The death of Johnny Carson - this week's news diversion

[devilgrrl]

All due respect to Johnny, loved watching him but come on people, he didn't find the cure for cancer, leave it alone.

[ronnykmarshall]

1. It's actually a diversion ...

from the Paris Hilton ripping off that DVD!

:silly:

Ya know, I was going to go up to Sunset and check that news stand .... nawwww!

[bryant69]

2. So basically anybody that doesn't find the cure for cancer

isn't worth remembering? That's comforting, I guess.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[devilgrrl]

15. Not if we have to hear about for the next 9,000 years...

if I remember correctly, the media wouldn't shut up about John Lennon either. Has he come back to life since?

[bryant69]

24. No, but he was assassinated--kind of puts a spin on the news

And Lennon was worthy of remembering as well.

And anyway, don't you think 9,000 years is just a little bit of an exageration? This story lasts a week, week and a half tops, and NBC will probably do a special or two. It's not like they are sitting there saying "Well we finally got our documentary finished on how President Bush planned and executed September 11th. But I guess we'll drop it and do a Johnny Carson special instead. And maybe we can work in something on John Lennon."

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[AngryAmish]

32. He was not assassinated

(my apologies to Chris Rock)

Politicians get assassinated. John Lennon just got his ass shot.

[bryant69]

37. What have you got against John Lennon?

I mean why so hateful towards him? At any rate despite my apparent misnomer, the public ass shooting of John Lennon made big news because he got shot.

[liberalhistorian]

48. Oh, that makes

it a lot easier, since it didn't really mean all that much. Thanks, I feel ever so much better now about Lennon's death. :eyes:

[WillyT]

53. Maybe... Maybe Not...

"Laurel and Hardy, that's John and Yoko.
And we stand a better chance under that guise…
Because all the serious people like
Martin Luther King and Kennedy and Gandhi got shot."

John Lennon

And...

At nearly three hundred pages, John Lennon's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) file reveals that he was under "constant surveillance." His apartment was watched, he was followed, and his phone was tapped. The FBI did not keep a particularly low profile around the ex-Beatle, apparently attempting to harass him into silence or at least drive him nuts, similar to the tactic they had used on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., just a few short, but eventful years earlier.

In late 1972, when the "surveillance" was at its peak, John Lennon told humorist Paul Krassner, "Listen, if anything happens to Yoko and me, it was not an accident."

Link: http://www.john-lennon.net/whoauthorizedtheassassinationofjohnlennon.htm

For what it's worth...

:shrug:

[dweller]

3. while it's been overplayed, as usual,

at least they are playing some clips of his Reagan jokes. 2 different ones so far that i've seen.

I don't mean to imply that i don't want to see the news of JC's passing, but the way some of the coverage has been...overdone. Not the way i would expect Carson to want it. He relished his privacy, and it seems too many talking heads are just so jolly about talking about him now.

dp

edit: clarity, sorta...

[devilgrrl]

16. Exactly!

I'm so on the same page with you.

[KharmaTrain]

29. Weekend News = Death Valley

This was a non-story in how it played out. This is the "resume builder" for the weekend/part-time crew. Do a good job and CNNservative may put you on the RNC payroll. <sarcasm /almost off>

The other news stories...the Blizzard, was being covered locally and football were happening elsewhere...this was something for them to play with.

I don't know if you recall the non-stop "non-coverage" when JFK Jr's plane went down. It also happened over a weekend, thus the overkill coverage there...long after most of us knew the key detail...he had been killed in a plane crash. Watching endless hours of the crash scene were just wasting time because they had nothing else to show. This is the hazards of trying to fill out 24/7 coverage.

Yes, I know the time could be better used to discuss substansive issues...but that's what these networks see their role as. They play "town crier"...yelling what people want to hear loud and long enough until you're tired of it, then they start yelling the next "news". What we need to scrutinize is who is putting those words in their ears.

[cruadin]

50. I think you hit a key point, but whether it happens on a...

weekend or during the work week, the corporate media machine needs to move product.

