It’s hard to feel sorry for Keanu Reeves, seeing as he’s a famous movie star and all that. This weekend he tried out amateur auto racing, and he was thrown under the bus. If it was an other gearhead, nobody would notice. But when ‘John Wick‘ spins a race car, it’s national news.
No wonder people don’t trust the media! The Associated Press referred to the event as Reeves’ professional racing debut at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, even implying he’s in the 500! Totally wrong; the Toyota GR Cup is an amateur series designed for rookies seeking to try out racing cars, often directly from karts.
The local idiots at CP24 ran with a story that Keanu “…had a single-car crash halfway through the 45-minute race. He spun into the grass without a collision…” which is just sensationalist stupidity. He did not crash. He spun. Yet that wasn’t enough for his home-town news channel. They wanted to report him failing.
Here’s the straight story; a 60 year old guy (that once starred in a movie called Speed‘) tried out sports car racing and did not qualify or finish last. Of the 33 competitors, Keanu finished P25 on Saturday and improved to P24 on Sunday’s feature race. He didn’t wreck the car or otherwise embarrass himself, which makes it a success.
As fellow Canadians, we at Demaras Racing congratulate Keanu on a job well done.
As a Canada and Keanu enthusiast, good for him. Good for him for getting out there and following a dream of his. News media can’t help how dumb they have to be to get eyeballs on their stories. Or maybe they can.
When I got home from the racetrack on Sunday, my wife commented ‘Keanu crashed at Indianapolis.’ I pushed back saying he just had a spin, but she insisted the news crawler just told her so. Sure enough, here’s what it said…
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“Reeves had a single-car crash a little more than halfway through the 45-minute race. He spun into the grass without a collision on the exit of Turn 9 with 21 minutes remaining.”
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A single car “crash” without a “collision” is not a crash! What kind of yellow journalism is this when reporters (even those at AP) just distort facts. I was so mad.
Fact distortion or fabrication in lieu of facts certainly seems to be he the order of the day currently. C’mon newspeople. Words have particular meanings, although that concept seems to be hard for some to grasp.
There’s a fancy word for what I’m about to describe (maybe you know it)
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“It’s not enough that I succeed, those around me must fail.”
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That’s what the local TV stations did. Good old Canadian kid makes big Hollywood movies and now gets to drive a race car at Indianapolis?!? Let’s take him down a notch.
In Australia they eschew anyone who is a “tall poppy,” which is a marginally similar idea. And yeah, having to put others down, excuse my French, seriously sucks.
SCHDENFREUDE:
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The combination of the German nouns Schaden, meaning “damage” or “harm,” and Freude, meaning “joy.”
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Schadenfreude is the experience of joy based on the troubles, failures, or humiliation of another. Like Neo from the Matrix spinning out.
Who needs dictionary.com when Chris demaras is on the scene!
That is the word of the day! Try to use it in a sentence at least three times and will be part of your vocabulary for life!
Yes sir! It is a GREAT word.
That actually means a lot coming from a wordsmith like you!
We lift each other up!