursory thought, I start to get teary, etc.

Press photos I’ve seen from that were the some of the most distressing I’ve ever see. Just the fear and pain inthe kids’ faces makes we want to weep. I’m getting phucklempt just thinking about it.

On the flip side, I can’t stop smiling when I take a good look at the classic photo of the end of WWII; the one of the sailor and woman kissing in the street with the streamers and cheering crouds. Damn that makes me feel good.

Erm, I’m done now.

11

Stories about child/animal abuse usually make me feel nauseous-I often have to cover my mouth in a gasp, or a shudder.