Most Tasteless Headline of 2004

[athelind]

Tsunamis shatter celebrity holidays

Awww. Poor rich people, thrown rudely in amongst the rabble in the midst of their tawdry disaster.

You know what would impress me?

A story about vacationing celebrities and tourists pitching in to help. About some wealthy, possibly famous individual who, instead of running home on the first flight available, opts to stay and apply his resources to disaster relief.

Comments

[hedgegoth.livejournal.com]

CNN also had "Frequeint Oprah Guest Safe" as a headline on day 2....

I need to stop reading the news sites.

Safe & Happy New Year to you & Lonz.

[uhusted.livejournal.com]

I saw reports in Sri Lanka about tourists staying to help with the recovery effort. But they were just 'ordinary people' so they didn't get much attention. We need more of those 'ordinary people'.

[millerwolf.livejournal.com]

Yeah really. They are always in such a hurry to leave whenever something goes wrong. Reminds me of that movie The Year of Living Dangerously.

[r-caton.livejournal.com]

The celebrities who would pitch in are precisely the sort who would do it because it seemed the right thing to do and who wouldn't court publicity afterwards....so we won't hear about them for a long while yet.
Dickie Attenborough got a headline "My Agony" in the Express I think while the extent of it was still becoming clear...but I suspect he would rather not have, or have had reason to.

Celebs are news...glitzy people are news, and the well paid glossy nonentities who write about them are so anxious that the plebs should realise what a terrible time rich folks (like themselves) have that the taste filters where fitted get switched off. Good news to bury envy in don't you think?

[twentythoughts.livejournal.com]

You have to remember that only the ones one gets to know about, and those who are deemed to be newsworthy, are written about. There are nuances over in South Asia that probably aren't heard about because all native communications in the affected areas were rendered useless, and all the news networks and such only have what they bring with them if they decide to head into the disaster areas.

Another thing is that staying to help isn't always as good as you'd think. If you don't know what you're doing, you'll be milling around and getting in the way of those who are trying to maintain control. While not an actual example of this, the Norwegians who've gone there to try to find their loved ones (some of whom have now demanded that Norwegian authorities cover whatever money they use there) are doing more harm than good, because everyone down there is one more mouth to feed, and one more body in danger of getting caught in the inevitable epidemics.

Of course, there's a difference between this and volunteering for one of the rescue units there. This is such a huge disaster that at this point, when the heroic last-minute rescues are done, and all you've got left is the long-lasting stuff, there's no reason for anyone to be in the disaster areas unless they really, honestly can make a difference.

[tombfyre.livejournal.com]

Famous people? Helping??? Nahhh, they're better than us! Perhaps the next wave will fall on their rich assed homes in hollywood.

[stalbon.livejournal.com]

The filmmakers of Open Water were also caught in the tsunami in Thailand, and while I'm sure they left on the first flight available (they were with their children, if that's any consolation), I do believe they at least helped people get out of the immediate danger they were in as well. You can find the link here:

http://movies.yahoo.com/news/ap/20041231/110455110000.html

And after re-reading the last part, it's...eh, ok, it's almost as bad as if they had done nothing. Saying they were enjoying drinks and food next to yachts afterwards is just as bad as having left the place entirely.

[baxil.livejournal.com]

Yes. Some fuck of an AP editor needs to have their fingernails pulled out for writing that headline. That's shocking, appalling, and a lousy piece of English considering the magnitude of the disaster. But ...

The story itself, I think, is a far different thing. Who among the commenters here has actually read it? These are largely not people whose vacations were spoiled in the same way that one might talk about breaking a nail or having the chauffeur wreck the car. These were people -- rich people, yes -- who went walking along the beach and died in the waves, or ended up in hospital beds, or lost loved ones. I don't think it's fair to mock that pain any more than it is to mock the pain of the other 100,000 victims.

Why aren't they helping? Because, well, maybe, they've got stories like this:

Nemcova, 25, clung to a tree for eight hours as the water swirled around her. She was recovering in a Thai hospital from broken bones, possibly including a broken pelvis, and unspecified internal injuries.

Atlee, 33, was swallowed by the raging waters and was still missing Tuesday.

"I've spoken to Petra several times and she's in pretty bad shape," Shuter said. "She's on pain medication. She probably doesn't realize yet the magnitude of the disaster."

[uhusted.livejournal.com]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/03/tsunami.bullock.ap/index.html

Hey, here's some good news. :)