The Bitter Tears of Jessica Savitch

Posted in Feminism, Television |

The proverbial nail in the coffin of her network career occurred on the evening of October 3, 1983. Jessica appeared on an NBC News Digest obviously high, and fumbled heroically over her copy; she especially butchered the word “constitutional” in a manner which suggested she was not at all sober. She has a glazed, unfocused facial expression which is uncharacteristic of her other TV work. Her delivery was so slow and tranquilized that the network’s automatic timer cut off the end of her 43-second broadcast.

A clip of this video still exists, and is beyond painful to watch. Jessica denied being under the influence of drugs after this incident took place; she blamed several factors, including but not limited to, having a glass of wine before the broadcast and being on painkillers due to recent cosmetic surgery. NBC higher-ups were not impressed, and it was apparent to them that Jessica was falling apart. An intervention was scheduled at the end of the month to convince the anchorwoman that she needed professional and psychiatric help.

Photo © NBC/Everett Collection

Unfortunately, this intervention would never take place. Less than a month after the ill-fated broadcast, Jessica accepted a dinner invitation with a suitor in New Hope, Pennsylvania. Weather conditions on this particular day were poor, and after dinner the car she was traveling in accidentally backed up into a water-filled canal. All inhabitants inside the vehicle drowned.

Jessica Savitch died at the obscenely young age of 36, and the loss to television was inestimable. One can speculate that if she had survived she may have made some sort of “comeback”; if the intervention had been successful, she may have turned her life around, and revitalized her blighted career. However, Jessica Savitch has been regarded as a cautionary tale in the world of broadcast journalism. She came to NBC wholly unprepared to attack a Senate beat, and instead would have most likely succeeded in “people oriented” stories, which were the kinds of items she excelled at in Houston and in Philadelphia. Jessica Savitch has been regarded as merely a footnote in broadcast news history, which is tragic in itself; after all, Jessica did break new ground for women in journalism, having been one of the first female TV anchorwomen in the canon.

Sources:

Nash, Alanna. Golden Girl: The Story of Jessica Savitch. New York: HarperCollins, 1988.

The title of this article is inspired by the film The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1972).

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