Good morning ladies and gentlemen,
I don’t normally listen to NPR (National Public Radio), but last Thursday, I was able to listen an interview with Mariane Pearl in my brother and sister-in-law’s kitchen. Ms. Pearl was being interviewed about her book entitled, “A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband, Danny Pearl”. Daniel Pearl was a reporter for The Wall Street Journal before being kidnapped and killed in Pakistan on January 23, 2002.
As I listened to the interview, I couldn’t help but notice how composed and solid Ms. Pearl was. She seemed to answer each question with a serious, straightforward, and compelling approach, which gave her a great deal of on-air credibility. I was left quite amazed by how she handled herself, under the circumstances from which she has come from. Later that afternoon, I came to a radio station while driving that was speaking of Ms. Pearl in contrast to some of the contestants on ABC’s The Bachelor. The two female broadcasters were also amazed at Ms. Pearl’s character and her strength and rebuked the behavior and philosophies of the contestants on The Bachelor. They (the broadcasters) asked how they could become more like Ms. Pearl, in the way that she handled and conducted herself.
This past Monday, The New York Times ran an article written by Julie Salamon in their Arts section devoted to Ms. Pearl. In her attempt to tell her husband’s life and death, she didn’t want to sentimentalize her situation, her book or her husband’s story. Ms. Pearl states, “Even before Danny died people were trying to reach me every which way, and they were already doing the weeping widow thing…My sole purpose in getting to the media was to try and reach Danny’s captors in Pakistan. People were trying to coach me to look even more pregnant and weepy. It was bizarre.” Ms. Pearl in no way wanted to simplify or dumb down the events that she has lived through during and after her husband’s kidnap.
Unfortunately, the media has a way of doing exactly that. At certain times the use of sound bites and video clips fails to adequately capture the reality of a trying situation. For example, I find it appalling that Pfc. Jessica Lynch gained so much attention from the media after her rescue from an Iraqi hospital. Yes, her story is amazing, but to try and pump her up to celebrity status (which is what some media outlets wanted to do) is to take advantage of her situation for marketing purposes and the coveted exclusive interview or scoop. Ms. Lynch was also not the only member of our country’s armed forces that was rescued; and what about the families of those who lost their lives during battle? Show me a “ripped from the headlines” episode of a television drama and I’ll show you a group of writers and producers who had the creative and imaginative sections of their brains sucked out by a Bissell vacuum cleaner. We are bombarded with news at a dizzy pace through instant Internet access, and twenty-four hour newscasts. We don’t need the same stories retold through the fictional eyes of a television series. We should stand up against the sugarcoating; Mickey-Mouse version of news stories that we see every night on T.V.
It seems that Ms. Pearl is trying to do this by delicately avoiding all that could be detrimental to her and her husband’s story, while still partaking in, “the media waltz” (Ms. Pearl’s take on her many appearances). I applaud her for this effort. There are more compelling and meaningful stories in the world than whether or not J.Lo and Ben are getting married – find some!!
Jonathan
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