This news story is just beyond the pale when one considers that it wasn’t really so long ago that an active-roster astronaut getting a divorce was a bit of a scandal. Not exactly the kind of publicity NASA needs, either…yeesh. Keep your orbital docking maneuvers to yourselves!
I’m having a hard time figuring out the newsworthiness of the whole thing to begin with. It’s bizarre enough as it is without bringing any of the players’ occupations into it, but you can bet that this one will stay in the news because of the NASA connection.
In other news, Turner’s deal to pay Boston $2,000,000 is a bargain. Turner and Cartoon Network could’ve deliberately deployed $2 mil of promotion and they wouldn’t have gotten the kind of impact out of it that they did here: even rival news outlets are mentioning the signs and the show they’re from. I don’t think they planned it this way, but you better bet that someone down the road will try to pull something like this off in the future – and will probably fail miserably.
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I think the newsworthiness is there simply because we all have these high expectations of astronauts and this incident goes completely contrary to these expectations. Perhaps we are all brainwashed by movies like [i]The Right Stuff[/i] or the publicity generated by NASA but I think the general perception is that Astronauts represent the pinacle of professional behavior. I think of Astronauts as confident, highly motivated and very intelligent individuals. A quick look at the entrance requirements to the Asronaut corps confirms this expectation of mine.
Stalking someone because they are a rival in a love triangle is not the act of a confident and intelligent individual. This woman appears to have serious self-estem issues and I am amazed she made it through the psychological evaluation.
If this kind of thing happened at NASA several times before, then, yes, I would question the newsworthiness of it. Has there been similar incidents in the U.S. Army, Marines or Navy? You bet it has. So often, in fact, that no one cares to put it in print (except local news).
With that said I have to agree with the defense attorney: the police are really stretching this case. From what I’ve seen and heard about the story they have a strong case for stalking, battery and burglary. But kidnapping and attempted murder? Gimme a break. If it indeed is just a case of stalking and burglary, then it doesn’t deserve national media attention. Local media attention, sure. Maybe even a 20/20 feature or an hour or two on Court TV. But not headline news on the major networks.
BTW, there is no doubt this woman was motivated: when she drove the 900 miles to Orlando, she wore a diaper so she didn’t to stop for potty breaks. Of course the image of her wearing a diaper threw me completely off (big EEW factor there – the EEW factor got worse when they mentioned that Astronauts normally wear diapers when the shuttle launches). Wait, 900 miles? Couldn’t she just take a bio break whenever she stopped to gas up her car? Or did she have one of those secret NASA cars that get 80 mpg or have a 100 gal tank?
Wow, I made it through this whole post without mentioning front-wheel drive…OOPS! 🙂
I think the whole Boston Aqua Teen scare is extremlely ridiculous, as well as frightning…suppose I went out and bought a copy of Orwell’s 1984(which I am certain is on Homeland Security’s “proscribed literature” list)and told people to go out and read it. Would I get the same treatment as the Turner publicists?
I agree. Oddly, and perhaps controversially, I felt this should’ve applied to the Natalie Holloway case too.