Elvis's death was a perfect example: The media doesn't understand Middle America
Forty years ago. I think I've restored the missing apostrophes.
Opinion: Elviss death was a perfect example: The media doesnt understand Middle America
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By Gary Abernathy August 15 at 8:11 PM
Gary Abernathy is publisher and editor of the Times-Gazette in Hillsboro, Ohio.
HILLSBORO, Ohio
On Wednesday, tens of thousands of fans will flock to Graceland to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Elvis Presleys death. Today, Presleys widespread influence and appeal are well established. But four decades ago, much of the media was caught off guard by the publics response to the singers passing.
In 1977, before cable news or the Internet, the nightly news broadcasts of CBS, NBC and ABC were at their zenith. Newspapers were enjoying their most prosperous years. But in newsrooms across America, and particularly in the media mecca of New York, Presley was barely on the radar. If they regarded him at all, it was as a 1950s icon.
Elvis was only 42, so his passing was unexpected. But what really surprised journalists was the national reaction to Presleys death. To them, his influence had ended when the Beatles hit the scene. But as the afternoon of Aug. 16, 1977, progressed, they couldnt ignore the grass-roots rumblings. Tens of thousands began trekking to Memphis, some walking off their jobs. Newsroom phone lines were burning up with people seeking more information.
At NBC, anchor David Brinkley a Southerner understood the place Presley occupied in the lives of millions. ABCs Harry Reasoner joined Brinkley in leading with the Presley story. As described in the 1980 book When Elvis Died, by Neal and Janice Gregory, Millions of viewers, not finding the information they sought, immediately tuned out the video eye and switched to one of the other networks. A CBS producer later confessed, I had no idea that he had that much popularity. ... By early evening, editors at the nations newspapers were slowly recognizing the magnitude of the national reaction. At the New York Times, according to the Gregorys, some mild panic occurred when editors discovered no one had prepared an advance obituary of Presley.
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Squinch
(50,955 posts)And they need to stop thinking it's a fault in the people from other regions that we don't spend our free time psychoanalyzing them.
My problems don't result from the fact that Middle America doesn't understand me. And theirs don't result from the fact that I CERTAINLY don't understand a bunch of stupid Trump(R) voters.
Aristus
(66,388 posts)drug-addicted, Mama's-boy lounge singer. What were they thinking?
When Jim Morrison became a washed-up, overweight, drug-addicted joke, city-America said "Wow, man; he really let himself go. You think we can get tickets for the Clapton concert?"
longship
(40,416 posts)Nope, just an oily talentless pop singer who proudly never wrote a single song.
Elvis worship disgusts me. The man had no taste in anything he did. Has anybody seen Graceland? How can anybody worship that cheap tacky excess?
Sorry. No Elvis for me.
He reminds me of Drumpf.
Marcuse
(7,488 posts)mahatmakanejeeves
(57,489 posts)These guys, for example:
And these hacks:
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)jb5150
(1,178 posts)By the time Elvis died, his fans and today's Faux viewers had a lot in common; they were old, white, cranky, living in the past, and defiantly leaned racist.
elleng
(130,974 posts)Guess I'm glad I wasn't 'here' yesterday, but today doesn't make it better.
JI7
(89,252 posts)either.