We are listening to you Christine
Last year marked the 50th anniversary of the death of Florida based journalist, Christine Chubbuck. Christine was born August 24th, 1944 in Hudson, Ohio which is in the Cleveland area. Growing up she attended the Laurel School for Girls in Shaker Heights, Ohio. While she was there she formed what she called a “Dateless Wonder Club” for her and other girls who did not have dates. She majored in theater arts at the Miami University of Ohio before transferring to Endicott Junior College in Massachusetts. Later on she would earn a broadcasting degree from Boston University in 1965. She had dated a man when she was 16 but he sadly passed away in a car accident.
At the time of her death, she was a news anchor working in Sarasota, Florida. She had worked at WXLT-TV, the ABC affiliate station based in Sarasota. According to coworker Craig Sager “She was hired because she was intelligent, smart, witty, a very good writer,”. She wasn’t one to follow the trends or conform to what society thought a woman journalist should be at the time. At the station she had a morning community affairs talk show called Suncoast Digest where she would examine interesting and unknown stories from around the Florida sun coast area.
What Christine is, sadly, probably most known for is being the first on-air suicide in history. Fifty years ago this year on July 15th, as she was talking about that morning’s news, she pulled a gun out of her bag and committed suicide live on television. Christine had suffered for depression for a long time, she had attempted suicide in the past before. Recently, she had been in conflict with the owner of WXLT because he was making her cover more “blood and guts” stories. This was part of a phenomenon in modern day reporting known as “If it bleeds it leads”. Essentially, stations would place more value on stories that involve violence and drama instead of more mild or uplifting stories because they tend to get more attention from the public. This kind of reporting poison’s our relationship with the world, these thing certainly should be covered and known, but it should not be the focus of your reporting.
This was totally at odds with what Christine was doing. Her work, as mentioned before, was shining a light on aspects of her community that often go under reported. A manager at the station described her show as “giving attention to lost segments of the community”. She thought that these people deserved a spotlight, and she loved her job doing that. She enjoyed going out and talking with everyone in her community and hearing her stories. She truly did love her job. But being forced to cover stories she felt did more harm than good really damaged her relationship with it. Christine had big aspirations. She wanted to move up in the world of journalism by becoming a nationally syndicated anchorwoman. She wanted to take the lost segments of the community nationwide.
In addition to being forced into doing stories that she felt did more harm than good. Christine additionally suffered from depression. For years, she had searched for a good man who would be kind to her and give her the respect she needed. She desperately wanted to be a mother. She was 29 when she died, and she had only been on a few dates with guys. In addition to this, she had to have an ovary removed which drastically lowered her chances of having children if she didn’t get pregnant soon. She struggled to communicate with peers at the station, including a coworker of hers named George that she was in love with. She found out that he was dating another coworker of hers, Andrea, who she was very close with. In addition to this, she found Andrea had gotten a job in Baltimore that she desperately wanted.
For Christine, it had seemed like her life was coming to a halt. She couldn’t find a way out. Shortly before her death, she had “joked” with a coworker that she had brought a gun on set and was going to shoot herself. The coworker dismissed her, saying it was a “sick attempt at humor”. What they should have done is ask her if she was doing OK, talk to her more, find out if there was anything they could have done to help. But instead she was dismissed. Shortly after this, she hosted a party for her coworkers. Everyone was amazed. She seemed happy, and it looked like she was finally coming out of her shell. Little did they know that she was days away from her death. It was on July 15th, 50 years ago last July, that while she was doing the local news, the tape jammed. When it came back, viewers were greeted with Christine. She uttered her haunting final words, “In keeping with the WXLT practice of presenting the most immediate and complete reports of local blood and guts news, TV 40 presents what is believed to be a television first. In living color, an exclusive coverage of an attempted suicide.” She then pulled gun out of her bag and shot herself.
