Jade Goody’s Words For Natasha Richardson
JADE Goody celebrity cancer: Anorak’s at-a-glance look at Jade Goody’s celebrity cancer with Michael White…
Jade Goody is dying and it’s is the media’s job to comment on it. Writing in the Guardian, Michael White criticises the mawkish tabloid coverage while playing a game of Tabloid Bingo!:
Under the headline: “Growing mood of public sentimentality worries me more than recession”
Different things trouble different people. I’m more worried by the recession and by global warming than by street crime, about which I can take sensible micro-precautions if I feel like it.
Tick. Tick. Tick. Eyes down.
Poor Natasha Richardson died during the night. What a truly dreadful thing to happen, the result of what looked like a minor head injury anyone might have suffered on or off the ski slope.
Perhaps that’s why they led this morning’s news bulletins on her death, even on Radio 4. Fairly well-known actress from a famous dynasty, married to a film star, tragic accident etc etc. The papers duly print photos of grief-stricken family members at the hospital, photos which strike me as intrusive, heartless even. The whole packaged affair is, well, ghoulish.
White has more:
I know, it happens all the time. Jade Goody seems to be taking part in her own death for the benefit of the media. We’re told it’s a good thing, bringing the unmentionable reality of modern death back into people’s lives. If that is so, all well and good, but is it true?
Call CCN (Cebrity Cancer News) operates a paging service for when a celebrity gets sick.
A few weeks ago I raised an eyebrow on hearing that prime minister’s question time had been cancelled because of the sudden death of the Camerons’ son, Ivan, and was criticised for it – though few politicians with whom I have discussed the matter privately disagree…
Child dies makes a better story than child lives. It’s a better public spectacle:
This week the Daily Mail, master manipulator of public sentimentality, has launched a campaign to help surviving veterans of the D-Day landings – there are apparently only 500 still alive, which seems very few – return to Normandy for the 65th anniversary celebrations on 6 June.
Jade Goody. Natasha Richardson. Ivan Cameron. Broken Britain. The Economy. Global warming. Anyone got a full house of issues on their Bingo cards yet? Back to Bingo caller White, who is talking of war:
We are anniversary-minded these days, partly because it makes for good TV.
And great copy.
…The D-Day invasion was a great achievement, a blow for human liberation from tyranny though – one has to say this again – most of the fearsome task was already being undertaken by the Red Army, whose successors in Moscow exploit that victory for their own domestic purposes.
So why make a big thing about the 65th anniversary? I don’t really know. But I suspect it has a good deal to do with a sentimental and selective vision of the past that no one needs reminding about (even the kids have seen Saving Private Ryan) but will make great pictures.
And then…
A bit like the poor Richardson family.
Bingo!
Forget the detail – it’s all just news…
Posted: 19th, March 2009 | In: Celebrities, Key Posts Comments (16) | TrackBack | Permalink
