Philip Seymour Hoffman Media Obsession

"Freshly remembered, this story shall a good man teach his son." - Shakespeare, Henry V Act IV Scene 3""Norman E Borlaug saved more lives than any (other person) in human history." J. Sheeran, Chief of The World Food ProgramThis is a Dennis-Miller-Style Rant: feel free to dial out now. :-)What are our children learning from watching the influence-bearers in our era in action today - now – this week with the superabundance of mass media focus on Phillip Seymour Hoffman? May I, as an artist in theater, writing, and music – affirming enough of theater to earn my degree in the craft, with no ax to grind devaluing theater, say something seeming to be crying to be said?This culture-wide convulsion in regard to my fellow thespian's death seems far overdone and out of bounds.Edmund Sonnenblick, a physician who saved millions of lives via his breakthrough research in cardiopathy - died in 2007, with mass media barely hiccuping in response. Norman Borlaug, an agricultural scientist who saved over one billion lives with his back-breaking work to create high-yield wheat, died in 2009; and I do not recall a single Network channel devoting three minutes to him in prime time.Yet - for DAYS AND DAYS our media is OBSESSING on the drug-abuse induced passing of a gifted actor (not a unique story by any means) – who, while impactful, certainly did not hold the stature of a Barrymore (of either gender) or Brando or Hepburn (either lady of the two). I mean - it's not like we lost Steven Spielberg, or Bob Zemeckis or John Williams or Kenneth Branagh or Dame Dench had passed. No one who altered the conversation of Western civilization left us in Mr. Hoffman, handy actor though he was. I do mourn we will see no more tours-de-force like his Gust Avrakotos in Charlie Wilson's War (which stole the movie from two marquee actors like Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts): or Owen Davian in Mission Impossible 3 (which stole the movie from Tom Cruise). I thought his performances were, without exaggeration, wonderful.Still – does it not distress our collective sense of sound value that our media are overflowing with focus on this character-actor whom no one in our craft revered as some kind of scion until a few days ago?Perhaps the mass-media's sense of its own vulnerability to substance-abuse ... or its own desire to see its contributions as somehow deemed immortal and massive by the society it influences - is propelling this conferral of demigod status on one of their/our own? Who knows? I like to try to understand motives: some who love me tell me I do it a bit too much. Onward.I deeply love theater and film: and I enjoyed Mr. Hoffman's contributions; but - does anyone else out there want to turn on the TV or Web-Based News and see - what's the right word? Ah, yes - "news!" I dearly hope sound "values" (appropriate assignments of relative worth) cease to be merely a word used during elections as a political lever (no matter which way it presses), and become again parts of the compass by which our civilization seeks to find its way.Here's to you, all forgotten Game-Changers - and to your true peers. You are not forgotten: fame-obsessed culture, notwithstanding.