That “special place in hell” won’t be special much longer, not after it fills with TV news execs and their corporate shot-callers.
Every disaster, anywhere in the world, now triggers TV’s news divisions to put on their most sensitive and sober faces — while exploiting the tragedy for every self-promotion and cross-promotion they can conjure.
At the top of the TV news business, the sounds of emergency sirens have become indistinguishable from the sounds of a cash register.
Last October, CNN’s live coverage of the rescue of 33 miners in Chile included transcriptions of e-mails purportedly sent by viewers to praise CNN for its fantastic coverage of the rescue.
Imagine abbreviating live coverage of such a story to insert “Hooray for us!”
But not only was this a nauseating intrusion, it was baloney. CNN’s coverage was no different than what the rest of the world was watching via a feed supplied by Chilean TV.
But in TV, there’s no idea so tasteless or so ugly that it’s unworthy of duplication.
Would exploiting the recent Japanese earthquake — tens of thousands dead or homeless — for network promotion be out of the question? Would it be beneath even the lowest professional dignity?
Hell, no.
Three days after the earthquake, WABC-Ch. 7’s “Eyewitness News” included an interview with model Petra Nemcova. The ostensible news connection was that she’d been caught in the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. In that disaster her fiancé, photographer Simon Atlee, was killed.
But that wasn’t it. A week earlier, ABC’s “Dancing With The Stars” roster was announced — and it included Nemcova. And Ch. 7 News anchor Sade Baderinwa, following Nemcova’s reflections on the Japanese earthquake, made damned sure to remind viewers that Nemcova will soon be seen on ABC’s hit, “Dancing With The Stars.”
How low can they go? Well, just a little lower than the time before.
Last year, ABC’s “Good Morning America” and ESPN sideline reporter Erin Andrews — ABC and ESPN are siblings under Disney — eagerly exploited the fact that a man who had covertly taped Andrews in a hotel room had been sentenced to 30 months and forced to register as a sex offender.
This criminal episode, however, created the “perfect promotional storm” for Disney TV. ESPN had long ago become the home of shameless and endless cross and self-promotion, Andrews had long before been identified and presented as one of ESPN’s “hot sideline babes” and “Good Morning America” had long ago become a televised shopping catalog for Disney goods.
So, throw ‘em all together – and call it news!
After “GMA” anchor Robin Roberts finished her soulful chat with Andrews on how it felt to be a legitimate broadcast journalist who had been sexually and criminally objectified by a creep — ostensibly the reason Andrews had granted her company this “exclusive” interview — talk turned to Andrews’ ongoing appearances as a contestant on ABC’s Dancing With The Stars.
It’s worth noting that Andrews’ invite to perform on “DWTS” came after the hotel video episode became big news. She and ESPN and ABC Entertainment and ABC News and Disney squeezed this ugly episode that had befallen Andrews for every drop of business it was worth.
ESPN’s Andrews told GMA’s Roberts that her appearances on ABC’s “DWTS” were part of her “healing process.” Good grief.
Surely, given how little she wore while performing her sensual dance routines, that healing process included all that fresh air to her body.
Back to WABC News and the disaster in Japan. Did you know that Ch. 7 newsman N.J. Burkett is “the only” local TV newsman in Japan covering the earthquake? Hooray!
Yep, of all the news to report about the earthquake, Hooray for us! was the news Ch. 7 News anchors saw fit to repeat — over, and over, and over.