Dropping dead doesn’t make you a decent human being
I think we’ve had a tendency to take the old adage about not speaking ill of the dead a little bit far in Australia in recent years. We saw this last year when Steve Irwin was transformed overnight from the nation’s largest prat to a national hero by the simple act of dying. Over the last few days, however, we’ve seen an even more ludicrous display, as the media has expounded laudatory tributes for the late Stan Zemanek, and has publicly crucified any who dared speak ill of him, most notably the far more honourable Mike Carlton.
I’ll say this bluntly: in life, Stan Zemanek was human slime. He was an ignorant, right-wing redneck who tried to make a name for himself by fulfilling the worst stereotypes of a shock jock. Perhaps my father put it better upon being told that he’d died, when he said “perhaps all that bile finally caught up with him”. I’ll go even further - the best thing Zemanek ever did for humanity was to drop dead. This is not a redeeming factor in his favour. It was more than deserving that Carlton and others called a spade a spade, and it was more than pathetic that more did not do the same instead of hypocrically lauding him posthumously.
Or perhaps Mike Carlton said it best, when, on the topic of going to Zemanek’s funeral, he said on radio “I’d only go to check that he was actually dead.” Amen, Mike, and good riddance to one of the worst blemishes on the hardly-stellar world of Australian broadcasting.
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Posted: by Rebecca July 24th, 2007 under Media, Society, Asshattery.
Comments: 11
Comments
Comment from John T.
Time: July 24, 2007, 1:03 pm
Rebecca,
you do not have to be subtle and talk in euphamisms just because Stan has departed, you are allowed to say what you really believe - let it out as it helps with the grieving.
Poor Stan,
Stan was a leader, a front person. He would go to depths that other commentaters dare not tread.
We look forward to John Laws and Alan Jones following in Stan’s footsteps. Stan may not be the best of the trio but he is the first.
Stan, and even John and Alan may leave us but their spirit will live long in Andrew Bolte. While we may acknowledge the passing of Stan’s physical presence, we have really lost nothing.
Comment from Sam
Time: July 24, 2007, 2:42 pm
Stan Zermanek appealed to the ‘mob mentality’ of the intellectually challenged. You find these people who can only see one side of an argument not only in the lower classes. They are the ‘raw edge’ of humanity and like to spew out hatred against anyone and anything that is outside their sphere of reference. They need to go to a school to get rid of their binocular vision. Zermanek played to them and they supported him. Although he is no loss, another will take his place. Where there is a market, a ‘hero’ will arise.
Comment from The Happy Revolutionary
Time: July 24, 2007, 6:02 pm
The extent to which the media will attempt to ‘rehabilitate’ the dead is hilarious.
There’s basically nothing positive to say about Zemanak, except that he had moderate ability in the fine art of verbal abue.
The eulogising of Irwin is even more ridiculous. Irwin was little more than the antithesis of everything genuinely Australian - he was merely a poser, adorned with Australiana cliches, a fake accent, and millions of dollars.
I suspect the media won’t be so kind when Germaine Greer passes on.
Comment from Rebecca
Time: July 24, 2007, 10:15 pm
I suspect you’re right about Greer, and that is really rather sad. At least, unlike these two schmucks, she has actually contributed quite a lot to society.
Comment from M.L. Brewton
Time: July 28, 2007, 12:52 pm
the media has successfully turned Greer into a joke - her own missteps and misstatements haven’t helped there.
Pingback from Australian Values
Time: September 15, 2007, 12:28 am
[…] time although we did privately and we think we missed an opportunity. However, Rebecca at DeadRoo said it all for us. So here, belatedly, is our endorsement of Rebecca’s sentiments: Dropping dead doesn’t make […]
Comment from BMSprint
Time: September 17, 2007, 2:47 pm
“ignorant, right-wing redneck”
You’re obviously very different than Kieran.
In that, you seem to suggest ignorant and right wing are two different things.
He thinks its one in the same. I never understood his tolerance for me…
Steve Irwin? The whole point, kinda, is that he died AND he was a good person BEFORE that. That said, I do not quite get his fervor for animals considering the human beings dying in Africa every day as children.
E.G.: Darfur.
BMSprint/Brian Capelle/Brandon Sullivan, henceforth BMSprint on Deadroo
Comment from Kieran
Time: September 17, 2007, 4:00 pm
in Australia, we always considered Steve Irwin a national embarrassment, that is of course, until he died.
Comment from BMSprint
Time: September 17, 2007, 9:35 pm
Heh. Which is funny, because no man probably earned Australia more money.
Whatever.
Comment from Kieran
Time: September 17, 2007, 11:18 pm
He was good for tourism, you have to give him that.
But think about it, what is the most embarrassing American stereotype you can think of, imagine if that is how America was marketed in the rest of the world.
Comment from BMSprint
Time: September 18, 2007, 1:25 pm
It is, for what I’ve heard. Giddy’up cowboy.
Not even close. I don’t know about Australia, but that’s how Europe supposedly views us.
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