A Pathetic Attempt

It's 11:22 and I am so pissed off at what I just saw on the local evening news that I have to vent. I just watched one of those opinion pieces on the nightly news, you know how every news cast has the "human interest piece guy" (from now on referred to as H.I.P guy). He's usually witty and tells stories from an editorial perspective. Things that aren't really "news" per se, like the local lady who has 37 cats or little Bobby Joe giving money to cancer through a school bottle drive or something.

Anyway, Global TV's resident Human Interest Piece guy (didn't get his name) decided to take a trip down to Vancouver's infamous Downtown Eastside for a little human interest piece on the folks living (more like surviving) down there. Introduced by the anchorwoman and "going where few journalists would" I spent the next 5 minutes baring witness to one of the most irresponsible pieces of journalism I have ever seen.

Look everyone!!! Here is H.I.P guy talking to crackheads. Make sure that you film them smoking crack and then unleashing a string of expletives that ends in "it makes me want to stab you" after H.I.P guy asks him "how does it feel?". Not enough "cutting edge journalism" for you? Let's film a few more people smoking crack and then ask them to same question, make sure to insert witty H.I.P guy comment in the overdubbing. Oh hey look!! That guy's shooting raw meth into his arm! Sweet, cameras rolling!!!

Next it's time for H.I.P guy to ask those tough questions (where few journalists would, according the anchorlady)..."hey buddy, why don't you get a job?" Very poignant... Dude's response "because I'm a drug addict and it wouldn't support my habit." Does H.I.P guy snap up this opportunity to engage this guy in a discussion about accessible work, methadone, accessibility to treatment that may allow him to get a job or the lack of government funding for rehab and detox? Nope, he just inserts one of those fool-proof witty H.I.P guy remark about how much the guy swears.

Jump to the end of the piece, as the camera zooms in on the guy shooting meth, the overlaying commentary spiels off some half hearted shlock about "if you don't want to admit the problem exists then don't look"

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST. How the hell did this piece of crap make it onto the nightly news?

I don't know how many times I have to tell my friends and people who ask me about the Downtown Eastside, it's not a fucking circus for you to gawk at and then go home. These people are not for your amusement or entertainment. These are PEOPLE for Christ's sake. People who have had to endure hardships that 99% of people who were watching that piece of journalistic garbage can't even imagine. Why not ask buddy shooting meth how he came to be on the streets? Why not ask him to tell viewers about how desperate his life is and how he can't keep a roof over his head because there is no system in place to help him. Why not ask the guy smoking crack if he has HIV (which he probably does since the Downtown Eastside has the highest HIV and Hep rate per capita in the entire country) and ask him if any agency is helping to deal with his infection. Maybe H.I.P guy could get into a discussion with these guys about the standard of living for First Nation's people in Canada since they were all First Nations and probably grew up in the squalor of Canada's reserve system.

Why not ask them about shelter, food banks, police brutality, panhandling, social housing, detox, safe injections sites, welfare, hunger, loss, desperation, homelessness, violence, apathy, social welfare, needle exchanges, sex work, their thoughts on government, the Olympics, the fact that they are forced to go the bathroom in alleys because there are no public facilities for them. Ask them about their families, their feelings, their struggles, ask them about who they are and where they came from. Ask them how it feels to be a circus attraction for he swarms of media hounding them since the Robert Pickton case went to trial. Ask them about how it feels to know that their government has failed them.

Don't ask them "how does it feel"

Fuck You H.I.P guy.

This story makes me want to stab you too.