April 2005 (I): Pope-a-palooza

In a "concerned" voice, Jesus' Best Administrative Assistant to Cruella: "You're a Catholic aren't you? What direction do you think the church will go now?"

Meaning: she's seriously worried they'll annoint a librul...

Smoke machine at film location, London
Photo: Andrew Dunn.

I listen to Cruella reassure Jesus' BAA that the pick will of course be a conservative, because "everyone wants to change things to suit their lifestyle, but you can't just have things different from how they've always been...

Clever Sister predicts: "they'll appoint one of those fascist Africans."

As on all topics, Cruella continues broadcasting her opinions: she doesn't want an Italian; doesn't think an African will be named; but there's a Venezuelan who's "very well-regarded"—which I take to mean "fascist"— that's her guy.

At some point a faculty member tries prodding Cruella about whether it might be time for some liberalization, and she declares, "As much as we might like that, we can't always have what we would like!"

I enjoy the bland insincerity of those "we"s, particularly about what "we" would "like"!

Ideological bent of this office aside—and that ideology is nothing, if not "bent"—the national media are ecstatic, what with the mix of wealth, power, fame, and pseudo-piety this circus offers.

As she follows the daily coverage, Clever Sister e-mails me tidbits like:

• Inquiring minds want to know:
  Pope was not embalmed, only 'prepared' for public viewing, Vatican says
  [I'd say he was pickled, or he'd rot before the funeral – cs]
• Bush ordered flags at ½ staff and will go to funeral. Did Carter do that when previous one died?
• Criticism in France over lowering of flags as government abuse of power
• People who watched the funeral live heard Bush being booed. There will be no mention of this in our free media.

After the funeral on April 8, Bush declares it "one of the highlights of my presidency." But Mr. Appropiate's excitement was also quite visible during the event—where he was snapped in the midst of supposedly grieving world leaders, smoochin' Laura [photo here, if you dare].

The election of a new pope may not be as exciting as "American Idol" voting, but it seems just as drawn out. The background on Vatican smoke signals is offered by these people, who will rent you a smoke machine suitable for staging your very own papal election!


Among events this month not subject to media frenzy: the death in Iraq of Marla Ruzicka. As much as the death of a young blonde might inspire media circusry, this particular blonde's work and death are not high on the list of what our spinmeisters want to publicize.

But then, as Jane Reitman reports in Rolling Stone, it happens that several days before Ruzicka's death "she had obtained a document that was her holy grail: a detailed report showing that the U.S. military keeps its own civilian-casualty records, something the Pentagon has repeatedly denied."

Despite her unembedded independence, the very visible and sociable young American woman was known and liked by US reporters in Baghdad and Kabul. So, this being the loss of someone in their milieu, there were pieces in Time, the Washington Post, and Newsweek.

As much as war stories need exposure, it's inevitable that the coverage of this particular death is full of the personalization that so predominates what we get as journalism. Now, if only more untold stories had an advocate who could throw a good, boozy party, maybe the press would feel motivated to cover those stories from time to time.

It may not be a blockbuster missing blonde story, but yes, there is some coverage— largely as the sad story of a dead young American. Journalist Jill Carroll—who will later be kidnapped in Iraq—recalls her friend's death:

If she were still here, she'd be most worried now about her driver's family, and who will take care of all the other Iraqi families she was working with. She would point out, this happens to Iraqis every day, and no one notices or even cares. There are no newspaper articles or investigations into what happens to them. For most of them, there was only Marla.

The quote comes from this column, by James Carroll (no relation to Jill). Written while Jill was still in captivity, James connects Marla's life and death with Jill's seriousness about being in Iraq to bring the war home to American readers:

...Jill Carroll published an account of the death of an American aid worker, a report much noted [after Jill's kidnapping] because of similarities to her own situation.

Marla Ruzicka was a Californian, attached to an NGO, attending to the needs of desperate Iraqis. She and her driver were killed when they were caught in a crossfire between a suicidal insurgent and US soldiers. Marla Ruzicka was Jill Carroll's friend, and her story is infused with grief. But the story also takes careful note of Ruzicka's driver...To Jill Carroll, the death of this Iraqi man weighed as much as the death of her American friend. If Jill Carroll were filing the report of her own kidnapping...we would know the name of her murdered driver, and his death, too, would have grave importance to us -- because it surely did to her.