The strangest, most postmodern thing happened recently. And it's not the fact that I've just posted my innermost thoughts to a weblog.
I'm in the pseudo-rustic lounge of Washington State University's student-run bookstore, sipping on a soy latte and touching up the literature review of my master's thesis. Early summertime leaves the Pullman, Wash. boutique mostly vacant except for wandering employees. There's a warm wind rustling the maple tree outside, and the quietude feels therapeutic.
Suddenly, my afternoon reverie is interrupted by a squat, middle-aged woman sporting thin red curls, who approaches the dark television set in the corner of the room. As if on cue, as if compelled by some unspeakable force, she begins poking at the controls, and the familiar thud of the set's waking monitor dashes my hope for more preoccupied bliss. At a table a few feet away, a studious-looking girl of Asian descent looks up, similarly confused as to the interruption.
"Do you want want me to turn it up a little?" asks the woman.
The girl nods blankly. I'm still confused.
"There we are." The bulbous TV comes to life, and I groan inwardly. CNN's Wolf Blitzer Reports projects a searing banner across the bottom portion of the screen: "Breaking news: Verdict reached in Michael Jackson Trial." Breaking news? What exactly, I grumble to myself, is so important about this mayhem that we must gather round like lemmings?
Coverage of the Jackson trial built to a frenzy last week
CNN's on-scene reporter announces a two-minute countdown until the Santa Maria, Calif. judge will read the jury's answer to ten counts of child molestation, charges first leveled at the frail popstar in 2003. "It doesn't get much more exciting," declares Blitzer.
"Oh come on, let's just hurry this up a little bit." The celebrity-crazed woman is growing impatient. Other clerks begin to file into the lounge, entranced by the Jackson spectacle.
"I kind of expected them to drag out the trial a lot longer."
"They said if he gets convicted all counts, the maximum penalty is 20 years."
Some 1,000 miles away, the fan-packed grounds of the Santa Maria courthouse are eerily silent, yet CNN's Ken doll must shout to be heard over a world audience on lunch break. "Okay, the jury is coming in, I'm being told. We should start to hear this audio feed from within the courtroom."
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
excellent writing and I understand your perspective completely, though I also think there is a legitimate place for this kind of spectacle in he media, although I also agree that it is a problem when spectacle replaces more substantive news rather than being in addition to it.
Thanks and welcome, Raul!