A world gone mad – on TV

Amy Winehouse. AP FILE PHOTO

The past month  has left the entire world wounded and warped with a series of tragic events led by the carnage in “peaceful” Norway that left more than 70 people dead, and the shocking demise, probably due to drug overdose, of award-winning singer Amy Winehouse, dead at only 27. What made those stunners even more palpable and graphic to viewers was their extensive coverage on television.

TV’s sometimes instantaneous and always in-your-face reportage has a way of adding to the emotional impact of an event by highlighting it with “reality” visuals and personalizing it with close-ups.

The fact that the global TV audience can total in the billions (two billion viewers were estimated to have watched the Prince William-Kate Middleton nuptials on the tube) doesn’t negate the even deeper power, to move and influence, of this “personal touch.”

The tragedy in Norway was so unexpected and incomprehensible that it initially resisted comprehension. The fact that the victims were mostly young students only made it an even more painful communal experience.

What dreams could possibly survive unscathed when children are slain by the score? Yes, there’s always hope, but dreams are made of more vulnerable, gossamer wings that can’t survive death by bullet or shrapnel.

Tormented singers

Amy Winehouse’s death was less shocking, because it was more realistically “expected” by music fans. That statement, by the way, is a shocker in its own right, because it’s so cynical. And yet, jaded fans point to the evidence of the many tormented singers – Janis Joplin, Curt Cobain, Jimi Hendricks – who, like Amy, had died when they were only 27 years young – ! The thought is enough to make one ineluctably sad – and mad.

Since there’s no bomb or bullet involved in Winehouse’s death, its “visual possibilities” are limited – but, its tragic consequences run just as deep, because the demons that drove the acclaimed singer to her demise could also bedevil an entire generation of sad, mad and disconnected youths. Not many of them will drop out and “OD,” but in some ways, their lives and prospects are being ravaged as savagely as if a bomb had been set off in their midst.

Aside from the deaths of people, there is also the demise of institutions and traditional role models, also graphically shown on global television. First, the head of the IMF and reportedly a strong candidate for president of France in the next elections is accused of sexual molestation by a hotel chambermaid – resulting in his dismissal from his powerful position. Next, TV features were run defending him and disparaging his accuser’s credibility.

Then, the chambermaid hit back by herself doing the TV rounds and graphically describing how the top financial wizard assaulted and abused her.

Finally, the charges were dropped – leaving millions of viewers confused and shocked – and in a maddeningly unrequited quest for closure!