Sun Fails to Illuminate Tragedy: Does It Matter?

Now that the auction of The Senator Theatre has been over for a while, I think it's time to reflect on some of the media coverage of the event. This is not to fight about the outcome, but just to raise the question of whether cultural literacy about symbolism matters in today's press.

On the day of the auction, the folks at The Senator had set up the auditorium, where the auctioneer had previously requested the auction to take place, with a Tragedy mask on the podium. I wouldn't have thought I had to explain to anyone with a basic education what this might look like, but it seems that I do. It looked like this:



The Baltimore Sun described it as [Kiefaber] "had hoped the proceedings would take place in the 900-seat auditorium, where he had set up a rostrum adorned with a giant frowning mask."

Now, I ask you. Is it really too much to expect that reporters for a major newspaper who are reporting on the auction sale of a theatre would understand that this "frowning mask" is called Tragedy and represents the concept of Tragedy and, together with its counterpart and opposite, Comedy, has adorned theatres since Ancient Greece? If so, I expect it's way too much of a stretch for them to also understand the symbolism, or the concept of Tragedy itself as defined in Aristotle's Poetics.

In classical tragedy, a noble hero who you'd think has a lot going for him is always brought low by one fatal flaw. In a more general, non-classical definition of tragedy, the requirement for it to be some grandly important downfall of a hero is gone, and a tragedy can become any story with an unfortunate ending.

Now, in this instance I don't care what side of the issue you find yourself on with regards to The Senator, whether you think, as I do, that Baltimore City has manipulated the situation inappropriately to seize control of something they don't fully understand, or whether you think, as the BDC and most of the media seems to, that it's all Tom's fault because he's a bad businessman. I think we can ALL agree that the fact that The Senator had to go to auction is a Tragedy.

So does it matter that the Sun completely missed the symbolism here? Or am I being a snob to think the reporters should have understood a concept I learned in junior high school drama class?