Phew, It's About Time!

October 18, 2001 10:23 AM

Phew, It's About Time! I'm sure CBS was starting to feel a bit left out. First, American Media gets Anthrax, then NBC, then ABC, . . . Imagine how bad it would've looked if CBS didn't get a letter. Or if FOX got Anthrax before CBS. Or, god forbid, WB or UPN. Anthrax equals significance. If you get it sent to you, you must be important enough to be a threat: newsworthy!
posted by jacknose (29 comments total)

"newsworthy!"

Eh, not really.
posted by Doug at 10:32 AM on October 18, 2001

While I appreciate that distance may make this all seem unreal, New York City is not an imaginary world in which fantasies (peopled by newscasters, politicians and a huge cast of extras) are played out on the small screen for you. I'd like to remind you that this is real and many of us here do not find this a cause for levity. And while you may be secretly pleased that for once your hometown's humdrumness will make it an unlikely target for terrorists, biologicial warfare or bomb threats, I'd like to remind you that this is our hometown: our friends work in those offices and we are, collectively, holding our breath waiting for the next major blow. We hide our worry behind a devil-may-care attitude, the usual impatiences and the lookless faces, just the same as we've always hidden in public. But it's there.

Of course, there's a chance you're a New York City resident, but I doubt it.

[I liked it so much more when the bulk of the email and comments we were getting in the city was "our thoughts and prayers are with you" rather than jokes, sarcasm rumors, theories, speeches, rhetoric and weak attempts at irony.]
posted by Mo Nickels at 10:37 AM on October 18, 2001

While I appreciate that distance may make this all seem unreal, New York City is not an imaginary world in which fantasies (peopled by newscasters, politicians and a huge cast of extras) are played out on the small screen for you. I'd like to remind you that this is real and many of us here do not find this a cause for levity. And while you may be secretly pleased that for once your hometown's humdrumness will make it an unlikely target for terrorists, biologicial warfare or bomb threats, I'd like to remind you that this is our hometown: our friends work in those offices and we are, collectively, holding our breath waiting for the next major blow. We hide our worry behind a devil-may-care attitude, the usual impatiences and the lookless faces, just the same as we've always hidden in public. But it's there.

Of course, there's a chance you're a New York City resident, but I doubt it.

[I liked it so much more when the bulk of the email and comments we were getting in the city was "our thoughts and prayers are with you" rather than jokes, sarcasm rumors, theories, speeches, rhetoric and weak attempts at irony.]
posted by Mo Nickels at 10:37 AM on October 18, 2001

I swear I hit the button once...
posted by Mo Nickels at 10:38 AM on October 18, 2001

"It's funny because it's not me."
posted by bondcliff at 10:39 AM on October 18, 2001

Just keep the Anthrax away from the damned Gilmore Girls, and I won't freak out.
posted by Hima Otsubusu at 10:43 AM on October 18, 2001

Or as Nelson Muntz put it, "I said 'ha ha'...!"
posted by ethmar at 10:44 AM on October 18, 2001

(sorry Mo)
posted by ethmar at 10:47 AM on October 18, 2001

It's all right Hima, Stars Hollow is much closer to Hartford than NYC. No big media targets in Hartford, just big insurance firms.

Mo, I agree with your reaction to this post. I was not amused. However, I did find Hima's comment amusing. I guess there's a fine line there somewhere.
posted by girlhacker at 10:49 AM on October 18, 2001

Mo, I'm a New Yorker. I happen to be in Manhattan right now. There is a difference between trying to be funny and pointing out the irony of the media situation. There is also a difference between reality (what I see, what I saw, what I experienced, what I know) and what is being presented as news on television. Anthrax can be deadly. But it can also be used to bequeath significance. There is a fine line between what is significant (those who are still buried beneath the rubble, which happens to be a block and a half away from where my wife works) and what the media deems significant for the day. I'm not suggesting that Anthrax being sent to CBS is not news; I'm just pointing out how easy it is for . . . . Why am I even explaing myself. If you don't get it, you don't get it.
posted by jacknose at 10:50 AM on October 18, 2001

Here here, Jacknose. I'll admit to thinking the same thing when I first saw the news: perhaps the Age of Irony isn't over just yet. Of course, next Jacknose will be suggesting that we should eat Irish babies...
posted by bclark at 10:56 AM on October 18, 2001

jacknose: I'm from New York, and my comany lost 300 people in the WTC, and I've been upset, scared, angry, panicked, etc... all the normal reactions to having your hometown being under seige, and you know what? I thought your post was funny. So there! I have found this whole fear of making light of a stressful situation a little disturbing. Sure, not everyone has a sense of humor about the situation. But for me, keep the Anthrax jokes coming, otherwise, I might realize how terrified I am.
posted by bob bisquick at 10:58 AM on October 18, 2001

Hey, I thought that was the whole point of humor in the first place.
Any dingus can be merry when things are pleasant.
posted by Hima Otsubusu at 11:03 AM on October 18, 2001

Everyone has a right to their own sense of humor, and I am sensitive to things that others aren't. That's what makes us all unique and what Metafilter is for (no, I'm sorry, we can't just sit here and agree with each other all day!). So I don't mind the jokes, especially if it makes people feel better. But, with that "tone" thing not coming through in text very well, and since we don't know each other's personalities, it's hard to know that people understand this is a serious situation. I think that's what I was reacting to -- it's often hard to judge intent and motivation in these postings.
posted by girlhacker at 11:06 AM on October 18, 2001

And yet, so easy to assume the worst ;)
posted by Hima Otsubusu at 11:09 AM on October 18, 2001

Anyone who couldn't tell the sarcastic "tone" of Jacknose's post should line up to recieve their Anthrax shot.
posted by bondcliff at 11:13 AM on October 18, 2001

posted by aaron at 11:20 AM on October 18, 2001

nice, aaron
posted by thekorruptor at 11:28 AM on October 18, 2001

Ralph Wiggums: My head hurts. And my scab tastes funny.
posted by y2karl at 11:49 AM on October 18, 2001

...and we would know that Dan Rather wasn't under the effect of drugs how?
posted by darren at 12:06 PM on October 18, 2001

How many n's are there in 'channel' again?

