WWE steps into the Twilight Zone
Your Mayor’s grandfather was a big fan of the TV rasslers, a gene he fortunately did not pass on to me, so I was essentially oblivious to the sad story of WWE’s Chris Benoit killing his family and himself.
But now the saga has turned from tragic to creepy. First, WWE paid heartfelt tribute to the killer with a three-hour special Monday on the USA Network (subscription required):
“WWE Chairman Vince McMahon issued a non-apology last night for his organization's three-hour tribute to pro wrestler Chris Benoit that aired Monday night on the USA Network. USA itself had no comment on having telecast a three-hour tribute to a man who, according to authorities, over the weekend bound and strangled his wife, suffocated his 7-year-old son and placed Bibles next to their bodies before hanging himself with a weight-machine pulley several hours and possibly as long as a day later.”
Honoring such a person betrays a certain lack of tact, to put it mildly, but then, it is the WWE we’re talking about. Coming soon: CNBC’s tearful farewell to Ken Lay (oh, wait, they already have that show – it’s called “American Greed”).
Eventually, WWE erased all tributes and comments concerning Benoit from its official website and later removed news articles about the deaths, and his profile was also scrubbed from the roster of WWE performers.
Now, it’s being reported that Wikipedia had information on Benoit’s wife’s murder half a day before the police even found the body:
“The posting reads: ‘Chris Benoit was replaced by [Johnny Nitro] for the ECW Championship match at Vengeance, as Benoit was not there due to personal issues, stemming from the death of his wife Nancy.’ According to a Wikipedia.org report published after FOXNews.com made inquiries, the edit was reversed just under one hour later with the comment:
"'Need a reliable source. Saying that his wife died is a pretty big statement, you need to back it up with something.’"
(snip)
“Further investigation, according to Wikipedia.com, shows that one hour after the first edit reversion, another anonymous edit by 125.63.148.173 using unwiredAustralia.com.au, a wireless Internet service provider, was made adding about the aforementioned personal issues: ‘which according to several pro wrestling websites is attributed to the passing of Benoit's wife, Nancy.’
“That edit was reverted less than 20 minutes later, with the following comment: ‘Saying “several pro wrestling websites” is still not reliable information.’ The second edit was made by a computer in Australia from a wireless network, according to Wikipedia.org.”
When the Internets know about heinous crimes long before the authorities do, some eggheads are going to start throwing around phrases like “paradigm shift,” and that’s not good for anybody.
Benoit had sent text messages to WWE employees, but no one yet seems to know whether he sent text messages to someone else, who then posted the information on Wikipedia. Per Wikipedia itself, “After news of the early death notice reached mainstream media, the anonymous poster accessed Wikinews to explain his seemingly prescient comments as a ‘huge coincidence and nothing more.’”
Though this story clearly hasn’t been resolved, I’m sure Dick Wolf and his “Law & Order” writers are on the case as we speak.
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About this blog
David Kronke was appointed Mayor of Television after a bloodless coup in 2000. Since then, he has improved infrastructure, championed greater educational opportunities and fought for reforms that have utterly erased corruption and incompetence from the television industry. Since Mr. Kronke has ascended to power, Television is a far better place.
I feel McManon should not have taken anything off the air until the facts are all in. They are judging Chris before the facts. Chris has giving all of us many years of wrestling, he was one of the best. I feel that he is not being treated fairly. until all facts are in I will not make my mind up. I feel that drugs are to blame. I feel that if he was not on them this would not have happened. I think the news stations are nothing but blood suckers.
Diana
It’s always great to see shows being produced in an effort to bring underrepresented cultures or things into the limelight; as long as it constitutes a fair and balanced portrayal of the subject matter at hand. October 5, 2008, the CW Network premiered a new drama from the creators of The Sopranos. The new show, called Easy Money, is said to be about a family who owns and operates a “high-interest loan” business called Prestige Payday Loans. However, by taking one look at the trailers for the new drama, as well as a few of the episode synopsis, my biggest fear is that the premise for the show is based solely on vicious media stereotypes. With this in mind, think of the last time that you viewed a news story either online or on television news talking about the payday loan industry. Chances are the story you saw or read wove tales of “real” persons’ woes fueled by their getting bogged down in an “endless cycle of debt.” Worst of all, according to such “articles,” it all started when they needed to borrow money to fix their car or pick up the tab on another unexpected bill. Such stories are further proof that, for the sake of winning the ratings wars, news networks will latch on to and report only the juiciest, most scandalous aspects of any big story and completely ignore everything else. It seems as if the CW network is following suit in an effort to recover viewers lost during the Writer’s Strike. One, for instance, opens with the tag line, “for this family of loan sharks, money is easy.” Surely, it’ll be interesting to see whether or not the CW or the show’s creators learned what the industry is really about. Chances are, probably not.
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