When Anna Nicole Smith died, I remember thinking it was a tragedy. Although she had never found much success in her various film pursuits, she had been a perennial starlet of note on the Hollywood scene and, more importantly, was a young woman with her whole life in front of her, fallen before her time. Any such death should be considered unfortunate, and this was no different. What I didn’t understand at the time though was the full scope of the disaster. I didn’t realize that this particular tragedy, more than any other, would become the most important news event of early 2007. Immediately after the calamity struck, the 24-hour cable news stations sprang into action, developing ominous music and provocative graphics for their breaking news segments. Larry King and Nancy Grace cancelled their schedules. News stations dropped what they were doing and redirected their staff toward the unfolding drama.
The flurry of activity built to such a frenzy that no one, including myself, could escape. It was everywhere. There were minute by minute updates on the toxicology report, in depth analyses of Smith’s gentlemen callers, and live coverage of a melodramatic judge. The media’s diligence was truly a sight to see. Their hard work and devotion was unparalleled in recent journalistic history. The only thing even possibly to compare was the excellent work done during the Laci Peterson trial when the media truly asked the tough questions. I remember sitting patiently in front of my television, waiting to learn what color the alleged perpetrator had dyed his hair that day.
Television reporters who live and die by the ratings are only human, so the countless hours they spent on Anna Nicole’s death left little time for additional reporting. There surely were other stories that got pushed out of the way to make room, stories that certainly must have paled in comparison to America’s most recent celebrity crisis. Nonetheless, it might be interesting to go back and take a look at some of the things we missed.
February 8, 2007: The day of Smith’s untimely death. Commentators discussed the implications of the tragedy on every channel for the length of the day. Meanwhile, three young men from Boise, Idaho were killed in Iraq while hunting for roadside bombs. The oldest was 22 years old. All three were honored in their hometown papers but scarcely mentioned by national news shows.
February 22, 2007: The emotional judge in the legal battle over Smith’s body finally came to his verdict. His decision interrupted normal broadcasting to be covered nationwide as “Breaking News.” The day before, two young men, both younger than 30, were shot to death in my city of Baltimore. They will be two of approximately 17,000 Americans to die by homicide this year.
February 27, 2007: A Florida appeals court issued a stay preventing the transfer of Smith’s body to the Bahamas. Legal commentators had a field day. Meanwhile, the International Court of Justice cleared the Serbian government of the crime of genocide for the Srebrenica massacre. More than 7,000 Bosnian Muslims were killed in the 1995 incident, which was carried out by Serbs in military uniform. Other than a brief mention during their international segments, American media determined this global event was not deserving of much attention.
March 4, 2007: This evening, Larry King Live aired ‘Encore Presentation- The Funeral of Anna Nicole Smith.’ This was King’s 17th show devoted to the Anna Nicole tragedy over the previous month. During those 17 hours, approximately 5,000 people worldwide died from malaria, and another 10,000 were newly infected by HIV.
When considering the tragedies that failed to make the cut, one begins to wonder why the television news media would devote such time to Anna Nicole. Perhaps it’s because Americans love sensationalist journalism, and cable news is simply giving us what we want. News companies are out to maximize their profits after all. I can’t help thinking though that television news should serve a higher purpose. In a democratic society, the media has a responsibility to inform us, not just entertain us, and for many Americans television serves as the primary source of information. When channels like CNN and FOX focus solely on tabloid gossip and celebrities, Americans are denied the information they need to be informed citizens. Anna Nicole’s death was a tragedy, absolutely. But maybe our television news should focus a little more on the public’s interest and leave the celebrities to the tabloids.