When a Sassy Headline Becomes an Embarrassment

On Wednesday, Swiss Television put up a newsflash on their site “Party King Carl Hirschmann Arrested over Blackmail with Videotapes”. They were taking up a newsflash from Zurich’s local radio station Radio 24 without checking on the facts. While it was correct that Hirschmann had been arrested, a press release by the attorney general denied any connection to blackmail.

Carl Hirschmann owns and runs the celebrity venue Saint Germain. He is one of many self proclaimed celebrities, his only claim on fame being his boast of having had a fling with Paris Hilton and the bank account of his billionaire father, Carl Hirschmann Junior. Confused? His grandfather Carl Hirschmann Senior (ah!) was the founder of Jet Aviation which caters to the airplanes owned by the superrich on this planet.

On Thursday, after the attorney general’s statement, Swiss Television was constrained to publish a correction which appeared under the title “Party Gigolo Carl Hirschmann Arrested”. The comments posted by readers ranged from scathing (referring to the disinformation of the previous day) to the ridiculous (‘from king to gigolo in one day’).

But mainly, the editors were attacked over the use of the word gigolo. In Switzerland, the word gigolo is definitely linked to male sex workers, and readers found it profoundly disturbing that having to retract the allegation of the previous day, the editors persisted in keeping a sexual connotation in the headline even though the attorney general declined to comment. As the article contained reference to an allegation of paedophile charges against Carl Hirschmann several years back (which had been dropped by the attorney general at that time), the objectivity of the writers was doubted in no uncertain terms.

Subsequently, Swiss Television changed the title of the article to “Party Zampano Carl Hirschmann Arrested”. ‘The Great Zampano’ is a fictional figure dealing in illusion, whereby even the illusion he creates is only an illusion; he is finally unmasked as a great fraud. The figure is one of the main characters in Federico Fellini’s film La Strada and was played by Anthony Quinn. You might imagine readers’ comments on the use of this connotation to fraud and illusion. It was definitely going downhill for the editors.

After three hours on the net, the article received its third title: “Party Lion Hirschmann Arrested”. The deviation into the animal kingdom was greeted with ridicule by the readers. They continued to accuse Swiss State Television of Bolshevism, bias, creating a witch hunt, and of passing judgment on hearsay. The general credo was that employees at Swiss Television were living in a constant state of jealousy towards the rich.

The last word belongs to a reader of the site: “I note with great pleasure how much work has gone into this article, as all critical comments have been deleted once again. It is uplifting to find so much industrious work in a state owned institution and makes me proud of paying my television license fees.”

As a postscript, I might add that Carl Hirschmann, unlike Roman Polanski, has been freed on bail against a “considerable” caution.