THANK GOD SHE'S SAFE


but what was she wearing?

I'm browsing a few news sites tonight, catching up on some of the day's stories and a few of the harrowing photo galleries that chronicle the unthinkable death and destruction from the Indian Ocean tsunami, but when I get to CNN's home page, I'm stopped dead in my pointing-and-clicking tracks. Because the fourth item in the MORE NEWS section (which appears just below the lead story) -- right after a link that reads, "Scientists: Quake Shifted Tectonic Plates" -- comes this essential bit of info:

SWIMSUIT MODEL SURVIVES TSUNAMI.

The story, which includes a huge, gratuitous -- but nonetheless appreciated -- photo of her 2003 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition cover, assures us that Czech supermodel Petra Nemcova, despite a broken pelvis and internal injuries, survived the disaster that has already claimed the lives of more than 33,000 people. The piece notes that Nemcova survived by clinging to a palm tree for eight hours before being rescued, and that her photographer boyfriend is missing and feared dead. It also includes this scintillating quotation from the cover girl survivor herself: "There might be pieces of bone stuck to my organs."

Now.

I'm thrilled that Nemcova survived, and I'm terribly sorry that Simon Atlee, her boyfriend, is missing. I hope that she recovers quickly and, more importantly, that he appears alive and well very soon.

But come on.

Does this little tidbit, this inflated, glorified sidebar-at-best, really deserve the fourth slot below the lead story box on CNN? Are we so (quasi-) celebrity obsessed that the survival of a swimsuit model is a major angle of interest for this unthinkable tragedy? Or are we just happy to turn our attention to a beautiful, white victim of the disaster, so we don't have to focus on all those wailing, dark-skinned natives? Is CNN simply so beholden to its affiliation with SI that it really thinks this is major news? Or are they just trying to give a little free pub to the upcoming 2005 swimsuit issue? I'm not sure I even want to know the answers.

But I do know that, as of 9:15pm, the story is still the site's 4th most popular link of the day, six slots higher than the one about how humanitarian groups are accepting donations to aid the victims. (No word, in that story, on whether you can earmark your donations for Nemcova or other caucasian models who might have been affected.) And I also know that, next time there's a natural disaster in some foreign land, I can turn to CNN for the latest updates on which Maxim Girls and Victoria's Secret models made it out alive.

Posted: Tue - December 28, 2004 at 09:18 PM          

©