By Don McNay
“Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don’t get fooled again.”
— The Who
The Concert for New York took place after Sept. 11, 2001. It was a time of mourning. Most of the performers chose to play softer songs that reflected sorrow.
Then The Who came on the stage. They played a defiant set that included “Baba O Riley” and “We Won’t Get Fooled Again.”
It struck a deep emotion with the audience. It was time to get up and fight.
The situation on Sept. 11 was different than the airplane crash in Lexington last week. Sept. 11 was a deliberate terrorist attack. The crash in Lexington was an accident.
Still, each city lost lives and felt a total sense of loss.
In a city the size of Lexington, 49 deaths is a big number. Other Kentucky cities lost prominent members of their community. The five passengers tied to London, Ky., seemed to know everyone in that city.
I have yet to find a person in Central Kentucky who did not have a connection to someone on that plane. I knew several passengers or their families.
A step in grieving is anger. I am there.
I’m not angry at the airport, airline, pilots, controller or anyone who caused the Lexington crash. Things went wrong, but no one did them maliciously.
My anger is at Conan O’Brien.
He inflicted pain on grieving people.
I was watching the Lexington NBC affiliate when it cut from its extraordinary coverage of the plane crash to the opening of the Emmy awards ceremony.
On the same day as the most destructive airplane fatality in recent history, Conan decided to do a “comedy” skit about an airplane crash.
It wasn’t funny, but that is not unusual. O’Brien has never been funny. The Emmy awards were not his day to start.
The air crash was news hours before the Emmys were shown. It gave Conan time to take his stupid stunt out of the show.
What was funny to Conan was not funny to the rest of the world. At least it was not funny to the people of Kentucky.
I did not catch more of his “act,” but why would I? From where Conan was going, he might have been compelled to throw in jokes about child pornography or mass murder.
What happened to the Emmys anyway? They were being conducted in August, when few people watch television and hosted by O’Brien instead of a star such as Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert, who is actually relevant.
To his credit, the general manager of the Lexington NBC station made national headlines by expressing his outrage about the “skit.” He demanded an apology.
He recognized Conan’s insensitivity, but he did not take the step he needed to take — yank Conan’s show off his station.
He could dump Conan and not lose money. Conan comes on after most people are in bed. If they replaced Conan with re-runs of “Lost In Space” or infomercials, they would keep the same number of viewers.
Given the choice between Conan and Christie Brinkley, I would take Christie any day. I would also take Chuck Norris and the guy who sells Ginsu knives.
I don’t think of Chuck or the knife guy as sensitive, but they would not insult a city and state that are going through hell.
Average citizens need to call for Conan’s head. I’m not counting on the FCC to do anything. The FCC is not interested unless it involves sex or Janet Jackson.
There are many things people can do. Call or write the Lexington station. Call or write NBC. Call or write Conan. Boycott any advertiser who advertises on Conan. I am going to do all of the above.
Kentucky is in a state of mourning, but it also should be defiant. Someday, in some other place, there will be another airline crash. If Conan is made to atone, some unfunny funnyman will think twice about rubbing salt in the wounds of the grieving.
By standing up to Conan, we are saying “We won’t be fooled again.”
Don McNay is chairman of the board of McNay Settlement Group and didn’t want to be fooled the first time. You can write to him at don@donmcnay.com or read other things he has written at www.donmcnay.com. His award-winning column is syndicated on the CNHI News Service. He is on the board of directors for the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.
