Trapped on a cruise ship, with only bread, hot dogs, bottled water, and military rations….no showers; no sumptuous banquet spreads at every meal; no frolicking to the pounding beat in the on-board disco; the abject terror of knowing that at any time you could be forced to do something or make a choice you don’t want to make.
Such is the gruel of the 24-hour television news cycle.
The folks on the disabled cruise ship are “victims???” At least two national news outlets referred to them as such. One of them (CNN) had a live interview with two of the “victims”, women who seemed to be more interested in craning their necks to see themselves on the TV monitor than paying attention to the insipid questions the anchorette was asking them.
I have a friend who’s a TV news anchor in Milwaukee, and in desperation (driven no doubt by a 20-something producer) she posted on her Facebook page last week a plea for ANYBODY who knows ANYTHING about how to get in touch with ANYONE who has a connection to ANYONE on the disabled cruise ship to call her at once. Presumably, the most tenuous of connections would have been acceptable. I’ve been on a couple cruises, back in the day. I should have called her and volunteered my expertise.
Since TV’s default position is EXCESS, we were treated last week to constant updates, day after day, of the VICTIMS trapped aboard the dead-in-the-water mega-cruise-ship, inaccurate reports that they were being fed Spam (instead of duck l’orange), and a ceaseless parade of trivial information, breathlessly delivered as “BREAKING NEWS.”
Just think, if this had happened 20 short years ago, we may never have been so completely informed about the plight of these hapless victims.
Oh, the humanity!
ReplyDeleteThen again, horror stories have long been a staple, if only for their appeal to voyeurism and schadenfreude, or to stand as proof that woe can befall anyone.
W.C. Fields was heard to moan ... "Once ... in the wilds of Afghanistan, I lost my corkscrew, and we were forced to live on nothing but food and water for days."
That awful coverage also drove me nuts, Tim. And made me think of the relatives who REALLY lived through hard times during the Depression or saw horrible battles in WW 2-they'd be laughing hard at these "victims". Inconvenienced on a cruise ship for a few days while the US Coast Guard sails to your rescue- really, give us a break...
ReplyDeleteDL
>> Just think, if this had happened 20 short years ago, we may never have been so completely informed about the plight of these hapless victims. <<
ReplyDeleteNow that is just too horrible to contemplate!
I contemplate in smug amusement the utter luxury of no longer subscribing to any TV delivery service. We don't even have rabbit ears. As of Monday it's been a full 11 years since we unplugged the babble box.
So, while I can feel the pain of your plight -- not being able to find a news channel that doesn't offer wall-to-wall, minute-by-minute, blow-by-blow accounts of Michael Jackson's death or the slow towing of the cruise ship victims back to San Diego -- I'm really unable to conjure up the emotional juice to establish any level of empathic understanding, do you see?
The Town Crank
Neenah
Hieronymous,
ReplyDelete>> "Once ... in the wilds of Afghanistan, I lost my corkscrew, and we were forced to live on nothing but food and water for days." <<
Oh, that is precious! I'd forgotten that one. Excellent!
The Town Crank
Neenah