Tyler Stanger died in a plane crash in New York City yesterday.
He was a flight instructor and the plane in which he was flying crashed into a high-rise apartment building in Midtown, killing him and another man.
Oh, did I mention that the other man was Cory Lidle, New York Yankee pitcher?
I didn’t have to because that has been the focus of all the coverage — whether it be on ESPN or Good Morning America, whether it is in the New York Daily News or The New York Times.
I need to state up front that this little rant has nothing to do with Mr. Lidle, a useful big-league pitcher. His death was unfortunate as are all accidental deaths, whether they occur in the air or on the ground, whether in a plane, a car or wherever.
My complaint is with the media, of which I am a card-carrying member, and the celebrity-obsessed culture in which we live. The Lidle angle has taken off, mostly because he was a C-level celebrity. That, in the culture we live in is enough to elevate him above the rest of us.
Again, no disrespect to Mr. Lidle, but he was one of two to die. And yet, Mr. Stanger’s life has been reduced to an afterthought:
It took The New York Times, for instance, nine paragraphs in its Web version to mention his name and The New York Post 13 paragraphs in its Web version. And Good Morning America only mentioned him in passing this morning. Even the Associated Press, waited five paragraphs to offer the name — even though it was the newest piece of information available in the story.
I’m not asking that we devote the same level of coverage to Mr. Stanger, or that we even present his biography — that info was not available (his name didn’t come out until this morning) . All I ask is that he be treated as important, that his name be in the first few paragraphs, that we recognize that he died in the same crash and that there are people who care as much about him as care about Mr. Lidle.
That’s all I’m asking.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
the second victim
Hank Kalet 