R.I.P. Crocodile Hunter

[Overlay]

Couldn't believe it when I heard this morning that Steve Irwin had been killed by a stingray while filming off the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. They said that such stings are rarely fatal, but in this case, the ray stung him just under the rib cage, and the barb on its tail penetrated Steve's heart. Of course, I'm sure he knew the dangers of his work more than anybody, and he died doing something he loved, but what a loss. He was 44.

[DJofSD]

I just heard this too.

What a shock. I've spent many an hour with my son watching his TV programs and DVDs.

This man was real and his passion boundless. I really feel for his wife and two kids.

[JustRalph]

Damn shame. He was a young man.........with a family. Very sad.

Some people have no class....... I saw a headline that said

"Croc Hunter Croaks!"

it was a new zealand site that was one of the first to report it.

They have a blog that runs on the page and they were getting hammered over the headline. They changed it after about an hour...........

[so.cal.fan]

Real loss to the Discovery Channel...and all their fans around the world.
Steve taught folks the beauty of all living creatures.
RIP Steve. :(

[CryingForTheHorses]

If there were such a thing as a wildlife whisperer,Steve Irwin was it!!!..He was the best and will be greatly missed..What a shame to lose a person like him.He was the ambassador to wildlife and a great teacher to all the world.Passionate for his love of the wildlife..Crikey Ill miss him Hats off to you Steve for all that you taught me as I watched your shows.
R.I.P Steve

[JPinMaryland]

Dammit, I really liked that guy. RIP.

[Tom]

He was rally amazing. He told Larry King once that he had a gift - to communicate with nature.

CNN is going to replay it toninght at 9PM.

[Stevie Belmont]

I always said that this could happen. I always thought the worst was a possibilty and oneday I would read about it. It happened, not by the suspected creature. Unreal. Terrible thing to have happen. He was an interesting, colorful individual. I feel bad for his family. Very sad.

[bigmack]

In his want to exhibit the facets of an animals defences he would oftentimes antagonize them into lashing out. I hope that wasn't the case with the stingray. Live by the sword...

RIP

[kenwoodallpromos]

My nephew the film maker/ Pre-med really admired him and talked at one time about doing a similar production. I think I wil find a DVD of "Wild Kingdom" for him.

[JustRalph]

They have the incident on film. I wonder if it will ever be shown......?

[twindouble]

I turned on the computer this morning and that was the first thing that hit me in the gut. To me he was a rather unique individual, one of the guys doing his thing and enjoying every min of it. Rough some times but a caring thoughtful person. There's no question he loved his work, and most of all his family, I feel sad for them. Everyone I talked to today felt the same way, he was well liked and his death shocked us to the core. There's not many celebrities I take to nowadays, he was a rare exception.


T.D.

[Tom]

I've been watching a lot of clips of him in actin today, and he was truly amazing. Those huge crocs he worked with, and those poisonous snakes - the guy was just amazing.

[richrosa]

My kids love him. My seven year old will understand, but how do you explain that a freak accident like this is just part of being alive.

[bigmack]

http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Irwin-pulled-barb-out-before-death/2006/09/05/1157222105390.html

[DJofSD]

George Noory will be rebroadcasting an interview with Steve on Friday night. Coast to Coast -- the late night freak show.

[Valuist]

He had a funny commercial for ESPN. This was just after Florida won the NCAA tourney. In many of the ESPN commercials, mascots can be seen milling about just like regular people. In this commercial, Irwin and John Anderson are waiting for an elevator and out walks the Florida Gator mascot. "Look out," Irwin says to Anderson as he pounces on the Gator mascot only to end up getting beaten up by the mascot. Meanwhile, Anderson is seen shaking his head, "Steve, no...."

