move on

I am sorry when anyone dies at such a young age-I'm really giving myself away there aren't I?, but this is excessive. I like to watch Foxnews, and it is difficult enough to watch Geraldo Rivera blather on any subject, but move on to something more consequential.

I often stay up late. I remember seeing a little news blurb about Dianna's car crash in Paris. My first response was, "great, as if we don't get enough about her." Later, when it was revealed she passed away, I regretted my initial response, but I still think the outpouring was an odd exaggeration.

In some sense, I think media overindulgence of such events as the Simpson trial, Paris Hilton, and babies in wells, serve an important function, if not in the preferred manner. They can be morality tales, providing us with lessons about death, crime, excess, and survival, we can apply to our own lives in spite of their extraordinary and surreal circumstances. Too often though, they are mere vehicles the media exploit to create hype and boost ratings. And in the end, they denigrate the people they pretend sympathy for.

I recently watched the movie, The Queen. I went because my mom wanted to go, and I hid my lack of enthusiasm. I thought it would be some stereotypical, Hugh Grantish tripe about the royals. It turned out to be excellent. Isn't that the way things turn out?

If you haven't seen it, I would recommend it, and please skip the rest of the blog, because it contains spoilers.

The first part of the movie makes the Queen look sterile and uncaring. Dianna was clearly done wrong, but I didn't want to hear about her constantly. Then there is a part of the movie where one of Tony Blair's press aids delights in the public outcry against the queen. Though Blair is a beneficiary of this displeasure, he looks at the man, and says, "when you get it wrong, you really get it wrong don't you? This woman dedicated her entire life in service to our country." He goes on to defend her and explain she didn't try to seduce the media. She simply carried on and tried to do her duty. I watch a lot of history programs, and my image of her was during the Battle of Britain, as a valiant young girl, standing alone at a microphone offering encouragement, and hope to her country in a time of great peril. It's moving and simple.

I think celebreties like Parris Hilton would do well to emulate her reserved dignity, and so should the news media.