Rhetoric and the death of Heath Ledger

Of all the language used on television concerning young actor Heath Ledger's recent death, most of it has been rhetoric, empty rhetoric.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines empty rhetoric as: n. use of bombast which is itself is defined as: n. trite, clichéd, hackneyed. Hackneyed, in turn, means commonplace, unoriginal. Pleonasm also comes into play meaning: excessive, redundant.

And still other synonyms include turgidity: long-winded, embellished. Finally, an informal synonym: hot air.

But why so much empty rhetoric? The explanation comes in the shape of a question: If normal rhetoric is useful for persuasion, usually pointing to a credible subject, then what need for persuasion surrounding Heath Ledger's death? We already know Ledger's death was "untimely" and by some definitions "tragic." But aren't all deaths "tragic"? After all, life ending for anyone, regardless of age, qualifies as something of a tragedy given the length of eternity. These "commentators" and "reporters" have been reporting on something other than Heath Ledger's "untimely" death. Rather, they have been speculating with pleonastic variation on what might have been the cause of Ledger's death.

Though unseemly, they know this speculation, used as the subject of their rhetoric, will drive ratings up for their particular show. In effect, they are, as good employees, providing audiences to their sponsors. Otherwise, Ledger's death would have been credibly reported, put aside, and followed up with the final autopsy report that Ledger died from an accidental overdose resulting from "the abuse of prescription drugs," a tragedy many Americans, not just Australian actors, act out each year.

The following, very partial list comprises randomly recorded empty rhetoric taken from the commentary and reportage of such television networks as: TMZ Network, Show Biz Tonight, Tru TV, (formally Court TV), and Hollywood 411. We'll credit two of the three quotes while emphasizing that these quotes themselves were repeated bombastically by many others having been regurgitated from the same, general feeding ground.

We'll provide a specific label for the rhetoric by way of personal preference while also offering commentary, and we'll add that Ledger himself, being the consummate artist he was, shunned any expression of emptiness in his own work.

The Empty Rhetoric:

"unbelievable death, the mystery deepens" trite, clichéd, hackneyed

"a tragic, tragic story; we're all trying to make sense of...; he's going to be like James Dean: legendary because he did die so young; the mystery is still unfolding; the mysteries, so many questions; were the Olsen Twins involved? we want to know how it happened and why and how...so we can prevent it from happening in future" -- Katie Daryl, TMZ TV pleonasm, turgid, redundant

Commentary: Does Katie Daryl really mean, "...so we can prevent it from happening in future?" How many people have overdosed whom Ms. Daryl and her colleagues have probably never thought of? A partial list of past overdoses from Wikipedia: Jean-Michel Basquiat, John Beluschi, and who remembers Pamela Courson of a heroin overdose? (Courson was the common law wife of Jim Morrison who, himself, probably died of a heroin overdose (disputed). Tommy Dorsey, musician and bandleader, choked to death while sleeping with the aid of drugs; Chris Farley, comedian, cocaine and heroin overdose; Sigmund Freud, neurologist, long-term cocaine use, physician-assisted morphine overdose; Jack Kerouac, writer/poet, complications due to alcoholism; Marilyn Monroe, actress, overdose of sleeping pills, and many more.

"Now we're at the state where everyone is sad, depressed..." -- Jane Velez Mitchell on Michelle Williams, "I cannot imagine how she is dealing with the Paparazzi." basic bombast

Commentary: Do we really believe that Jane Velez Mitchell "cannot imagine" the suffering of Michelle Williams? Mitchell and the Paparazzi generally work the same territory for their pay, even if they may have different paymasters.

Explanation for the Empty Rhetoric: The focus of all the empty rhetoric comes out of the "culture of celebrity," particularly as it is set apart from the art forms the celebrities themselves practice. It's all about filling up the air with gossip and speculation surrounding the private life of someone, even when that private life has ended. All the bombastic noise is borne from the culture of distraction.

When A. J. Hammer (the name is eponymous for "pounding out emptiness" surrounding celebrities) asks: "What was Heath's state of mind leading up to his death?" embellished, he is using empty rhetoric marked purely by speculation. What possible sincerity or usefulness could his question have? How does this thought connect with the amount of time these celebrity "reporters" spend on the actor apart from his craft? What a disservice to Ledger. What was Heath's state of mind. Is Hammer the right person to be asking such questions? Of course not.

For those interested in credible reporting and commentary, we refer you to Los Angeles Times writer Reed Johnson's homage to Heath Ledger.

Final Word: The celebrity media craze possibly stems from a one page feature in Time Magazine called People. People, owned by Time-Life, Inc., then matured into a magazine solely devoted to celebrities. From this, others followed in print and on to television. The World Wide Web is the latest in the act. The race to distraction was on.

For what reason do people tune in and fixate? They are undoubtedly on the wrong frequency given so many matters of greater importance in their lives otherwise competing for their attention. Yes, they must search for these greater matters, usually no further than their daily newspaper. Meanwhile, these concerns go unattended.

Elitists of the past would have referred to such audiences as "the bewildered herd." Historians describe such cultures as "decadent."