Bob Simon
Andy Kropa/Invision/AP
Andy Kropa/Invision/AP
Brad Barket/Invision/AP
Burned wings, tarnished rep, fall from grace
After feasting for days and nights on the Brian Williams fall from grace, we now have a real person to mourn in Bob Simon.
Brian Williams: the lie, described as "I conflated...." (a giant fart of a lie) tarnishes Williams, but with him perhaps the entire image of a TV newscaster as a god, albeit a lesser god.
In the US people adore a man delivering news from battlefield, earthquake, flood, tsunami or massacre, digesting the exotic and dangerous and transforming sometimes unspeakable news into an information bolus the public can re-digest.
I am totally with witty, enthusiastic sportscasters, who are sports heroes in their own right.
But to promote almost-handsome newscasters to star status is also to warp our understanding of the news, and be vulnerable to their flawed content and delivery.
One can say the same thing about print news and internet news--they can manipulate.
But the direct human delivery and the subtle but real emotional impact of a talking head are hard to beat for influence.
People are now chastising NBC for their severe reaction, that they might ruin his career.
Ten million for looking serious and lying? Why are people treading on eggshells?
I think it's because the newscaster-as-hero may be changing and the networks are scared as hell.
Meanwhile we can certainly mourn the untimely death of Bob Simon.
He didn't need to make things up, he was actually there.
RIP.
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/feb/12/bob-simon-dies-in-new-york-car-crash
