Thanking Sgt. Liczbinski
IT WAS A LITTLE AFTER two o'clock yesterday afternoon when I wrote the following email to my friend, Al Nitzsche, who works for a TV news station in Baltimore. We had been trading emails about the cop beating video, which as a national news story had completely eclipsed the murder last Saturday of Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski. I was already more than two hours into watching the live TV coverage of Liczbinski's funeral when I wrote:
"I don't know whether to be touched or appalled by this. All three stations (make that four, including Channel 29) are covering the cop's funeral live. It started at noon. It continues even now. Dear God, they're talking about following the funeral procession to the cemetary in Bensalem.
"They're covering it like the funeral of a head of state. The full Catholic mass at the Cathedral with Jim Gardner (a hat) explaining the ritual. It's been raining hard in Philadelphia all morning. It's clearing now as they bring the casket out of the Cathedral. Bagpipes are playing, drums are drumming.Michael Nutter just looked at his watch.
"Inside the Cathedral the dead officer's son spoke. He said tonight is game one of the NHL Eastern finals between the Flyers and the Pittsburgh Penguins. He asked everyone in the Cathedral to sing the Flyers cheer with him loud enough that his father could hear. And then the entire Cathedral sang,'Let's Go Flyers! Clap, clap, clap-clap-clap.' I honestly don't know what to make of this."
I still don't. I'm trying to wrap my brain around the whole thing. In life, I can't imagine Stephen Liczbinski ever dreaming that his death would cause Channels Six, Ten, Three and 29 to suspend their regular programming, includng the noon news, to cover his funeral. I didn't know Sgt. Liczbinski, but I'm sure he would be the first to laugh when I add, "but he's no Jack Kennedy."
Al, crusty curmudgeon that he is, replied quickly:
"Trying to attract viewers, and not be the guy that DOESN"T carry it. Plain and simple. Not that deep.
Sheepish, disingenuous bull shit. I know that's MY line of work these days. And I hate it. And everyone else."
Did Philadelphia really need all four network affiliates to devote close to two-and-a-half hours of programming for live coverage of a somber religious rite. The Pope's mass at Yankee Stadium didn't get this kind of blanket coverage. And I fear Al is right. It wasn't a decision made by four individual news directors who honestly believed it was in the public's best interests to devote this much air time to the funeral of a slain Philadelphia police officer. This over-the-top live broadcasting had the stink of cover-my-ass all over it. Nobody wanted to be the "guy" didn't do it. And it's not like each didn't know what the other was doing. "Oh, Jeez, if I had known three, six and ten were doing this I wouldn't have spent all this money and lost all that advertising revenue."
No, they did it because nobody would criticize them for doing it (except for guys like me and Al). They did it because they didn't know what else to do without appearing insenstive to a city's grief. They clicked into their default mode. They didn't want to be the only kid in class who didn't jump off the roof when the rest of their friends did. They didn't want to be the station who dared to air The Young and the Restless, All My Children, Days of Our Lives or Divorce Court like they do ever other weekday. Thank God Channel 17 didn't interrupt Jerry Springer. At least viewers had a choice between dreadfully off-key priests singing and shirtless hillbilly misogyny.
And then into the midst of this insincere media genuflection in front of the coffin of a murdered hero comes the son, Matt Liczbinski, doing a Flyers cheer in the FREAKIN' CATHEDRAL , for crying out loud. I didn't know whether to shit or go blind. Like I said to Al, I didn't know whether to be touched or appalled. Matt, who mentioned that he was 24 (and I know I wasn't the only one quietly doing the math -- Sgt. Liczbinski's 40th birthday was Tuesday) described his father as being the kind of father who could beat up any other father in the neighborhood.
This was a compliment. I understood that. But it sounded as dissonant and off key as the priests' singing,
Matt went with his heart, and I appreciate that, but no sooner had he said that than he led the hushed Cathedral mourners in a Flyers chant. And then he was gone. That was it. My dad could beat up your dad. Go Flyers.
And there were four TV stations capturing the honesty live.
And you know what the worst part is, for me, because it revealed something to me about the way I think. My immediate reaction was, "He just jinxed the Flyers." What a sorry asshole I am. But beyond that, it puts pressure on the Flyers. Someone asked me later, "Do you think the Flyers know?" Well, DUHHHH. We're talking live TV coverage by four network channels in a world where a snarky comment on someone's blog gets emailed to China within seconds. Yes, the Flyers know. And I'm sure they are as in awe of it all as I am.
What does it all mean? Stephen Liczbinski is the new Kate Smith? Will they win one for the Gipper? Will we forget that this Gipper wasn't Ronald Reagan dying quietly off screen but a Philadelphia cop torn in half by an assualt weapon fired by a burqa-wearing bandit whose family can't find a mosque willing to bury him. Is it fair to say that all this is unfair to the Flyers. I'm not talking if they lose. But what if they win?
God bless America, but I'd hate for a dead cop to be the lucky charm that wins the Stanley Cup.
