Erin Brokovich reporting ...

In this mass-mediated culture someone is always trying to convince you that nothing can really happen.\nThat's at least one of the reasons the Sept. 11 assault was a watershed event. That horrific cataclysm cut through a culture that has gone as far as to stage reality on "Temptation Island" and "Big Brother." For a few days, things were so violent and raw it seemed as if we were all part of a stunningly real world. \nWho needs cute spectacles like "Where in the World is Matt Lauer," in which The Today Show used dizzyingly diverse global backgrounds to jazz up their ratings? Shows like this made it seem as though the world was just another inviting theme park controlled by the benevolent gods of amusement. As the planes crashed into the towers, we were suddenly right there with Matt Lauer "in the world." Peter Jennings and Dan Rather didn't have a chance to clean things up and make it feel like the world was a sanitary receptacle for our money, our influence and our distraction. \nFor a few weeks, it looked as if an era of alienation had ended. The fact that two large buildings had been demolished by terrorists and that thousands of innocent lives had been lost seemed to show that we couldn't go on living as though the world was a television creation. The era of believing that we were safe and sound in our living rooms had come to an end. Suddenly, things like politics, ethnic violence and foreign affairs were an intrinsic and dangerous part of our world. \nWe were thrust into the thick of things.\nErin Brockovich has now come to the rescue. And wonder of wonders, she's doing it with a "reality" show. \nAccording to Reuters, "Brockovich, the brash underdog who helped win a legal windfall for a down-and-out desert town, will now take on the even harder task of helping to save Manhattan on national television…in a prime-time special, 'Challenge America with Erin Brockovich: The Miracle in Manhattan' on ABC." \nAn ABC statement explains that Brockovich will be given an as-yet unspecified, "seemingly impossible task …to accomplish in only a week's time."\nAn ABC executive gushed that "At the heart of the task will be the story of the American spirit, the transformation of a city and the response of ordinary people and businesses called upon to perform an extraordinary duty." \nThere you have it, America. The television gods are back, and the world is once again safe for "ordinary people" like Brockovich to do extraordinary things while the rest of us subordinaries watch everything unfold on the boob-tube. \nIs it any wonder that Walt Disney Co. owns ABC? After all, you can't have Brockovich without the specter of Julia Roberts, and before you know it you're wrapped up in a bunch of Cinderella hoo-ha. \nDon't believe it. We're all in on reality. It's not just something for a bunch of argumentative beach bunnies fighting over $1 million dollars; or even a brash, miracle-working underdog. Which means that we've got to come up with a way to grab the reins away from television executives and take part in this scary new world. Nothing less should be expected of citizens of the most powerful country on the map. \nScary thought, huh?