September 19, 2001

12:42 PM

America: A Tribute To HeroesSpecial/telethon airing across all four networks to raise money for 9.11 this Friday from 9pm to 11pm. Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Deniro, Jim Carrey and more celebs than you can shake a stick at.
posted by owillis (21 comments total)

Including commercials and the inevitable growth of the guest list, is two hours really enough for this multi-network show? Wasn't this supposed to be a "telethon"? Seems like the concerned celebrities will only have enough time to walk across the stage, waving. Hmm. Maybe that's all they *should* do.
posted by robbie01 at 12:58 PM on September 19, 2001

Okay, but I really want to know - how will James Woods be involved? (Bizarre story)
posted by kokogiak at 12:59 PM on September 19, 2001

No commercials, but yeah they'll either have to slide them across stage quick or bunch 'em up. The good thing is it will get people to watch and ergo give up money.
posted by owillis at 1:00 PM on September 19, 2001

A silly thought, but heartfelt:

I know money means nothing to the bereaved but I just wish the U.S. and all her allied governments would get together and give each grieving family fifty million dollars. This would be a drop in the ocean for the countries involved and wouldn't help their sense of loss.
Bit at least they could stop worrying about the other necessities of life and just enjoy whatever remains.
All arguments about compensation are specious. Money doesn't buy anything except one thing: the freedom to stop worrying about money.
Wouldn't that be, at least, something?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 1:07 PM on September 19, 2001

Miguel,

Much as I respect and appreciate the sentiment, and realize that this was a sort of idle wish, $50 million * 6000 is not quite "a drop in the ocean." It's $300,000,000,000, unless I tossed in an extra zero somewhere.

And that doesn't count the injured or people with multiple families like a young father with a wife, kids and grieving parents, too (or, yes, a Mormon).

But maybe, say a million or two each?
posted by Sinner at 1:22 PM on September 19, 2001

Good link kokogiak. I must remember what to do in first class so as not to look suspicious:
-shout
-eat and drink everything in sight
-and of course not look straight ahead
Amateurs!
posted by Zootoon at 1:28 PM on September 19, 2001

I'm not watching unless Christopher Walken is there.
posted by msacheson at 1:31 PM on September 19, 2001

Um, why do we need a telethon? I don't mean to sound crass, but, this disaster happened in lower Manhattan, not a poor mining community in West Virginia. Between the fully insured and wealthy Fortune 500 companies, Federal government, and the city of New York (it's safe to say, given where the attacks occurred, the vast majority of victims were covered by employer life insurance policies and/or survivor benefits), plus $20 Billion appropriated by congress, plus $6.5 million from Amazon, $6.0 million from Cisco, $10.0 million from GE, and so on and so on, it seems to me that there's a fairly healthy amount of cash out there already dedicated to survivors, rescuers and rebuilding. Do we really need to have a three network program to beg a farmer in Coon Rapids Iowa to pledge $10 for disaster relief?
posted by dchase at 1:44 PM on September 19, 2001

Sinner:
have you any idea how much money governments have? They could print that amount and the consequences would be all but invisible.
But you're right of course - so many others have the right to financial help and get nothing.
Two million would be fine. It would be enough to build a really nice memorial and stop working. Perhaps to travel all over and spread the message of how much it hurts.
Meaning peace.
Have you realized, Sinner, that only when we get the full 6000 stories - we've only had seven or eight on MeFi - will we begin to understand the dimensions?
Plus, as my wife, Maria João, keeps pointing out, you have to multiply each death by at least 20, to include all family and friends.
And also the casualties to come...

It's...
posted by MiguelCardoso at 1:49 PM on September 19, 2001

Including commercials and the inevitable growth of the guest list, is two hours really enough for this multi-network show?

There will be, amazingly, no commercials.

Ain't it Cool News reports that all of the following channels will carry the program, commerical-free:
NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, UPN, HBO, WB, Lifetime, E!, FX, MTV, SoapNet, National Geographic Channel, Fox Movie Channel, Telemundo, and possibly TNT and USA.
posted by brittney at 2:04 PM on September 19, 2001

miguel:

printing 300 billion dollars would not be invisible, even in the united states, with an annual budget of what looks like 1.8 trillion or so (maybe i'm wrong on this, i just looked through some 1999 figures here...and printing that much money would cause some really nasty inflation. so in effect, printing that money, creating it out of thin air, would cost the citizens of the world just as if they'd been forced to donate so that every family member can have this ridiculous amount of money.

so, if you want to multiply that number by 20, so that each relative gets your 50 million..now you're talking about 6 trillion dollars. if our government went ahead and printed 6 trillion dollars, and put it out..it would severely cripple the world economy.
posted by chacal at 2:04 PM on September 19, 2001

$50 million times $6000 is $300 billion.

That's approximately 1.5 times as much as all U.S. Corporations paid in taxes last year. That kind of sum can't just be "printed up" and not felt. That's how you kill economies

There is going to be plenty of monetary relief from various sources. The telethon seems like a nice gesture, even if it does trigger my cynic-o-meter a little. In any event, the personal losses are the real issue here, and as Miguel said, no amount of money is going ot help with that.
posted by marknau at 2:09 PM on September 19, 2001

Why give money to victims of this tragedy and not any other? Are the people who lost loved ones in the WTC grieving any more than those who lose family to drunk drivers, gun accidents, or anything else just as senseless?
posted by whatnotever at 2:09 PM on September 19, 2001

$50 million times 6000 is $300 billion.

That's approximately 1.5 times as much as all U.S. Corporations paid in taxes last year. That kind of sum can't just be "printed up" and not felt. That's how you kill economies.

There is going to be plenty of monetary relief from various sources. The telethon seems like a nice gesture, even if it does trigger my cynic-o-meter a little. In any event, the personal losses are the real issue here, and as Miguel said, no amount of money is going to help with that.
posted by marknau at 2:10 PM on September 19, 2001

Fifty Million dollars?!

That seems a tad extreme.
posted by glenwood at 2:58 PM on September 19, 2001

Ah, great... Showtime will still be showing "Stargate SG-1"!
posted by jdbanks at 3:38 PM on September 19, 2001

celebrities + a constant loop of those horrible images + musical numbers = america's fascination with fame and violence and bad taste.

pass the popcorn.
posted by ronv at 7:52 PM on September 19, 2001

Most insurance companies will not pay out in an act of war. My mother works for "like a good neighbor" company and she said if they paid out on this accident it would collapse the company. The company in question insures about 25% of the general population and about 25% of the general pop. is uninsured. These people at the WTC were not just general population. Most likely the majority was heavily insured.

Most of these families financial relief will come from charities or the government.

If there is pressure for the insurance to pay out, this attack will cost all of us our insurance.

I guess that would be a small price to pay inlight of what the families for the victums are going through. But it is another reason to be pissed!!!
posted by bas67 at 7:55 PM on September 19, 2001

I can shake a stick at a lot of celebrities. If only someone would give me the chance.
posted by rodii at 8:54 PM on September 19, 2001

There is only one company, an Egyptian one, claiming the "acts of war" nonsense. The other insurance companies will be obligated to their claims.

Whether they go to the government looking for a handout after they pay is another question entirely.
posted by owillis at 9:43 PM on September 19, 2001

If the celebrities actually dig into their own pockets and give a tenth of what they own, that would be more money than any telethon can raise.

But then, how would they get to display their sculptured bodies, perfect faces, and designer clothes and promote themselves?
posted by wednesdaylover at 9:45 PM on September 19, 2001