Tonight, on the CBS Evening News, John Miller interviewed the Chinese immigrant who escaped from the Tsarnaev brothers after he had been carjacked. One cannot help but admire the man for his courage, for instead of being paralyzed with fear, he saw his chance to escape and took it, saving not only his own life, but possibly those of others as well, since what he did led to the death or capture of the two terrorists before they could hurt anyone else. All in all, it might have been a pretty good interview.
But I knew what was coming, and I began to cringe. And sure enough, right at the end, John Miller made the inevitable hero-comment, saying, “You are the hero of this story.” Fortunately for the man being interviewed, he had an easy out, saying in reply, “I don’t think I’m a hero, you know. ’Cause what I was trying to do was just trying to save myself.”
Where things really become difficult is when someone saves the life of another, say, by rushing into a burning building to save a baby, or diving into frigid water to save someone who is drowning. When that happens, the man is indeed a hero. So when the reporter makes the inevitable remark about his being a hero, the man has nowhere to hide. He must bow his head, shaking it back and forth, saying something like, “Oh shucks. I’m not a hero. I just did what anyone would do.” Barf.
Heroes deserve better treatment than that. What John Miller should have done was wait until after the interview was over, when he was talking to Scott Pelley, the anchor of the show, to say that the man was a hero. But this never happens. The comment is always made by the reporter while he is still interviewing the hero, forcing him to utter the self-effacing disclaimers. Our common understanding of what a hero is precludes any kind of vain boasting. We expect the hero to be modest, and not to brag of his exploits. But that is no reason to turn that virtue against him, by asking him point blank if he is a hero, forcing him to abase himself by disingenuously disparaging his noble deed.
And so I wonder. Is this something we need? Must we see heroes degrade themselves with their posture of false humility as reassurance that they are not superior to the rest of us? Is this why reporters always finish the interview with the obligatory hero-comment, not to inform us of something we do not know, not to gain information we do not have, but to perform the act of transforming the hero into an Everyman, an ordinary person, just like the rest of us?
Well, I don’t think it’s something we need. I think it’s just plain creepy, and I wish they would stop.