she took her own life on the morning news

Ferne 2022-04-03 08:01:01

It's a morning in Florida. People turned on the TV and sat down comfortably, munching on breakfast cereal and watching the news. As usual, what's going on on Channel 40 is the Sunshine Coast Morning News. When reporting on a shooting in an airport restaurant, a small situation arose - the videotape of the camera crew appeared to be jammed by the machine and could not be broadcast. The female anchor Christine shrugged and continued to maintain a professional smile, saying in a cadence:

"According to the principles of Channel 40, I will continue to broadcast the freshest news to you, all in real life. Here you will see this live scene for the first time: suicide attempt." People are puzzled. Almost at the same time, the female anchor took out the Type 38 pistol from the bottom of the table, pulled the trigger behind her ear tremblingly, and fell heavily on the table after a gunshot. This incomparably dramatic event actually happened at 9:00 am on July 15, 1974, in the live broadcast room of WXLT TV in the United States.

The pistol Christine used to commit suicide

The live broadcast was quickly cut to black. Colleagues thought she was joking, only to find that she was bleeding from her nose and nose when she ran over, and her body continued to cramp. Some viewers called the police after the incident, while others called the station, thinking it was a pre-set drama. In the following day or two, Christine and WXLT TV quickly hit the headlines of major mainstream media. Her colleagues later discovered that this "suicide declaration" was not Christine's improvisation. In the manuscript that was placed on the table and stained with blood, in addition to this line during the live broadcast, there was even a press release she wrote for her colleagues about the suicide live broadcast. "Channel 40 news anchor Christine Chubbuck shot herself on the morning news broadcast this morning and was taken to Sarasota Memorial Hospital in critical condition," she wrote. Other than that, Christine left no suicide note. She planned a dark humorous death for herself, but it was really hard to laugh at.

On August 24, 1944, Christine Chubbuck was born into an upper-middle-class family in Ohio, USA. She received a good educational environment since she was a child and attended private schools with her two brothers at home. In middle school, she started a self-deprecating club called Dateless Wonder, which gathered girls who weren't invited on Saturday nights. After graduating from Boston University's Broadcasting Department, Christine never got a chance to appear on camera until Channel 40 decided she would host the Sunshine Coast Morning News.

Dateless Wonder Club Roster

This unprecedented live broadcast of suicide has undoubtedly become an intractable mystery. Until the end of her life on the eve of her 30th birthday, this tall, dignified and intelligent woman already had an enviable life. It was not until Christine's colleagues, mother and brother were interviewed by the media that the patchwork of words made the image of the female anchor gradually clear. Throughout history, society has never stopped mocking unmarried women. There were "old girls" in ancient times, but now there are "leftover girls". There is "old maid" in Chinese and "old spinster" in English. Christine, who has excellent conditions, has been single for many years, and suffers from depression, is a typical "leftover girl" in the eyes of others. Christine has shown independent, arrogant and unstable personality traits since childhood. In her relationship with others, on the one hand, she longs for closeness, but on the other hand, she shows a cold and arrogant attitude towards closeness. When someone tries to start a relationship with her, she will quickly entrust the other party with absolute trust and dependence like a life-saving straw. In this way, Christine "scares" away everyone who tries to approach her.

During her career on Channel 40, Christine was deeply in love with her male colleague Peter Ryan. This melancholy, handsome man made her empathic and attached. Ryan is also a depressed patient and has had severe suicidal tendencies, and his experience of participating in a support group and speaking sincerely helped him get rid of it all. He shared his experience with Christine in the hope that she could get out of her emotional distress. And Christine can't open up to strangers. It wasn't until Ryan's birthday that Christine decided to express her love to him, but was rejected. The Thursday before her suicide, Christine came to Ryan's office. At this point she was so charismatic, she seemed to be a completely different person, from her aloof, arrogant attitude, to nice conversations with Ryan, and even intimate flirting. When he wanted to date her, she put on a face that no one could approach. It wasn't until after Christine's suicide that Ryan realized that she was determined to die. According to a colleague before her death, Christine was a newsman with a unique vision and a sharp point of view, but it is difficult to change her mean character in dealing with people she knew in life. She is self-centred, often denying others, and always denying herself. She is ambitious, intelligent, tough, and lacks the traditional sense of femininity; at the same time, she is cynical, hates the bloody and violent side of the news industry, and wants to add some humane care to the industry. She has deeper thoughts and insights than ordinary people, and at the same time she has a deeper depression in her heart. Unlike traditionally considered "silent suicidal tendencies," Christine's depression was so severe that she revealed her suicidal tendencies to everyone around her. Even a few weeks before her death, she applied to her boss for a program feature on suicide, joking with her colleagues about "buying a 38 pistol and shooting myself on the air." She even consulted the local police and got The most suitable location for suicide with a pistol is behind the ear, because that is where the respiratory system is governed.

