You Know What You Never Hear Anymore? "Paparazzi"

One of the cameramen covering Michael Jackson's arrest had a heart attack and died in the middle of filming. I find this story a veritable fount of questions: 1) Why does the man's employer's statement that he was a "gentle man" not jibe with the fact that he apparently dropped dead while "racing down stone steps at the Santa Barbara jail," presumably to better capture the shocking human drama of a famous person walking out of a car and into a building, as Jackson was undoubtedley doing? 2) Why is this news? If a cameraman dropped dead while filming the ice-slicks on a snow day, would we be hearing about it? Does this man's parasitic relationship to Jackson render him worthy of our momentary attention? 3) Knowing that I have some obligation to feel bad for the poor fellow, who died while working, without much of a chance to put his soul in order, how do I repress the schadenfreude at seeing one of the yelping newsmutts, with their mindless devotion to sensation, brought so low? I feel just awful about the whole thing. Really, I do.


Stop giggling.