Tasteless…

Back in December of 2006, a zoo keeper at the San Francisco Zoo was partially mauled during a public feeding of a tiger, a practice at the zoo since the 1940s (the feeding, not the mauling!). She lost the use of one arm, and had severe damage to the other. Updates have been made to the area, so that zookeepers now more safely feed the lions and tigers, and so that the public can safely witness the feedings. With the changes now in place, the area was recently opened to the media, before reopening the area to the public. This small quote, from SFGate:

A steel barrier closes the gap under the cages and prevents the cats from reaching underneath, as Tatiana did in December. Feeding chutes have replaced the lever doors through which keepers would toss food. The railing between the public and the cages has been moved back a few feet. Strong wire mesh covers another opening in the cages.

Given what happened to Komejan, some keepers said privately that it was tasteless to turn the Lion House reopening into a media event. Jenkins disagreed.

“The amount of interest we continue to get from the public warrants it,” he said. “Nobody’s hiding anything.”

This statement, that the interest that they get from the public warrants a media event, and somehow negates the concept of it being ‘tasteless’ reminded me of another story I read recently.

When it was announced that O.J. Simpson’s book, If I Did It, would be released, with all proceeds going to the family of Ronald Goldman, Barnes and Noble initially said that they would sell the book online, but not in the stores, and they would not promote it in any way. Quickly, however, the book shot to the top of the bestseller list via pre-orders, and Barnes and Noble stated:

“We’ve been monitoring the pre-orders and customer requests and have concluded that enough customers have expressed interest in buying the book to warrant stocking it in our stores. We do not intend to promote the book but we will stock it in our stores because our customers are asking for it.”

In both of these instances, the idea of poor taste is subjugated to that of public demand. As if public demand (or whether the money goes to the Goldmans or to Simpson, for that matter) should warrant selling such a horrible book. It’s in horrible, horrible taste. To publish such a book should be beneath any reputible publisher. Reading such a book should be beneath any reputable person.

I don’t buy the Goldmans’ argument that this book is O.J.’s confession, and thus they want it available to be read by the public. Mainly because when O.J. stood to profit from the book, it was going to scar his children.  Hello, if it was going to scar them then, it will scar them now, no matter who profits.  Perhaps it was only the profiting from the crime that people thought was in poor taste, but they’re wrong.  It’s in horrible taste to discuss such things in this manner at all. (Update on 9/14…I read in the paper that Denise Brown, Nicole Simpson’s sister, is VERY upset about this book being published, and wants nothing to do with Goldman.  So she at least is still thinking of the children, even though I’m sure she wishes they had no contact at all with their father.)

I’m not at all equating the lion/tiger house feeding and the Simpson book. The feeding of the lions and tigers has always been one of the most popular attractions at the zoo, and it’s not like the zoo is out to make money off of what happened to the zoo keeper. The only thing that relates them in my mind is that public demand dictates taste.

Anyone remember the Christians being fed to the lions in Rome? No? No one that old around here? How about public lynchings? Public executions? American Idol? All examples (OK, AI is mainly in the early stages for my purposes here, when the worst of the group are being sent off in tears, humiliated in front of the nation…and unlike the Christians being fed to lions, or blacks being lynched, they DID sign up for it…) of a public willing and eager to see someone killed/maimed/humiliated. And if success is measured by the money taken in, all of these ‘gladiator sports’ are a success.

My point, I guess, is that just because the public wants to see something, doesn’t mean it is in good taste. I suspect that it often means the exact opposite.