Not long ago a retired news anchor reminded me that the news is just what it is and nothing more, it is a pretend world of carefully chosen events making up a created reality, one which straddles between the status quo of perceived realities and current trends that are or interest or ironic in nature. But what is news really? And why do we put news personalities at the top of our celebrity lists?
The reason I ask is I met this gentleman in the Jacksonville Beach area, if you are familiar with the area, I was in Ponte Vedra Beach Country Club. The older gentleman was an older National TV Anchor Man, one I did not recognize, he was very surprised I did not recognize him or his name. We both decided it was because it was before my time. He was apparently quite famous in the 60s and 70s and said that my parents would surely know his name and told me to ask them.
Now we find a dear friend to many and TV Anchor man has died named; Tim Russert. It seems we have elevated his status in our minds because he is familiar and on our TV Sets always interviewing famous people. Many say he as a great reporter, but why do we see greatness this way. I mean there are several "Great Accountants" but they never get the same notoriety or fame? Why is that? Because they are not on TV talking to the rich and famous?
Do we assume that those who are reporters, TV Anchors or news celebrities to be better than all of us? Because if we were in the same profession who is to say we might not have done a better job or had better observation skills. Tim Russet appears to be a genuine nice guy from all the reports on TV about him after his very young and tragic death, but think how many other people died that week in the US and we didn't even hear about them, while Tim Russert had countless hours of coverage for more than a week.