[CryingForTheHorses]

http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Irwin-pulled-barb-out-before-death/2006/09/05/1157222105390.html



Just to be man enough to pull that barb out of his chest tells you what Kind of man he was.Im sure all involved are shocked about what happened.What a waste

[TurfRuler]

I've read some horrific story of people being killed by land and sea creatures. Elephants on rampages, pride of lions dragging people out of tents, grizzly bears eating photographers, killers bees, shark attack, horses kneeling down on people, rattlers dog biting, but not since the "Submariner" comic book had I heard of a sting-ray attacking, even in real life it is rare for them to kill a human. When my nephew told me about Steve's (The Crocodile Hunter) death by sting-ray I was just as shocked as his young mind was in telling me the news.

[JPinMaryland]

Now comes the inevitable media spin on this which is of two kinds:

1) He had it coming to him. Typical was the guy on Dan Patrick's ESPN show today, some writer from SI, I think. He says "no I dont feel sorry for him because he was taking foolish chances..So no I dont feel sorry."

Same idea from Bill OReilly, "this guy was taking crazy chances." He had on the guy from Wild Kingdom who responded to this by saying that : 1) what looks like taking chances to you is not really that. This stuff is well calculated. 2) we all take chances every day.

I have to go along with that. Sure he took more risks than most of us do each day, but who can say how much more riskier these were? His death seemed to be more a fluke than anything.

2) The other spin also on OReilly and tonight on Olberman's show: "tv ratings are egging on people to do crazy things." Something like that. I didnt stick around long enuf to see how they played this out, but I think they said the same thing on OReilly.

I dunno, there may actually be more to this one than the first one, but still I think Irwin was one of a kind. Or at least a rare breed. I doubt someone who spends his life in front of a TV set is suddenly going to go out in the wild picking up rattlesnakes and the like simply because there's dollars to be made on it.

But still I think there is something to be said for the power of tv and its audience.

Anyhow, that's the media spin and I suppose it is rather inevitable and a bit sad. That is all that they can come up with to say about Steve Irwin, not what kind of person he was, not what ideas he was really about, not how much people will miss him. Oh his family didnt want to go the state funeral route, which seems an appropriate choice. Olberman's show did report this.

[PaceAdvantage]

I think CNN provided the kind of covereage you might have been hoping for, minus the inane questions from Larry King. Man, I can't believe some of the terrible questions he asked.....

I'll give you one example....he was interviewing one of the heads of a big zoo in Atlanta, and he actually asked this question:

LK: "Has there been more interest in your stingray exhibits in the last day or two?"

[JPinMaryland]

Terrible would be tasteless. I think asking about the sting ray exhibit is more like asking a relative of the deceased what sort of funeral it's going to be.

Tasteless was more like OReilly. He had one one of the people from Animal Planet or whatever network it is, (Discovery?) and he actually asked the guy whether the film of Irwin's death would be shown. THe network guy says we have the film but we have no plans to show it.

For some utterly strange reason, known only to him, OReilly decides to follow up this thread, I guess because he senses a bit of ambiguity in the phrase "no plans.." So he asks him well what if his wife gave you permission would you then show it. Guy says "we havent asked her at this time."

So OReilly follows this up grotesquely: "Oh at this time? So might you in the future ask Terri if you can show the footage." GUy says: "we have not brought this issue up with her and we have no plans to do so as you can imagine..." (paraphrasing) It became obvious that the guy was simply trying to say as honestly as he could, that we have film, we havent got anywhere near to bringing this issue up, she's in mourning, and Steve always said they should show his own death if it happened.

Finally OReilly gives it up, finallly realizing he has stretched this point into the tasteless arena.

[JPinMaryland]

As far as the coverage thing goes...

I didnt mean to make it sound as if I was being completely critical of the media, because there's been lots of coverage and much of it good, much of it emotional and well done.

What I want to point out is that once the media is done mourning his death then follows the inevitable what do you say? It's like being at a funeral and you say your prayers, you console the grieving relatives, you nod to the others and then you stand in the back and make small talk:

"I heard he had lung cancer...the funeral is going to cost a fortune...how about Roethlisberger getting his appendix out?"

