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A R C H I V E S

LARSEN AT LARGE

THE NEWS FITS AND PRINT

     I had intended this week’s column to address cargo security at U.S. airports. However the tragedy of Columbia overshadows everything. Just like many of my colleagues and friends, I am left speechless by the unexpected loss of Columbia and its brave crew of seven.
     Yet another devastating incident took place the same day. Unlike Columbia, this avoidable “tragedy” was perpetrated by the press. It seems every time lately that something devastating or profound occurs, reaching across borders and oceans to touch everyone whether directly involved or not, the event takes on a life of its own, fanned by an overzealous press.
     I was part of the story during the terrible attack upon the World Trade Center 9/11/01, having spent those first few terrifying moments on the 65th floor of One WTC as the building rocked like it would tip over, then racing down 65 floors just before my entire world came crashing down in what must be considered the worst day in American history.
     For me, Saturday February 1 and the news that our Space Shuttle had fallen from the heavens, carried with it an eerie feeling of déjà vu. The better part of that day I watched the Columbia story unfold with detachment on television, to observe the press coverage. Before long I was struck with a sense of melancholy and personal loss from 9/11, that will never entirely go away.
     The press, post-Columbia were wild animals fighting over the kill. Reporters immediately pre-empted any other news items in order to bring to us continuous coverage.
     A kind of race is still on, almost unabated, as this is written February 3rd. All day, Saturday February 1st, regular broadcast and all new channels spoke endlessly about an event they knew absolutely nothing about.
     To orchestrate the coverage, the networks continually showed the same film clips of the accident over and over again, while parading an endless army of experts with a different supposition as to what happened and what it all meant.
     Tragedy turned into a disgraceful display of bad taste. One well-known newscaster actually said this: “News has just come in to this station exclusively that NASA officials are meeting at this very moment. “We have no indication of what they are meeting about but this newscaster believes it is to find out what happened and I would also venture to say that there will be more meetings as things progress.”
     What blather! Anybody can be an anchor news person. Why not hire the wonder dog Rin-Tin-Tin to deliver the news? In short, if you are able to demonstrate that you at least have the I.Q. of a dog, you might have been on TV last Saturday. In fact, one eyewitness described what her dog heard at the time of the incident and that interview was played over and over throughout the day for all audiences, and most likely was translated into every language known to man. I kept thinking that if a station hired wonder dog Rinnie-they could scoop the poop from that canine that heard something!
     As the day wore on and facts begin to trickle in, viewers were bludgeoned with opinions and statements from some credible, and perhaps some incredible experts in the field of anything from space travel to auto lubrication. These “experts”may or may not have seen the Columbia accident, but all claim to have seen or heard something.
     Add to this, the reports from the crash site coldly describing the retrieval of body parts and now the attempt to reach the lowest common denominator began in earnest. I kept thinking about the impact on the victims’ families, and the kids, suddenly without moms and dads, as this ghoulish television fest continued.
     I guess we must sit back and remember why these news people appear in that little box in front of us. It’s not because they are experts in their field or even graduated tops in their class in communications. They appear before you because they sound credible and of course they are also selected because they look pleasant. We must keep reminding ourselves that the main reason the news is on the air is, to sell toothpaste, cereal, automobiles, furniture and a host of other articles that are being advertised while you watch.
     Reporters are in fact readers who are nothing more than talking heads with scripts on prompters placed in front of them. Some of these faces I observed Saturday, demonstrated that even after reading the news, they had little or no idea what they are talking about. It’s a shame that we allow ourselves to watch these uninformed ghoulish reports and even look for more.
     The newspapers on the whole did a better job. Newspapers also allow some space to the observer. It’s not that newspapers are less compelling, its just that a newspaper will be there when you get to it, or decide to get back to it. If the article appears uninformed or seeks to be sensational by concentrating on the macabre, don’t read it.
     TV on the other hand seems to rule by ambush, sensational and otherwise. I do not lack compassion for the crew of Columbia. Like almost everybody else, my heart goes out to the families.
     We should also remember that man has been going into space since the 1960s with very few mishaps. I have always respected the brave astronauts, because each time they venture into space they risk their lives in a way very few of us could ever imagine.
     Astronauts are heroes and deserve the respect and the admiration of Americans and people everywhere. When things go terribly wrong, they also deserve a dignified period of mourning without the press and every politician who thinks he or she might get a vote, by venting opinions for ratings.
     But for Columbia, I believe an excerpt from an editorial by Buz Aldrin sealed the moment: “In any case, this tragedy is no reason to give up on manned space travel.”
     Once in a ceremony given by the Society of Experimental Test Pilots for the Apollo 11 crew in 1969, Gill Robb Wilson, a founding father of America’s Civil Air Patrol wrote:
     “Somebody has to give himself
     As the price of each frontier
     Somebody has to take a course
     And climb to a rendezvous
     Where a lonesome man with a will to learn
     Can make the truth shine through.”
     Maybe next time, (although we all hope and pray that there won’t be a next time) we will not follow this disgusting and irreverent and ultimately useless course, represented as reporting the news.