Salon: Selling Pvt. Lynch

[kskiska]

From the White House to Random House, the plucky ex-POW has been badly used. But even as the right turned on her, she handled her week in the spotlight like a hero.

During the climactic moments of NBC's Sunday night prime-time, made-for-TV movie "Saving Jessica Lynch," viewers watched make-believe U.S. commandos storm an Iraqi hospital to rescue the wounded 19-year-old prisoner of war. Of course, the scene came with a sense of déjà vu, since most people had seen grainy footage of the actual rescue last spring, thanks to riveting night-vision pictures provided by the Pentagon, just hours after Lynch was whisked away, in the first successful liberation of an American POW since World War II.

The depiction of soldiers rushing Lynch out of the Nasiriyah hospital on a stretcher was a dead-on re-creation. Yet something crucial was missing on-screen: the flag U.S. troops dramatically laid across Lynch's chest as they videotaped her rescue. (In retrospect it was the surest tip-off that the mission had been at least partly staged -- it came complete with feel-good props.)

Everyone saw the flag on the incessant news clips last spring. But on NBC Sunday night, the telltale flag was missing. It's as if the Pentagon had out-Hollywooded Hollywood, and the TV producers thought they went too far. Apparently they decided that the idea of draping the stars and stripes over Lynch during the final rescue scene was too over-the-top, too schmaltzy even for them.

(snip)

The talkmeister should be forewarned: The petite, tight-lipped Lynch is one tough interview. Sawyer, notorious for her creepy, how-do-you-really-feel questions designed to elicit some on-camera tears, couldn't get Lynch to budge, even after she pulled out a surprise photograph of the Iraqi hospital room Lynch was held in. Sawyer's voice-over informed viewers this was the first time she'd seen the room since her rescue. The camera zoomed in on Lynch for a reaction. Yes, she calmly replied, that was the room she stayed in.

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http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2003/11/15/lynch/

[DrBB]

1. Diane Sawyer's shameles schlock journalism skewered

That stupid surprise photo and the camera zoom--this is the kind of thing that gives you the feeling, watching network news, that you are being coated in a thin layer of slime. Precisely the kind of thing so ruthlessly skewered by the Daily Show and The Simpsons--thank Gaea for them.

How disappointing for Sawyer and her producers that Lynch declined to display her tears as a commodity for them to gobble down and puke back up for the masses. Their contempt for their own viewers oozes from every faux-solicitous query and unctuous, over-intrusive close-up.