Monday, September 04, 2006

The Today Show covers Steve Irwin's death

The Crocodile Hunter Mr. Steve Irwin was killed earlier today while filming an underwater documentary. He'll be missed.

There's nobody who's more enthuasiastic and passionate about wildlife and nature conservation than him. He was always great fun to watch even if you were terrified of the creatures he was wrestling with.

That's what you would've expected to perhaps see in the news coverage of his death. How sadly mistaken I was. I briefly caught the morning news shows covering the news. I was disgusted by what I saw.

Pretty much all the major networks had decided to cover his death in the following manner:

20 second blurb stating he'd died and how. No elaboration, nothing, no word on how his family was doing or that he'd died doing what he loved.

The next few minutes were devoted not to telling about his lifework and his achievements. Naah, that would've apparently been much too boring. Instead all the major networks went onto showing people how Mr. Irwin in 2004 took his baby in an alligator pit while feeding the alligators. This was covered in length, as if it was the defining moment of his life. The Today Show went as far as to show almost the entire interview of Steve Irwin by Matt Lauer. In the interview Matt Lauer is practically ripping Mr. Irwin a new asshole. It was very confrontational.

Where is the respect, humility and decency in that?? Utterly despicable.

One wonders at what point did the NBC producers stop being human beings in favor of the neverending chase for ratings.

-TPP

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

i just wanted the Irwin friends and family to know how much Steve has affected my life, even as far away as he is from me.

My condolences and my love to Terri, Bindi, Bob, and the rest of the Australia Zoo family. May the love and support you receive from your community as well as the international community help you through the hard times ahead. I know Steve's passion will live on through his children, and all of us who have watched him work his magic! I know i will always remember Steve, and his message to the world.