Voices
cause we can, should we?
The quotidian individual reaction to a press intrusion of such
magnitude commonly comes in
two waves. The first is indignant
disgust and hasty judgment—
“How could they? And shame
on whoever buys it!” The second
rush is curiosity and capitulation—“Oh, let me see. Just one
peek.” At root are powerful twin
human impulses: to be outraged
and to look. It’s a tangle of selfloathing masked as righteousness
interwoven with morbid curiosity.
Since I am employed as a journalist, I dispensed with the first
and went straight to the second—
hunting online to see the pictures, to marvel at how normal
the royal couple appears to be.
There Kate was, tenderly massaging sun lotion on Wills’ back…
wait, is that Kate sneaking a cigarette? Wow, no apparent boob
job? Gosh, the future king and
queen relax just like me!
Then comes a form of public
group therapy and mild introspection delivered via talking
heads who seek to contextualize
the incident. “Why do we care?
When will it end? What’s next—
snuff films on prime time?” This
discussion eventually peters out
SUZANNE
ELY
HUFFINGTON
09.30.12
as the news cycle rushes on to
the next thrill.
Incidentally, a day prior to the
publication of Kate’s nipples, on
September 13, the Los Angeles
Times ran on its cover a photograph of the mortally wounded
U.S. ambassador to Libya, J.
Christopher Stevens, which
prompted furious and spirited
reader response, mostly condemning the paper’s
news judgment or
lack thereof.
It’s a
Two days prior to
tangle of
that in Los Angeles,
self-loathing
on September 11, live
masked as
TV footage aired of
righteousness
a police chase that
interwoven
ended in a gun battle and subsequent
with morbid
violent shooting of a
curiosity.”
murder and carjacking suspect. That the
suspect didn’t die on camera is
beside the point since the footage
streamed in real time.
And in between, on September
12, a more participatory, frenzied, and dare I say it, amusing,
police pursuit unfolded across
Los Angeles. Four bank robbery
suspects on the lam threw in a
twist—as the cat and mouse hunt
raged through downtown L.A.,