Two Deaths

Within a week of the untimely death of Princess Diana, the world lost an extraordinary woman: Mother Teresa, whose humble dedication to fighting hunger and poverty and giving the poorest of the poor hope was boundless.

And yet, despite her revered life and the fact that she was an international symbol of unselfish devotion to humanity, her death and the worldwide grieving that followed was, and continues to be, overshadowed by that of the woman who passed before her.

The circumstances surrounding the death of the Princess of Wales have spurred a great deal of discussion by the media about the media. It is talk about where to place blame - on a pack of paparazzi, on the media as an institution, or at the feet of the voracious public at large. And still the celebrity of the fairy-tale Princess continues to dominate the news, even at the cost of diminishing Mother Teresa.

What sort of judgment is used in determining that the news value of the more than week-old death of a young, pretty woman, who once was married to royalty and who cared in her own way for the afflicted, was of greater import than the death of a woman whom the Catholic Church may at some time canonize?

For all the discussion and supposed inward reflection by the media (as well as its readers and viewers), it seems that nothing more than lip service has been paid to the debate over the role of the press, to questions of public values. Has nothing been learned? Have no seeds of change been sewn?

As a newspaper in a community that also sees, on a much smaller scale, the constant struggle between news for its own sake and "news" for celebrity's sake, we had hoped for more. The innocence of Diana and the true celebrity of Mother Teresa demand it.