Dramatic events concerning a well-known celebrity (whether famous or infamous) is a no-brainer from their perspective. All they have to do is keep shoveling that product 'til the next "event" occurs.

[liberal N proud]

4. Johnny Carson did more for this country than Ronnie Regan

And I have 1000 times more respect. And he won't get a week long flood the media send off.
We will miss him.

[DearAbby]

25. I have to agree, I was moved to tears at the loss of Johnny.

Being a 60s baby, I grew up with the Tonight Show, telling me it's time for bed, later I was allowed to stay up and listen to him. He was like a family member. Being a local boy from Nebraska. He had worked 30 years in the industry, giving a humorous view to politics. A progressive voice. But not a man to toot his own horn, He should be so honored.


Thanks Johnny. :)

[UdoKier]

5. There is ALWAYS plenty of material for distracting from real news.

And the American people have come to want and expect it.

I liked Johnny and grew up with him. I find stories about his passing much less annoying than those about Scott & Laci, JonBenet, or even the Beltway Sniper.

[SharonRB]

12. I agree

And you can add Paris Hilton to the top of that list. I know it's a diversion, but I think it's one most of us can stomach.

[Must_B_Free]

6. Johnny's death symbolizes the end of an era

So, no its not being overplayed.

[moggie12]

7. You know, you got me thinking

I bet Johnny would have had a few pithy comments about Bush. Jay Leno is pretty useless: He's buddies with Arnold, for goodness sake, isn't he?? What would Johnny have said about Bush and the RW & Christian ascendency?? I wonder.....

[noonwitch]

9. Probably the stuff Letterman says, since it was revealed Johnny sent him

jokes to use. Johnny was the greatest. He's the only comic that my parents, grandparents and me and my siblings all liked. Not too many funny guys have that kind of appeal, probably because his humor was clean, for the most part. When it wasn't clean, it was still innuendo, not graphic. My grandparents generation (Grandma is 88 and Grandpa 91) don't like graphic.

[oc2002]

10. Johny preffered Letterman to Leno to take over the show.....

[WI_DEM]

8. this is one of those celebrity deaths that is more than a diversion

because he really did have an inpact on culture and opinions. His monologues probably formed popular opinion more than many so-called newsmakers.

[Rowdyboy]

11. I'm sure he would have preferred not to be the center of attention

All he had to do was stay alive

[Inland]

13. Perfect cable news story.

1) tons of video to play
2) thousands of celebs willing to give a three minute interview
3) three times removed from anything remotely controversial, as it is about a television personality from over ten years ago who had no known existence beyond his professional life

Cheap, easy, and the fundies won't write you any letters. What's not to like?

[Beware the Beast Man]

14. Hey, great to know that all celebrity deaths are "diversions."

:eyes: Cure for cancer or otherwise, he was an entertainment icon. He deserved tribute.

[devilgrrl]

18. Yeah, let's hear that when the mourning goes on for months on end...

Sure he deserves a tribute, however, his passing doesn't constitute coverage for the ENTIRE DURATION of the local 11 O'clock news!

:eyes::eyes::eyes:

[bunkerbuster1]

23. How to put this nicely. um... why the hell would you waste your time

watching your local 11 o'clock tv news in the first place?

You're expecting, what, when you do this? Enlightenment?

[devilgrrl]

30. Uh, to get local news....

there's a lot more going on in LA than Johnny Fuckin' Carson. :nuke:

[bunkerbuster1]

35. Whatever floats yer boat; I gave up on local news ages ago.

Top story is always some garish crime. They follow with some superficial rehash of a national news story. Then they pad with a lame-ass feature story. Then ten minutes for weather and sports.

eight, nine minutes of hideous commercials.

And that's another half-hour of one's life, wasted.

[Beaverhausen]

40. But in LA this is what the local news covers

and you may be too young to really appreciate what JC meant to a lot of people.

He did work right there at NBC in Burbank where the Channel 4 news is. For 30 years. I think they can devote a half an hour to him if they want.

You can change the channel you know :eyes:

[Tacos al Carbon]

49. Why so bitter?

Really, get a puppy or something.