Article published by The Washington Post after the incident

Christine was desperate to fall in love and have a family. After an operation, one of her ovaries was removed. The doctor told her that if she didn't conceive within two or three years, she would never get pregnant again. The trick of fate made Christine fall to the bottom of her despair. She thought, it's all dead anyway, why don't you make a joke with the world. Brother Greg said he was like Christine's second closest friend and her best friend was their mother. They never talk about anything, including suicidal tendencies. Greg commented on this: "I don't think smart people would have thought about it (suicide) as an option. It's just that she's carrying too much weight for Christine." This is Christine alone. Aside from her mother and brother, she had no real friends in her 29 years of life and had never dated a man more than twice. At the time of her death, she never even had sex. She lived a hard and arrogant life, and in a life full of despair, she expressed it violently in the way of a newsman, and turned her death into a big news. Christine often said to her relatives: "If life gets too hard, I will quit. If the pain is unbearable, I will leave this world." Christine's pain is not only from loneliness, but also from society. The harm caused by public opinion to older unmarried women and the excessive elevation of the value of marriage and childbirth. Fortunately, since the second feminist movement in the 1960s and 1970s, the liberation of minds has made American women more loyal to themselves, and the number of older unmarried women has risen rapidly. Now, 40 years later, women are no longer obsessed with realizing value in the family, but choose to be alone first, and make more efforts for self-achievement. ------------------------------------------- The Christine Affair Resurgence Biographical Film In the last two years it always seemed to come in pairs. Following last year's "Jobs", this year's Sundance Film Festival saw two films with the same theme. And oddly enough, they all happen to be about Christine.

The first is the biopic "Christine" starring Rebecca Hall. This is a more orthodox biopic that focuses on the last days of the female anchor. Rebecca Hall played Christine in the film, and her reductive performance was greatly recognized by film critics.

The second is the documentary "Kate Plays Christine" starring Kate Lyn Sheil, and unlike the first, this is a very eccentric film. Rather than a documentary, it's a "hybrid of fact and fiction". Actress Kate plays herself in the film. The film filmed her preparation for the role of Christine, and in the effort to integrate into the role, she became more and more depressed and manic, and finally it was difficult to tell the truth from the fake. Director Robert Greene said that changing the way audiences understand documentaries is what he ultimately wants to achieve. Source of this article: WeChat public account "Shout" (id: gentlegianteloise) Please contact me for reprinting

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Extended Reading
  • Chaz 2022-04-21 09:03:52

    It's hard to judge the consequences of such a real thing on society, but objectively speaking, the so-called pure things should not exist

  • Baylee 2022-04-03 09:01:12

    After watching it, Rebecca Hall's QA learned a lot more. It turned out that the whole film felt very distant on purpose. It only showed Christine's life but did not comment on the reasons for her suicide. I also want to say that such mental illness is actually It's very common. The ps trailer is actually made by Christine's original friend, crazy

Christine quotes

  • Steve: [referring to Bob Andersen possibly choosing one reporter to work in Baltimore] Who's he going to pick?

    Michael: I have no idea in hell Steve, but it's sure going to be a kick in the ass for the rest of us!

  • Michael: [holds up his fingers in a tiny circle] My asshole is like this small right now, THIS SMALL!