Also, I thought starting a thread with a link to the top page of a news site had been declared officially lame.
posted by jjg at 12:20 PM on October 18, 2001

JJG, you're right. Forgive my lameness. The following are links to the actual report: MSNBC, CNN, and Reuters, and CBS.
posted by jacknose at 12:33 PM on October 18, 2001

jjg: The extra "n" is for "no anthrax".
posted by hijinx at 12:38 PM on October 18, 2001

Well, let's see. You're a New Yorker. You're in Manhattan. Maybe the comment was funny. Certainly a columnist for the New York Times wrote many inches about encountering an envelope full of powder that turned out to be nothing. So, yeah, maybe those reporters that missed a chance to report from Ground Zero (and there were many) and now Pakistan/Afghanistan are looking for their own pathetic imitation of war reporting. Maybe it's funny that a bacteria-laced letter from some nutjob is being taken as an indicator of who and what networks are most important. Alright, I'll grant you all of that.

However, my comments about this being entertainment for part of the population, rather than a serious issue, still hold. Strongly hold. Did you see the New York Post front page today, calling the House of Representatives wimps for vacating the premises? Thirty people or more have tested positive for exposure to weapons-grade anthrax. The Post is mocking precautions that may save us, the same sort of precautions that might have saved us in September.

Have you been seeing the boys-go-to-war glee in the eyes of those people who are all for battle? Hundreds may have already died, on top of those killed in the US airplane attacks, but they see it as a balancing, or a debit/credit sheet rather a cumulative disaster toll.

Do you know anyone at the networks? I have a friend that may quit her position and possibly return to England, she's so scared. She works as an intern for CBS, sometimes opening mail. She takes it seriously because her health, if not her life, is on the line.

Do you have another friend who works for Planned Parenthood who says the person who opens their mail does it with a gas mask and long rubber gloves? I do, and she never thought being the fire warden on the floor of her building would mean going to the cellular phone company in the offices next door and saying, "Just wanted to let you know that we may have to seal the building, with you in it, for 24 hours. Oh yeah, we got more bomb threats today."

Have you been to Ground Zero? It's still a big smoking hole.

Have you thought about the fact those people who are still missing were either vaporized, burned, squashed, or now rotting in the debris? I do every time I see those "missing" posters, still being posted more than a month later.

I can't laugh at the danger aspect of it yet. It's still serious to me. I don't believe we're over the hump. But I am laughing bitterly at the ongoing jingoistic parade of hypocrisy from Washington and the ignorant gung-ho attitude of flag-waving hypocrites who couldn't find Afghanistan on a map, tell an Arab from a suntan, and who never liked foreigners, New Yorkers or the federal government all that much anyway (and are hoping everyone kind of forgets they ever said that).
posted by Mo Nickels at 1:03 PM on October 18, 2001

Up the meds, Mo, you're venturing into psycho-babble territory.
posted by bondcliff at 2:27 PM on October 18, 2001

I work for a media outlet which is, as yet, not among those where anthrax has been found. I was making jokes about how that meant my company is such a has-been the other day myself. (then again, there are those who'd say there was much proof of that before Anthrax Fever swept the nation.)

But that doesn't mean I'm not unnerved by the masks and gloves on the folks in our mailrooms, doesn't mean I'm not unnerved by the emails that keep going out reminding us of new security procedures, doesn't mean I think anthrax is funny. It doesn't mean I'm not dreading us being next. It means I can compartmentalize. Which means I am human.

---of course you realize that the whole business with the Enquirer et al being first renders the "anthrax == significance" theory moot. We here at my workplace joke that some terrorist honcho somewhere must've told his grunts: "Attack the American media!" and so the grunts just opened the Boca phone book and, lo and behold, American Media Inc: get 'em!

I think that's funny too, but it doesn't mean I'm not horrified that people at AMI are sick or dead now.
posted by Sapphireblue at 2:31 PM on October 18, 2001

I liked it so much more when the bulk of the email and comments we were getting in the city was "our thoughts and prayers are with you" rather than jokes, sarcasm rumors, theories, speeches, rhetoric and weak attempts at irony.

Back to life, back to reality....
posted by rushmc at 5:46 PM on October 18, 2001

Making light of a situation is fine. I have yukked it up with alot of people about the situation here in NYC and DC. However, the first thought that goes through my head is whether my comments will be appropriate given the time since the event. More often than not, I choose to let sleeping dogs lie. Maybe in a month or two, I will venture a joke in public.

Case in point: I was volunteering at a charity last night, answering backlogged emails from last month. The person who I sat next to had worked on the 87th floor of one of the towers, but got out in time. Even though I have found some humor in this whole situation, I am glad I held my tongue. While this woman had gotten help after the event, at the same time it would have been inappropriate of me to assume that she could have the same sense of humor about it. I just listened to her story and commented in a safe way. No sense in stirring the pot.

I don't take offense to the thread at the top, by the way. I get the joke. What does worry me is the fact that people do not understand that every person is working though this on their own schedule. Some of us have had time to grieve; others are just beginning to work through it. We all have different ways of expressing it. We all need to cut each other a break for a while - and probably a bit longer "while" than we are used to.
posted by tp3wen at 4:26 AM on October 19, 2001