[Enraged_Ape]

17. There will ALWAYS be some diversion. Get used to it.

I prefer a few days of the media mourning a great guy like Johnny Carson to coverage of the usual wife murderers, shark attacks, drug-danger-of-the-month, and Brad and Jen. At least Carson wasn't some right-wing wacko with a fully media-sanitized history like Nixon or Reagan. Unlike them, I can genuinely miss him and feel sad about the loss.

This will only last a few days, and then it will be on to something else. If you're tired of it, turn the TV off. Works for me.

[ArkDem]

19. Yeah, why would anyone even be interested?

[Pastiche423]

20. Turn off your TV

Problem solved.

[theboss]

21. To address all of these "Such and such is a diversion" threads...

None of these stories are really a diversion from "real" news.

What these stories prove is that we have no need for one let alone five or six 24-hour "News" channels. In Johnny Carson's heyday, his death would have got a passing mention on the 6 o'clock local news and maybe a four-minute segment on the National evening news. It would have gotten a front-page story in the morning paper and a larger retrospective in the "evening" paper. And then, a few weeks later, NBC would have done some kind of retrospective broadcast.

Now, we have all of these stupid channels trying to kill time during the day and this is a quick and easy way to do it. Just have Jerry Lewis come in and ramble for 15 minutes, then replay it over and over and over again.

And for the record, I find this to be true of EVERY story, short of a presidential assassination or attack on the country. And in those types of events, we may need that type of wall-to-wall coverage for a day or two.

My point is, Johnny Carson's death doesn't deserve 24-hour, wall-to-wall coverage. But neither does anything else when it comes right down to. Not the OJ trial. Not Lewinsky. Not the election. Not the Plame story. Not the tsunami. Not the hurricanes in Florida.

But if you are going to cover something 24 hours a day, it might as well be story where you can show a monkey peeing on someone's head over and over again.

[Tacos al Carbon]

28. In Johnny Carson's heyday

His death would have made the front page of every major newspaper in America and several weekly magazines, just as it does now. He was a giant in American culture. You can count on one hand the entertainers who were more widely seen or heard or who were more loved. His final show in 1992 was a national event. Maybe the people commenting are just too young but Johnny entertained America each and every weeknight for THIRTY YEARS. He was, and is, an American icon. To charecterize the reporting of his passing as a "diversion" or to suggest that at any time in the past 20 years his death would have gotten "a passing mention on the 6 o'clock local news" displays a remarkable ignorance and a disconnect from American culture. Just because some of you live in a bubble doesn'y mean that the rest of the nation will be rushing to join you any time soon.

[theboss]

33. Thank you for utterly misreading my post

I am "Johnny Culture" and can probably tell you every significant moment in the cutlture over the last hundred years down to the date. I am not saying Carson's death wouldn't have been huge news thirty years ago. Clearly, it would have been. If you actually read the post, you notice that I put it on the front page of every paper in the country.

My point is that in the 24-hour news culture, the networks need stories to fill time. So, instead of the large, well-written tributes you would get to Johnny in the old days. You get 48 hours of rambling.

[Tacos al Carbon]

41. Take it easy Johnny Culture

My post was more generally to the OP. Yours just happened to give me a good starting point. I'll still disagree with you regarding a "passing reference on the local 6o'clock news" but the fact is, we'll never know and today's world is what it is. As a side note, thirty years ago Carson was about where Leno is now and had only about 10-12 years as host of the Tonight Show. He was not yet the icon that he would become.

Oh, and the tsunamis didn't and don't get enough coverage. They are a major global historical event. Had it happened in Europe or the U.S. we'd be hearing about it more than 9-11 (and perhaps deservedly so).

[BiggJawn]

22. I'm strangely drawn to travel to Collie-For-Nya...

..and sign a memory book or something...Wow...I had NO idea Carson was supposed to mean so freaking much to my empty, worthless-without-Teeeee-Veeeeee life!

In the meantime, Iraqi officials are having trouble finding anyone to vote next week.....

[pdxmom]

26. We already had a diversion

The media was talking about nothing but the snowstorm in the Northeast before this news hit. The snowstorm is coming, the snowstorm is here, now we're cleaning up after the snowstorm was the scheduled programming until Johnny's death interrupted it.

