Media has lost it since Sept. 11
By Matt Wilson
Student Columnist

I think we all knew this would happen.

I was reading in last week’s Newsweek when I came upon this happy little blurb: “CBS … execs are considering green-lighting a romantic comedy set in the aftermath of the Sept. 11th strikes. The series … would star a middle-aged couple brought together when their spouses are both killed in the WTC collapse.”

Mere weeks after the networks were scrambling to take any show with a hint of terrorist-like violence in it, we get this, preliminary news about the most tasteless, vomit-inducing television endeavor since Bette. What’s next?

Is Mullah Omar going to host a new daytime talk show on NBC, a la Jenny Jones? I can just see the topic of the first episode: “My Daughter Dresses Way too Sexy!” where the audience will reprimand the young girl for showing “much too much ankle,” and for her rampant displays of one of her nostrils.

But at least this WTC show is just in the development stages, and hopefully someone at CBS will realize that making any effort to create such a show is the most offensive, exploitative thing ever.

And even if the program is developed and aired, at least it will take a while to start, which can’t be said for some of the other forms of exploitation that have already started.

For instance, it used to be that, when you turned on the TV news, you got the top stories of the day, a nice roundup of what was going on in the world, all followed by, “And that’s the way it is,” or something of the sort. But those days, of course, are over. Why? Well, because some people got anthrax, that’s why! Run for your lives! Ahhhhhhh! Don’t open your mail! It’s the apocolypse! (Oh, by the way, it is highly unlikely that you will receive anthrax in any form and even if you do, the disease is easily treated with antibiotics).

I know, it’s not like these tactics are anything new. Sensationalism for the sake of ratings has been around since … well, forever. What’s the best way to get people to watch? Scare the living crap out of them. I mean, how many times have you seen the commercials about something like an upcoming 20/20 John Stossel special telling you why you should stop eating at Arby’s? But now, at a time when people really don’t need any more worry than they already have, do ratings really matter? Does Dan Rather really need to keep perpetuating and exploiting this whole anthrax scare, or does he need to be comforting the public by informing them of the limited danger that is posed to them directly?

Along those same lines, I’m sure everyone heard (mostly via e-mail) that it wasn’t safe to go to the mall on Halloween. That there would be bioterrorist attacks and the like.

Because of this information, I happen to know quite a few people who avoided the mall that day. And how many reported cases of bioterrorism in malls were there? Not one. So now, not only are the creators of all this speculation and rumor scaring the public senseless, they’re holding down the economy too.

But that’s still not the worst. I saw the worst example of the exploitation of our country’s tragedy about a week ago. It was a music video featuring none other than M.C. Hammer himself, rapping about America’s strength. And behind him stood several members of Congress. Dancing. Badly. To M.C. Hammer music.

Western civilization, we hardly knew ye.