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There’s a little ‘them’ in all of us
I can’t remember who said it, but I once heard someone say that the key to writing a newspaper column is allowing yourself to labor under the delusion that people care what you have to say.
I’ve been carrying that line around in my head for 10 or 15 years now and it’s held up pretty well. It’s a nice thing to think about occasionally to get me off the fence about what I should write.
I wish I knew who said that. They need credit for coming up with a line that has grown legs like that one has in the age of reality TV and social networking, an age in which fame-seekers like the Heene family aren’t as rare as you might think.
For me, this delusion is an occupational hazard and, frankly, not the part of the job I like the most. Most days, I’d rather write a story about someone else and take a great photo than pontificate about my view of the world, all of this despite the fact that my role at the paper has me doing more of the latter than the former. Even then, I try to use the space I’m given to add to your understanding of something in our community or to offer up a point of view that might be a bit different, I hope. I don’t do it out of any sense of celebrity, and I happily wander through the grocery store in complete anonymity most days.
Oddly enough, I seem to be in the minority here and not just among colleagues, but in the general population.
Like many of you, I’ve followed the story of the Heene family for the past few days. I was, as it appears now, one of the suckers who was sick with worry watching the balloon float through the air. As the story became more about a possible hoax fueled by a need for fame, I started feeling worse in some ways.
Mostly, I don’t understand or want to think about how this apparent stunt, even if it were executed perfectly and no one was any the wiser, would translate to some sort of financial gain for the Heene family. I’m not saying it wouldn’t have, I’m just saying I don’t want to think about what it says about the state of media and celebrity today if it did.
The Heene family, if the police charges are true, are only the most recent, albeit way over-the-top, example of people looking for their share of the spotlight. It’s something I think goes way beyond “Jon and Kate Plus Eight” and the other publicity hounds that easily come to mind.
It seems one of the byproducts of the information age is that more and more people are living their lives as if they were on stage, even if that stage is YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, a blog or whatever it happens to be. I’d say most of us have thrown part of our lives out there for public consumption to some extent through one of the countless digital vehicles that let us do so.
Even a number of the people who post comments at the end of stories about the Heene family criticizing them for their greed for publicity are showboating a bit by seeing who can be the most insightful or clever. Shades of hypocrisy exist in all of us. And yes, I enjoy e-mail reacting to my columns and wouldn’t mind an occasional, “Hey, you’re the guy from the paper,” as I walk through the grocery store.
The thing is, the Heene story is not entirely a “them” story. It’s worth recognizing, for better or worse, that there is a shred of “us” in there, too.
Jeremy Bangs is the managing editor of Colorado Community Newspapers.
I’ve been carrying that line around in my head for 10 or 15 years now and it’s held up pretty well. It’s a nice thing to think about occasionally to get me off the fence about what I should write.
I wish I knew who said that. They need credit for coming up with a line that has grown legs like that one has in the age of reality TV and social networking, an age in which fame-seekers like the Heene family aren’t as rare as you might think.
For me, this delusion is an occupational hazard and, frankly, not the part of the job I like the most. Most days, I’d rather write a story about someone else and take a great photo than pontificate about my view of the world, all of this despite the fact that my role at the paper has me doing more of the latter than the former. Even then, I try to use the space I’m given to add to your understanding of something in our community or to offer up a point of view that might be a bit different, I hope. I don’t do it out of any sense of celebrity, and I happily wander through the grocery store in complete anonymity most days.
Oddly enough, I seem to be in the minority here and not just among colleagues, but in the general population.
Like many of you, I’ve followed the story of the Heene family for the past few days. I was, as it appears now, one of the suckers who was sick with worry watching the balloon float through the air. As the story became more about a possible hoax fueled by a need for fame, I started feeling worse in some ways.
Mostly, I don’t understand or want to think about how this apparent stunt, even if it were executed perfectly and no one was any the wiser, would translate to some sort of financial gain for the Heene family. I’m not saying it wouldn’t have, I’m just saying I don’t want to think about what it says about the state of media and celebrity today if it did.
The Heene family, if the police charges are true, are only the most recent, albeit way over-the-top, example of people looking for their share of the spotlight. It’s something I think goes way beyond “Jon and Kate Plus Eight” and the other publicity hounds that easily come to mind.
It seems one of the byproducts of the information age is that more and more people are living their lives as if they were on stage, even if that stage is YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, a blog or whatever it happens to be. I’d say most of us have thrown part of our lives out there for public consumption to some extent through one of the countless digital vehicles that let us do so.
Even a number of the people who post comments at the end of stories about the Heene family criticizing them for their greed for publicity are showboating a bit by seeing who can be the most insightful or clever. Shades of hypocrisy exist in all of us. And yes, I enjoy e-mail reacting to my columns and wouldn’t mind an occasional, “Hey, you’re the guy from the paper,” as I walk through the grocery store.
The thing is, the Heene story is not entirely a “them” story. It’s worth recognizing, for better or worse, that there is a shred of “us” in there, too.
Jeremy Bangs is the managing editor of Colorado Community Newspapers.
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