It was in “Show Biz Bugs,” that Daffy Duck uttered one of his classic lines.
He was trying to show up Bugs Bunny, who kept getting more attention. Finally, Daffy blows himself up.
To great acclaim, as his ghost is disappearing, he speaks the famous line: “I know, I know, but I can only do it once.”
Sure, it was funny when we saw it happening in a Warner Brothers cartoon.
But in real life, blowing yourself up to get attention is far less amusing — or at least we hope it is.
The sad fact is, blowing yourself up to get attention is exactly what is being sought as America continues to flirt with its 24-hour gossip fix and we will see more tragedy unfold BECAUSE of the attention that all of the media and the public are paying to this dangerous behavior.
A couple of recent examples include:
Leonardo DiCaprio has been granted a three-year restraining order against his wife.
No, not that wife. Not the famous one in all those movies.
This is from Livia Bistriceanu who has stalked the actor, claiming to be his wife, claiming to carry his child.
In another case, many news sources are trying to avoid giving attention to an individual who is apparently passing himself off as actor Juaquin Phoenix.
As one columnist noted about one recent incident involving the imposter: “If we cared, we would tell you the name of the Italian restaurant where this is happening. But we don’t.”
It’s a dangerous mix.
Between the ever increasing feeding frenzy that accompanies the market for 24-hour updates, and the never-ending glut of celebrity gossip and worship in our culture, we are creating a future tragedy.
People are performing for the camera in ways that are getting more and more dangerous.
It is time for the news media to regain control and start reporting news again.
The celebrity worship is getting way too dangerous. Someone is going to get hurt.
As the 1976 movie, “Network” concludes: “This was the story of Howard Beale: The first known instance of a man who was killed because he had lousy ratings.”
It’s getting too close to true.
— Chuck Smith