Tragedy vs politics
In covering breaking news events, timing is everything
The impeachment trial of a US president, the announcement of the “Deal of the Century,” and the tragic death of football superstar Kobe Bryant made for a historic week.
That’s not a chronological list. Chronologically it would read impeachment: Kobe Bryant, deal, impeachment, and impeachment.
Depending on where you are and who feeds you your news, you might want to change the order of those events. The order of significance of world events is often determined by location and interest.
Almost every news media outlet in the United States pushed the impeachment. It was the beginning, middle and end of almost every news show and news webpage. Newspapers devoted pages, not columns, to their coverage. It was overkill, overdone and overwhelmingly boring.
To the chagrin of Israel-lovers, President Donald J. Trump’s “Deal of the Century” was more like a commercial break than a news item. The deal had been trumpeted for so long, and its announcement promised and then postponed so many times, so that for American audiences when it was finally unfurled, it became a one-day non-event.
Certainly the Israeli press and Jewish media covered the deal. So did Arabic media and the Farsi press. For those for whom the Deal was a big deal, it received worthy coverage. But those audiences were pre-determined. They knew, even before hearing any details, whether they would be nodding in approval or flailing their arms in disagreement and distress.
Nobody can predict a helicopter crash. Nobody can predict nine lives ending in a ball of fire. Kobe Bryant’s death was a tragedy that wrenched the hearts of
Americans. He was a basketball hero, an icon, a father who died on his way to coach his 13-yearold daughter’s team – after first stopping off at his local church. And his beloved daughter, Gigi, a budding basketball player in his image, died too.
The front-page stories and headlines in three newspapers on the Saturday morning closing out the week exemplified the interests of American media and the American public. They are not the same.
The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal led with banner headlines announcing the impeachment trial vote. The 51 to 49 vote which determined that no witnesses would be called, in essence, ended the trial. To the uninitiated, they are both elitist newspapers.
The New York Post, a politically conservative tabloid, ran a frontpage picture of rows of seats in Staples Coliseum, the LA Lakers court, the team for which Kobe played, draped in basketball jerseys. The jerseys were Kobe’s, LA Lakers 24. In the corner was a photo of Kobe’s close friend and teammate, LeBron James, who had orchestrated the tribute.
The Post covered the senate vote, and covered it for many pages, but it was not its cover story. Its cover story was devoted to the hearts of NY Post readers, not to their politics. The editors understood that for most Americans the death of Kobe Bryant usurped their interest in the impeachment and, certainly, in the “Deal of the Century.” For elitists it was impeachment. For Main Street, mainstream America, even in New York City, it was Kobe Bryant.
Timing is everything in news. Tragedy does not accommodate the scheduling issues of politics.
Did Trump choose to announce his deal during the impeachment trial to change the focus of news coverage? If he did, it didn’t work out the way he planned. Even the death of a beloved sports hero, the week before the Super Bowl could not sway die-hard politicos and Trump-obsessed media from their story.
When analyzing the reality and the commitment and the interests of viewers and readers, not of the presenters and the media outlets but of the audiences, it appears abundantly clear that when faced with hard, cold politics or heart-wrenching tragedy – tragedy triumphs. The people are much more interested in the human tragedy of one of their heroes than they are in the politics of hate or even the politics of resolving a heretofore unresolvable issue.
People need to connect to the story. They can relate to Kobe Bryant and to his grieving family; they can’t relate to the impeachment.
The author is a political commentator. He hosts the TV show Thinking Out Loud on JBS TV. Follow him on Twitter @MicahHalpern.