"Watch: Death and despair in New Orleans" That quote appears exactly on CNN.com right now. Some would probably classify me as a cynic, but I think that pretty much sums up our culture right there: "Sit back and watch disturbing images of other people suffering. Then go get some McDonald's and watch WWF or Nascar for the rest of the night." Okay, maybe I'm going overboard a little bit. I just saw that line on CNN and I couldn't help my disgust. Its just so insensitive, unfeeling, and inhuman. And we do it all the time. We replace entertainment with real suffering of real people. Maybe we have the decency to shake our heads and say "man, that sucks." But we continue to consume and consume, allowing the media to capitalize on tragedy time after time. The news sites right now are full of pictures of dead people -- as though we need a visual of a body to believe the story. To me its infuriating that the dead are shown so little respect and are used so casually. I don't know where I'm going with this except to say that it disgusts me, and I can't believe that CNN actually let something like that appear on their website.
I just read another video headline -- "'People are dying in front of us'" I couldn't repress the tagline: "And now they can die in front of you, too! Just click this link!" Seriously, though, we're looking at these people like specimen in a glass box. Look, theres some death and destruction. Ooh, and theres some angry and hungry people (also a video on CNN). And people dying in front of me over there. And finally a little dose of despair! This is great! Meanwhile on the other end are not actors or computer programs or dolls, but real people really suffering. While we watch and news crews film. Wonderful.
I might have more to say about this later.
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6 comments:
I totally agree with your point, but I'll split hairs... CNN uses the word "watch" to designate video media on the website, as opposed to the written word. So really, the headline is "Death and Dispair in New Orleans" which is totally accurate and perhaps only a bit callous.
Yes, watch is not part of the headline. But watch describes what the user is going to do -- what they are providing. Its a video. So they are offering to let you watch something, and in this case its "Death and Destruction in New Orleans" So I think it is still a relevant part of the quote. And personally I find it more offensive to watch death and destruction than just to read about it, but maybe thats just me, or maybe it has something to do with my previous desensitization or other conditioning.
watch: your mom on fire
Oh so now you're a classy bitch?
Oh good, so now Phil is putting the word "bitch" on my blog and not using proper punctuation.
It was a question you bitch!
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