What is it with rolling news channels and the press' obsession with grief, funerals and death?
Just a few examples that I can remember recently:
The live coverage of what I dubbed the 'grief boat' - the boat that took the families of the victims of the recent Norway massacre to the island so that they could mourn and possibly give evidence. All the channels covered it live. Shots in full zoom of a boat slowly approaching a shore.
The whole live coverage of Raul Moat, and the subsequent social media -> media - > social media idiot information cycle. Included live funerals and reports from fields and outside hospitals.
The live funeral of that guy who got killed by a shark a couple of weeks ago.
Jade Goody's slow, torturous live death and funeral.
That fashion designer's corpse that the BBC and Sky news followed all the way from his home to the morgue from their fucking helicopters.
The ONGOING Madeline McCann headlines the red tops roll out on slow news days.
But it happens all the time. You're watching the news then suddenly they cut live to some shots of a view that's literally from a tree or some bushes behind some gravestones, of a crying woman walking behind a coffin procession, then you get to hear the eulogies and rememberances.
People grieving is now considered breaking news. A funeral is now something that is acceptable to film without permission.
I blame Diana.
Re: Live Grief on the BBC
Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 12:26 am
by jameshk
Unfortunately, this is the kind of shit that people tune into and which sells news papers
Re: Live Grief on the BBC
Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 1:16 am
by AllNightDayDream
People love being miserable
Re: Live Grief on the BBC
Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 1:20 am
by sigbowls
then you can drink and have fun then go back to being miserable
Re: Live Grief on the BBC
Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 3:00 am
by jugo
it's nothing new to be honest
Re: Live Grief on the BBC
Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:02 am
by AxeD
Watched the formula 1 coverage on bbc, switched it off when something like this came on (figured it was a 9/11 memor.).
Re: Live Grief on the BBC
Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:04 am
by wub
karmacazee wrote:I blame Diana.
Slag.
Re: Live Grief on the BBC
Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:25 am
by magma
Shared emotion is a pretty effective social glue occasionally, unfortunately it seems easier to get everyone agreed about something to be sad about than something to be happy about.
Re: Live Grief on the BBC
Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 11:37 am
by weedlefruit
yeah, it's so laborious to have to sit through all of this shit. like the hours and hours of memorial stuff for 9/11. Fair enough it was fucking awful but like yeah. Leave it now.
I guess when people see sad stuff they can all go "ho hum, it's not nice is it, god isn't the world horrible" and everyone agrees but on the flip, if they showed news reports of everyone dancing around and being dead chuffed with everything people wouldn't reflect in the same way.
Re: Live Grief on the BBC
Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 11:45 am
by AllNightDayDream
It's a lot like DSF really. Everyone's so quick to shoot people down, shit talk artists, and spread negativity, and those kinds of threads get the most posts.
Re: Live Grief on the BBC
Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 11:48 am
by weedlefruit
AllNightDayDream wrote:It's a lot like DSF really. Everyone's so quick to shoot people down, shit talk artists, and spread negativity, and those kinds of threads get the most posts.
This.
So easy for everyone to find a common dislike in things, but when it comes to liking something it's alot less fulfilling to express that like but also to share the same joy with someone else.
I like different elements to the same things my friends like, but we all hate the same elements of stuff we don't like.
Re: Live Grief on the BBC
Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 11:58 am
by AllNightDayDream
weedlefruit wrote:
AllNightDayDream wrote:It's a lot like DSF really. Everyone's so quick to shoot people down, shit talk artists, and spread negativity, and those kinds of threads get the most posts.
This.
So easy for everyone to find a common dislike in things, but when it comes to liking something it's alot less fulfilling to express that like but also to share the same joy with someone else.
I like different elements to the same things my friends like, but we all hate the same elements of stuff we don't like.
Word. I think we can all agree, however...
Re: Live Grief on the BBC
Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 12:01 pm
by magma
weedlefruit wrote:yeah, it's so laborious to have to sit through all of this shit. like the hours and hours of memorial stuff for 9/11. Fair enough it was fucking awful but like yeah. Leave it now.
I guess when people see sad stuff they can all go "ho hum, it's not nice is it, god isn't the world horrible" and everyone agrees but on the flip, if they showed news reports of everyone dancing around and being dead chuffed with everything people wouldn't reflect in the same way.
I dunno, we don't do it very often. The only time I can think of recently was the extra bank holiday for the Royal Wedding (shit excuse, I know)... spent the day wandering the streets of London smiling at everyone and drinking my bodyweight... nobody seemed to give a fuck about the wedding, but everyone was pleased as punch to be off work.
Perhaps it's a shame we don't have a national day... I can't see us being sincere with something like July 4th in the States though... we tend to find national pride a little bit suspect.
We should collectively decide on a day at some point during the year which we're all going to take off every year and talk to strangers about how great it is living here despite everything we all spend the rest of the year moaning about.
Re: Live Grief on the BBC
Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 12:03 pm
by magma
Oh, and I only switched over to this coverage VERY briefly, but did the Pentagon have a choir singing Amazing Grace during their minute silence? That's what it looked like anyway. Even silence needs a theme tune!
Re: Live Grief on the BBC
Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 12:15 pm
by soul dead
better than porn tbh
Re: Live Grief on the BBC
Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 2:09 pm
by weedlefruit
magma wrote:Oh, and I only switched over to this coverage VERY briefly, but did the Pentagon have a choir singing Amazing Grace during their minute silence? That's what it looked like anyway. Even silence needs a theme tune!
That's sickening. Amazing grace is a shit song.
Re: Live Grief on the BBC
Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 2:35 pm
by magma
weedlefruit wrote:Amazing grace is a shit song.
Incorrect.
Re: Live Grief on the BBC
Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 3:09 pm
by weedlefruit
magma wrote:
weedlefruit wrote:Amazing grace is a shit song.
Incorrect.
I guess I may have been a little hasty with my analysis there.