I mean what else is there left to say? In the case of Steve Irwin it seems they are left having to say "too many chances" and "tv eggs him on." I think there is deeper stuff, more cerebral stuff to talk about with this guy.

[Hosshead]

I heard that the reason the film shows everything so plainly, is because the cameraman was filming from in front of both Steve and the stingray.
Stingray was heading towards the cameraman, and they said may have been spooked by the cameraman.

[twindouble]

JPM;

Overall I agree with your take on the media but I think you got OReilly wrong. Not that I'm a big fan of his but some things he just plain detests when it comes to the media reporting on tragedies and has been critical about it right along. I think he would have jumped all over the guys case if he said they plan on showing Steve's death. I do agree OReilly jumped the gun getting into it so soon, should have waited for them to show it and I'll wager the will down the road.

To me Fox News sucks along with the rest of them, how can they be fair and balanced when everyone is interrupting, yelling over another speaker carrying on like a bunch of juveniles, no one gets to finish a complete thought. :bang: I turn it off! Around the World in 80 seconds. :lol:

Anyway, I'll remember Steve Irwin as I saw him and I have no desire to see his death.


T.D.

[JPinMaryland]

It was like OReilly went down an alley that his instincts told him to do so. His instincts were alive to the idea that they might show this on tv. But after a couple of minutes he realized he was pushing a non starter.

Not so much right or wrong, but it was something he did instictively and it would up sounding tasteless.

[Tom]

Didn't Steve tell his cameramen (previously) that they were not s to stop filming if he ever got into trouble - he wanted it taped if he was killed on the job?
I heard this on TV, but don' t remember where.
Not that I would care to see it.

[TurfRuler]

Didn't Steve tell his cameramen (previously) that they were not s to stop filming if he ever got into trouble - he wanted it taped if he was killed on the job?
I heard this on TV, but don' t remember where.
Not that I would care to see it.


Lie!!!

[JPinMaryland]

I have heard the same thing on the radio, so I guess it's true or at least at lot of people think that it's true. From the exchange on OReilly, it seemed to be implied that Steve was okay with showing it.

They said when he pulled out the barb this hastened his own death since the barbs do as much damage coming out, if not more. And being in the heart, that sort of object would have to be left in there to prevent the heart from disgorging all the blood.

[Wiley]

Didn't Steve tell his cameramen (previously) that they were not s to stop filming if he ever got into trouble - he wanted it taped if he was killed on the job?

Wouldn't a sane person want the cameraperson to come off the camera and help him if he was in a troubling situation with an animal? Just seems nuts to think a guy would tell a coworker to not help him, 'just keep that film rolling' because my ratings will be sensational for this one even though I'll never see it.

[TurfRuler]

Wouldn't a sane person want the cameraperson to come off the camera and help him if he was in a troubling situation with an animal? Just seems nuts to think a guy would tell a coworker to not help him, 'just keep that film rolling' because my ratings will be sensational for this one even though I'll never see it.

Sometimes you know why a person has the screen name they have. "Wiley"

[Tom]

Lie!!!

Gerat answer - care to add a little bit to it, like how do you know this?

[JPinMaryland]

Wouldn't a sane person want the cameraperson to come off the camera and help him if he was in a troubling situation with an animal? Just seems nuts to think a guy would tell a coworker to not help him, 'just keep that film rolling' because my ratings will be sensational for this one even though I'll never see it.


I guess he's not sane then, by your standard. The fact is that we have seen Irwin bit or attacked by animals many times. And the film just keeps rolling doesnt it?

So if you're pt. is that you dont believe Irwin said this, there is a huge body of evidence that seems to cut against it.

Another pt. could be made that they often have other people waiting in the wings to take care of things should there be a problem. Dont know if that was the case with the sting ray but it might be another reason why he told the camerman to just keep shooting.