I'd much rather hear the tributes for someone who brought so much laughter into so many homes than watch snow falling.

[OneTwentyoNine]

27. Wellstone didn't find a cure either,was he a diversion?

He was morned for weeks,months--still morned on DU. So what?? He should have been as Carson should be. They were both legands at different things.

Its normal to want to talk to people when someone dies,even if you didn't personally know them. Thats what these fourms are for in case you hadn't noticed.If Carson posts bother you I'd suggest you take a couple of days off from DU or hit that box with the X in it.

[Name removed]

31. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[theboss]

34. I actually disagree with that

Wellstone was a good Senator, but my parents didn't fall asleep for thirty years to his voice, and I didn't sneak out of bed to watch him.

You could probably make an argument that Carson is one of the 20 most important Americans this century in the sense that everything in pop culture flowed through him for over a quarter of a century.

Also, it could probably be argued that he shaped public opinion for 30 years through his monologue. A lot of people believe that the final nail in Nixon's coffin was when Carson started making Watergate jokes. It's also possible that Gary Hart was buried by Carson's monologue and Dan Quayle was turned into a national punchline by him. Imagine the Daily Show with a non-partisan audience and 15 million more viewers and you have Carson.

So, Johnny helped determine our views on politicians and then determined what stars we watched on tv and in the cineplexes. That's a pretty huge influence.

[Bluebear]

44. What theboss said

I don't think the younger set has any idea how Carson influenced daily life. This was an era in which you did not have 532 cable channel choices. It was Carson, then the Late Show, then the Late, Late show. Carson is a cultural icon for people of a certain age and I don't think his passing is being overplayed in the least.

[Beaverhausen]

42. How old are you?

You may be too young to appreciate what Johnny meant to people for 30 years.

[Tacos al Carbon]

43. I think that your view

re: Wellstone v. Carson would put you with a tiny minority of Americans ... or non-Americans, for that matter. Your rudeness, on the other hand, would put you in quite the large group.

[latebloomer]

36. Actually, I kind of resent that!

Many of us, including myself, are truly grieving the loss of this man. He represented an era, the passage of time, family connections-- all in addition to the humor and comfort he gave us for so many years. I almost feel like a friend or relative has died-- I find myself bursting into tears at odd moments during the day. If you don't feel the same way, that's fine-- but there's no need to stomp all over the feelings of others.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

38. i agree...

no need to make the death of the man into something that it isn't. He died...people will be remembered because he was one of the greats...and people will grieve...then they will let him go...

to suggest that this is a diversion...well, kind of attacks Johnny and his family...and demeans his passing and the coverage thereof...he will be gone from the headlines in a couple of days...no need to include him in some grander conspiracy...

theProdigal

[theboss]

39. Every news story is called a diversion here

I'm never sure what is is a diversion from though.

[Tacos al Carbon]

45. Evil PNAC

AIPAC, BushCo, Skull & Bones, ZOG, Likud, Repub, NeoCon plots, of course.

[YNGW]

46. It's not a diversion.

Geez, I swear, some people see a RW boogieman behind every fucking door.

[liberalhistorian]

47. Oh, come ON!

For God's sake, why does everything have to be a "diversion" by the media? Carson was a major part of American culture and he pioneered late-night TV. He was revered and respected by millions, and is pretty much a household name even with people who never watched him or who are too young to have watched him. He's simply being given his due, to tens of millions of Americans, it is HUGE news and it is a very big deal. Just because YOU and some others may not care all that much, doesn't mean that the rest of America doesn't.

Not everything is a conspiracy and not everything is a diversion, and it's time we quit making everything out to be one or the other. Sheesh!

[RedCloud]

51. Carson was a voice for liberalism:

http://www.langston.com/Fun_People/1991/1991AAM.html

I can't recall any thing off hand that his Productions did, but they seem to involve making people more open minded.

[Trajan]

52. This is kinda sad ....

Carson was beloved ... He was liberal ....

Some people just dont know when to insult .... This is not the time ...