Spectacle Reverb

Less than a week after the infamous Post photograph, the media is in the news again, this time for a prank phone call that might have led to the death of a nurse: CNN. The latest incident involves two DJs in Australia who put through a fake call to the ward where the pregnant Duchess of York is being cared for. The nurse who put the call through killed herself later that same day and it is believed the married mother might have been pushed to it by the DJs. Both have been suspended and the show taken off the air, but it is just the latest example of the "culture of cruelty" that reigns on the air and TV waves these days. The crank call bit, which is now a staple on radio, started out rather tamely with the Jerky Boys, who rose to fame with their clever (and occasionally cruel) calls. But today you hear it all across the dial and the level of cruelty has been ramped up, just as it is on so many reality shows; and even sitcoms. The culture of cruelty on television arguably goes back to the late 80s and early 90s when shows like Seinfeld and Friends had a penchant for highlighting a sort of veiled cruelty or indifference to others. More recently, this trend has only amplified, with The Apprentice and its many offspring a good barometer of the level to which entertainment and cruelty converge. It is true, of course, that popular entertainment has always skated around the edge of cruelty, maybe most obviously with public executions or the Roman practice of throwing peasants and slaves into no-win battles with gladiators or viscous animals. But schadenfreude is a tried and tested part of the popular culture landscape -- lest us forget that Minstrel shows were the first American form of pop entertainment. One wonders at a deeper level, though, if the increased incidents of lives ruined by either playing a bit or major role in the popular media machine simply demonstrates the level of sociopathology that now reigns in that miasmic cloud where entertainment, life and fantasy converge.