Etcetera

A Few Off-Key Notes Intrude on Aretha Coverage (Her Death Is Not About Elvis)

August 16, 2018, 9:27 PM by  Alan Stamm

The queen gave us purity, grace and beauty in five decades of performances -- always on-key, always in sync, always on beat. Journalists and fans largely strive for that tone in Thursday's chorus of tributes, a kind of global hug or virtual wake.

And yet, some coverage and posts about Aretha Franklin's death slip into oddness, tackiness or excess.

We don't mean careless references to Motown recordings (never) or silly claims that she grew up in Memphis (only until age 2).

The most jarring nonsense involves hyperbolic language, a meaningless coincidence and Twitter barrages at machine-gun velocity. 

During a flurry of posts right after Thursday morning's news, the news site TMZ pounces on a same-date curiosity (right) deemed newsworthy -- and an excuse to dust off a 20-photo "Remembering Elvis" gallery. Because what happened in Detroit early Thursday is all about him, right?

Back here, a Metro Detroit radio station dials it up to 11 by suggesting a wave of grief stuns this city:  

There's mourning, sure, but mostly memorializing, appreciating and celebrating a high-impact life. There's more joyful music than black crepe, because it's not as though a star died suddenly, unexpectedly or tragically young.

Speaking of off-key tweets, this indelicate wording comes, surprisingly, from a communications pro:

It doesn't seem a nitpick to suggest that the three condo and apartment towers on Riverfront Drive are where those Detroiters went to live. The complex isn't a nursing home or assisted living facility, after all.

The Los Angeles Times' pop music writier waved a mid-morning warning flag that wasn't always heeded here and elsewhere:

His point is about pace, balance, restraint -- qualities that apply to journalism as well as music.

Alas, "breathless click bait" seems an apt description for the Franklin fusillades fired by social media teams at Detroit's daily papers:

  • Detroit News: 61 tweets and retweets in the first five hours after word of her death.
  • Detroit Free Press: 49 tweets and retweets during that same span.

Yes, public interest is high. And yes, a soul diva's half-century career has lots of angles and generates a flow of prominent tributes. Plus, a three-day death watch since news of hospice care gave journalists time to draft retrospectives. Still, this lyric from "Think," which Franklin wrote with Ted White in 1968, seems worth keeping in mind now:

You better think (think)
Think about what you're trying to do . . .
Hey, think about it, think about it   



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