The American television industry’s great tradition of capitalizing on tragedy has been a thriving business of late. Why, just last month, viewers were treated to the epic instant classic “D.C. Sniper: 23 Days of Fear,” based on last year’s two-man rampage through the Washington, D.C., area with a sniper rifle, killing 10 people.
Thanks to the USA network, those who don’t live on the East Coast — and thus were not terrorized in person — could catch it on the tube after dinner. Bring the kids, too, we don’t think they’ve seen enough horror yet.
But this month brought a menu of other tragedy and, dare we say, propaganda, straight from reality to the television.
The story of Elizabeth Smart, whom CNN affectionately refers to simply as “Elizabeth,” was exploited nationally this month on CBS. Smart, who was 15 years old at the time, was abducted from her Utah home at knifepoint, paraded around in a veil and threatened for months before she was found walking with her abductors in Salt Lake City.
Sounds pretty traumatizing. But what’s traumatizing to one little girl is naturally television fodder for the rest of America, where a tear in the eye of the average Joe is enough for corporate executives to showcase just about anything. The media pounced on Smart’s story like a stuffed tiger on a tuna sandwich, and after months of intense coverage and controversy, it almost seemed like young white girls from Utah were the only people who ever get kidnapped in America.
After all, in the months after her rescue, American consumers were able to immerse themselves in the story. There were the Elizabeth Smart talk show spots (Oprah, NBC Today Show), the Elizabeth Smart news coverage, the Elizabeth Smart book, the Elizabeth Smart tabloid headlines, the Elizabeth Smart media battle and even the Elizabeth Smart polls debating whether she’s been on television too much (50 percent of Utah citizens said ‘yes’). Somewhere in this mess of ratings people forgot that Smart endured a harrowing experience, and despite the media blitz, nobody seemed to ask why.
The story of Jessica Lynch is another example of media exploitation of late, and unless any Americans locked themselves in a bomb shelter this past year, chances are they’ve heard about it. Lynch, a supply clerk with the 507th Maintenance Battalion, was captured by Iraqi forces and taken to a local hospital during the recent campaign to topple Saddam Hussein’s government. Her daring rescue from the nearly empty hospital, conveniently caught on tape and disseminated to media outlets, served as an allegory to give viewers that warm feeling inside during wartime and, arguably, distract them from keeping track of the war’s progress.
But people are captured and rescued all the time in war, so why did Lynch become such a media darling?
Lynch’s story, which has been ripe with controversy (Did her gun jam or did she go down shooting? Was she raped or was she treated well by doctors? Was she heavily guarded or had her captors long since fled?) was beamed to millions this month in NBC’s “Saving Jessica Lynch.”
Again, the brouhaha over what really happened did a disservice to Lynch. Instead of being honored for her service, she was centered around pointing fingers and heated arguments about just how much she was hurt and whether she is really the American hero. By the way, if the movie and news coverage and tabloids and the official Jessica Lynch Web site didn’t give you enough, the book is out, too.
Even more aggravating were the news stories following the premier of both made-for-television movies about which was more popular. Now we’ve got media coverage on which tragedy garnered the most viewership.
But despite the frenzy, we remain confident that the television networks are hard at work with movies about myriad other young girls and POWs who have faced similar situations in the past. We’ll be waiting patiently in front of the TV.