A chronological sample from my Terrell Owens mailbag ...
"Well, you guys finally did it. The media finally drove T.O. to make an attempt on his own life with all their negativity."
"The media is salivating over this speculation. You all want to profit off of his misery."
"I hope the media is going to apologize to T.O. for calling this a suicide attempt."
If America's favorite pastime is celebrity gossip/news, then our second favorite pastime is blaming the media for it.
As so much e-mail has confirmed for me, the media are our common enemy. It's left-wing if you are right-wing, right-wing if you are left-wing, and sensationalistic to everyone. You never win any points defending the media, so I am wading into turbulent waters here. After all, when the villagers have already grabbed the torches, it is probably a bad time to stand next to the monster with a good word.
Gordon Keith
Newspaper Column
So let's start with a bad word – the media are annoying. I am not exactly sure why, but I think it has something to do with how much power they have. They get to order the importance of the stories, and with their selection of words, they color the conclusions we draw from their information. Then they fall all over themselves to make promos claiming that they had it first.
The ironic thing here? The media weren't wrong in breaking the T.O. story. They accurately reported the initial police report, which is sound journalism. But while the T.O. camp is saying the police got it totally wrong, most people will still blame the media for it.
Well, I don't blame the media for reporting it. And I certainly don't know why a police officer would lie about a suicide attempt when he has little to gain and everything to lose. So we stay on the merry-go-round for another day.
One thing I do know is that the most sickening thing that was said about this whole episode was not uttered by anyone in the media. It was uttered by Kim Etheredge, T.O.'s publicist, when wrapping up her comments at T.O.'s news conference. In explaining why a person like T.O. would never kill himself, Etheredge exclaimed, "Terrell has 25 million reasons why he should be alive!"
That's right, all you potential suicides, money is the primary thing to live for! Now go take on the day.
Listen to Gordon's take on the day's news on "The Ticket" KTCK-AM (1310) weekdays from 6 to 10 a.m. E-mail him at gordon@gordonkeith.com.
