Today, true to the narcissistic (or self-reflective, depending on your point of view) tendency in the profession, coverage of the Teele episode turns to the question of the media's share of responsibility for pushing Teele over the edge, and over the Miami Herald's decision to fire columnist Jim DeFede (lots of stuff on Romanesko): whether it was unfair (many at the Herald believe it was), and whether the taping itself was illegal. To be fair, many of the questions are being fueled by angry members of the Black community, who are laying much of the blame for Teele's suicide at the doorstep of the press...
Columnist Leonard Pitts tackles the subject of the media's responsibility to investigate the powerful, and pushing a person too far:
I once saw promotional material for my colleague, columnist Carl Hiaasen, in which Carl said -- and I paraphrase -- ''They don't pay me to hold hands with my readers and sing Kumbayah.'' That quote has always stayed with me.
Because he's right. It is not the news media's job to spare feelings. Rather, it is media's job to put the corrupt, the inept, the mendacious, the venal, the hypocritical and the plain stupid ''on blast,'' as the kids say, i.e., to publicize their sins and misdeeds broadly. To speak truth to power and truth about power. To call spades spades.
DEHUMANIZING OUR SUBJECTS
It is an unavoidable byproduct of that process that we make people piñatas, objects for others to line up and take a whack. It happened to Bill Clinton, happened to Robert Bork, happened to John Rocker, happened to Arthur Teele.
I intend no apology for, denial of or absolution of those men's sins, real or perceived. My only point is that universal derision has this way of objectifying people, making them not people anymore at all, but caricatures, symbols of this social failing or that human weakness. It makes them seem not quite flesh, not really blood, so that you and I can take our whacks without concern that the thing on the receiving end really feels the blows.
But every once in awhile, you are reminded -- brutally -- otherwise.
The Teele case reminds me of another eerie "made for TV" suicide -- the 1987 suicide at a packed press conference by a Pennsylvania politician named R. Budd Dwyer. Dwyer had been convicted of taking a $300,000 bribe while he was state treasurer, though he continued to proclaim his innocence. On January 22, 1987, the day before his sentencing (at which he faced up to 55 years in prison), Dwyer called a national press conference, made a speech, handed out several envelopes, and then took out a gun and shot himself through the mouth. The case became a case study in media ethics for the choices each station made over how much of the grizly suicide video to show. I remember the case from having seen a contraband video of the shooting while working at a film school in New York City in 1991.
Like Arthur Teele, who killed himself in the lobby of the Miami Herald on Wednesday, Dwyer seemed to be sending a message to the media -- or seeking public sympathy for himself -- by taking his life so publicly. Thankfully Teele didn't call a press conference.
More on the coverage:
The Herald turns to the post-death investigation, including a focus on the canvas bag Teele had with him when he shot himself -- one whose contents may have been of interest to the federal grand jury that indicted him on corruption charges. The paper also provides a detailed account of the corruption allegations against Teele, and a chilling account of his final moments.
The paper also covers the anger of some in the Black community over Teele's death -- directed both at the media and at other Miami politicians... although I talked with a former constituent of Teele's who is active in pushing for the revitalization of Overtown, the heart of Teele's former district, who told me there are more than a few Black folk in the neighborhood who, while sorry for Teele's passing, found him utterly useless in actually producing results for the community he served -- something many people aren't ready to excuse him for.
The rival paper, the Sun-Sentinel, delves into Teele's unraveling also, and offers competing memories of the man -- good and bad.
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%>
Tell a friend
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sendmail.To = email
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sendmail.Subject = "Check out this website"
'send a specific page or send a site url
dim url
'url = Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER")
url = "http://www.aspbasics.net"
'This is the content of the message.
sendmail.Body = "Site recommendation from a friend!" & _
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'this sets mail priority.... 0=low 1=normal 2=high
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%>
"[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.' Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, August, 1788