She was taken to the nearby Sarasota Memorial hospital, where she had volunteered preforming puppet shows for sick children, and sadly passed away 14 hours after the shooting. Her body was cremated and her ashes were spread in the gulf of Mexico on the beach where she lived. After the shooting Suncoast Digest was taken off the air temporarily and replaced with another show. It came back later with a different host. WXLT moved stations and was renamed WWSB in 1986. The former building still exists as a Pilates studio. There is no memorial of Christine on site.
Christine’s death serves as a stark reminder to the world that this is what they are enabling. Our obsession with violence and blood and guts is poisonous. Christine was here to shine light on unknown people and make the world a better place. She loved her job as a talk show host, she loved her guests, she loved the sick kids she entertained with her puppets. She saw the injustice of the world through her work. She wanted to spread joy using the airwaves. She was forced to use her gift of journalism to spread darkness instead. Her death serves as, as her brother Greg describes it, “a raging statement against that salacious part of television”.
When people think of Christine Chubbuck today, they usually think of her as “that girl who shot herself on live TV”, if they even think of her at all. No attention is given to her life, her work, her tireless efforts to make this planet better. No one mentions her struggles or her dreams, no one mentions her as anything other then a disturbing not so fun fact you would find online. It has been fifty years since then and still, the problems Christine spoke of and tried to fight against have only gotten worse. Social media has brought the violence of our world to our fingertips. No longer would something like Christine’s last moments be as shocking as they are. With just a few clicks you can find all kinds of depravity from cartels, terrorists, war zones and other examples of Hell on Earth.
I feel like this kind of access with nothing to balance it has led to many people my age going down a very dark path. Everyday we see the worst of humanity. We need someone like Christine to show us the light that still exists here. We need to see the forgotten segments of our community, people who are just trying to get by. Everyday things that might go unnoticed. We need to see something on our social media feeds other then doom and gloom. We need to see goodness and joy in our lives. What we need is to be observers who shine light on the unknowns of our world and our community. We all need to be like Christine.
A movie called Christine was produced in 2016 about the events of her death starring Rebecca Hall in the title role. In a poignant scene from the movie, Christine screams “Why won’t anybody just listen to me!!” in an argument with her mother. She felt so alone in her thoughts, she felt so alone in her fight against the station pushing blood and guts. She felt so alone in her life.
So why did I write this? I wrote it because I wanted to shed a little light on someone that society has seemingly forgotten in practice. Sure some people know who she is but seldom does anyone know or care about her life and her work. She worked so hard to show people that the world we inhabit isn’t devoid of good. She wanted to show us the side of her community that doesn’t get covered, the strawberry farmer sharing the first harvest of the season, addicts who deserve a place to speak their minds, local politicians who have the power to make a difference. She showcased these people to the world in hopes that she could show people the lighter side of her community. Her show was her way of making the world a better place. Sadly, only episode is known to have been archived (linked below). Her life’s work is unknown and likely will remain that way. That is why I wrote this, to tell whoever might end up reading this about her. Blood and guts might get more ratings, but it is not healthy journalism. Christine knew that.
Christine’s legacy absolutely needs to be more than her final moments. Her life lasted for twenty nine years. That’s twenty nine years that deserve to be celebrated and remembered. Christine is one of my heroes. She saw evil and she dared to shine the light of her camera on people, real people doing real things. Real people living their lives. She saw evil and she dared to fight against it. No one listened to her while she was here. We are listening to you now Christine. We hear you.
Hart, Anna. “The Newsreader Who Shot Herself Live on Air: The Tragic True Story of Christine Chubbuck.” The Telegraph, January 24, 2017. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/bleeds-leads-tragic-true-story-christine-chubbucks-on-air-suicide/.
“Chris Chubbuck Memorial Service Sunday on Siesta.” Sarasota Herald-Tribune, July 17, 1974, sec. B-3. https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=mj0gAAAAIBAJ&sjid=5mYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7261%2C555385
“Hospital Zoning” WXLT-TV https://youtu.be/T9rAArdiS_s?si=Dcr01ir0E3Snhv6p