Remembering “That Game Show Tragedy”

Rock Ed’s Gang Badoy posted this on Twitter and I thought I’d put it on my blog. It’s an old report on the Wowowee tragedy. When this happened, I was working for the rival network’s online news department. We were watching the whole thing unfold on TV in the newsroom and couldn’t believe what was happening.

There was a lot of fuss about this. A lot of tears and anger. And now? Everyone seems to have forgotten.

“The tragedy threw ABS-CBN into the maelstrom of controversy. On television, “Wowowee” host Willie Revillame shed tears. Both he and the network’s executives said they meant well, that they merely wanted to brighten the lives of the poor. Yet the death toll on that tragic Saturday also showed that they failed to fathom the depths of people’s despair. They didn’t realize that many of “Wowowee’s” viewers lead such brutish lives that they would cling — stubbornly, impervious to the well-being of others — to the most tenuous of hopes offered by games of chance. The network and the show benefited from their poverty and despair, as these meant a viewership that bolstered ratings and attracted advertising. They were apparently oblivious to the perils of peddling dreams.”

Read the whole article: Wowowee and the women of 200 P. de la Cruz St.