It goes without saying that the Nov. 16 murder of Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen was a tragedy for those who knew and loved her. But beyond the confines of the movie industry, was it newsworthy?
You’d certainly think so from watching TV newscasts or scanning the headlines online, yet what would explain the media's fascination with this particular death? The best explanation I can come up with is that the obsessive coverage of this case, carrying with it the implication that America should have a keen interest in knowing who killed Ronni Chasen and why, is that we are now seeing the logical extension of our cult of celebrity.
Although Chasen is described in news stories as a well-known publicist, she was unknown to the public at large. So her death became big news not because she was famous, which she was not in the true sense of that word, but because she represented the famous.
Chasen’s murder, which police now view as a random act of violence and a possible robbery gone bad, has been deemed newsworthy not because of who she was but because of who she knew. That’s the kind of country we live in.
Last year, there were 370 homicides in Detroit and 143 in St. Louis. As of late last month, there have been 33 homicides this year in Camden, N.J. Odds are few, if any, of those victims made national headlines. And if any of them did, it probably wasn’t on a sustained basis, with news stories day after day, week after week.
Anonymous in life, anonymous in death.
You’d certainly think so from watching TV newscasts or scanning the headlines online, yet what would explain the media's fascination with this particular death? The best explanation I can come up with is that the obsessive coverage of this case, carrying with it the implication that America should have a keen interest in knowing who killed Ronni Chasen and why, is that we are now seeing the logical extension of our cult of celebrity.
Although Chasen is described in news stories as a well-known publicist, she was unknown to the public at large. So her death became big news not because she was famous, which she was not in the true sense of that word, but because she represented the famous.
Chasen’s murder, which police now view as a random act of violence and a possible robbery gone bad, has been deemed newsworthy not because of who she was but because of who she knew. That’s the kind of country we live in.
Last year, there were 370 homicides in Detroit and 143 in St. Louis. As of late last month, there have been 33 homicides this year in Camden, N.J. Odds are few, if any, of those victims made national headlines. And if any of them did, it probably wasn’t on a sustained basis, with news stories day after day, week after week.
Anonymous in life, anonymous in death.
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