Just turned the (swedish) telly on and there's live coverage of the Whitney funeral, complete with pundits in the studio and a reporter on site.
Now I have no desire to disrespect the dead, but isn't it all a bit OTT?
She wasn't 'that' big, and didn't certainly didn't change the world. Bearing in mind some blame for the problems in her life is probably being laid at the door of the media attention etc, wouldn't it have been more fitting to have a quiet private funeral, rather than a media extravaganza?
All we need now is a huge funeral cortege with people throwing flowers from motorway bridges, ala Diana.
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Death isn't accepted as inevitable any more, it has to be a tragedy where we all partake on a massive guilt trip.
No offence to the departed, but all the showbiz funeral stuff does grate on the nerves. I'd be more inclined to extend sympathy if it was some poor sod who copped one in Afgan.
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Various sites are streaming it, including the BBC:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17084037
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>> Various sites are streaming it, including the BBC:
>> www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17084037
>>
SWMBO phoned the BBC with a winge just now.
"Please BBC NEWS 24, when are we going to get some news? Response " The funeral is scheduled up til 6pm"
BBC NEWS 24 has had continuos coverage since 4.30 also Sky and as expected CNN.
I thought the BBC had a red button for such background events :-(
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It's alright.
It's Ok.
But yes, I agree, this whole public mourning/breast beating stuff annoys the nuts off of me.
State funerals for QM, Sir Winston etc - no problem.
But after the absolutely sickening Princess Di show, and the Michael Jackson gig, and a few others... including the Krays and Jade Goody, for God's sake... it strikes me as bizarre that mourning has become a new fad.
Sorry, Whitney Houston was a middle-aged woman with a history of substance abuse who died under sad circumstances. That's all. Come to any hospiotal - I'll show you a dozen of them.
Last edited by: VxFan on Sat 25 Feb 12 at 00:13
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We have a few trees, and a couple of stone wall ends, with tacky displays of football shirts, flowers, and cuddly toys after the local boy racers have exceeded their driving skills.
All part of the death worship fad.
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>> All part of the death worship fad.
>>
Yep.
A good proportion of the nation could go under the heading of Death Groupies. This is a good one from the Daily Mash -
www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/business/inventor-unveils-all%11in%11one-portable-tragedy-shrine-201009083072/
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That is brilliant R.R. - I've shared the link with friends & emailed it to a couple more!
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It's quite simple I think. We now have around 5 (?) easily accessible 24 hour rolling news channels which need to be filled with moving pictures. In other countries there's even more choice of channels.
When there is "no news" you'll find the same items and footage repeated ad nauseum maybe 5 or 6 times an hour.
A big event, like a funeral is a godsend to these media outlets - they can show hours of moving (more or less) pictures without repeats and send reporters to ask people what and how they feel. Do I give monkey's .... what a member of a crowd feels ?
It's not news it's only filling the empty space. Also, when the news item has no pictures it barely gets a mention on TV.
Radio 4 for me.
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She died. Drugs and all that carp are 'likely' to be responsible for it. I don't care. I really don't. Got my own 'gang' to look after. It seems to me that there is very little news worthy news any more. Just a load of Bull S appealing to the chattering masses. Another vote for Radio 4.
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Re gangs: it was reported that the local gangs called a truce for the funeral.
No shootings and no car jacking - respect!
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>> Death Groupies. This is a good one from the Daily Mash
On B3ta the phrase "4EVA IN ARE HARTZ" sums up this whole mindset exactly.
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>> after the local boy racers have exceeded their driving skills.
There's a tree on my way to work that someone really fancies. They've got it cards and flowers and everything.
It's not even a particularly attractive tree, half the bark's missing from the trunk and it's all scorched.
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We were watching the Sunderland FA cup game. At half time we turned over to the news on the funeral was on. After the game it was still on! I think over the top.
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Under the top now methinks.
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If you all want to leave some virtual flowers for Whitney, you can do it here......free.
www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=84839013
Save having to make that trip to Interflora and do all your grieving in the privacy of your own room !
Last edited by: Ted on Sat 18 Feb 12 at 23:49
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Better use of the broadcasting time could have been made if they showed to all viewers how drugs ruin lives!
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I think you will find that a funeral is the ultimate example of drugs ruining lives.
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>> >> after the local boy racers have exceeded their driving skills.
>>
>> There's a tree on my way to work that someone really fancies. They've got it
>> cards and flowers and everything.
>>
>> It's not even a particularly attractive tree, half the bark's missing from the trunk and
>> it's all scorched.
To save the life of the tree that Marc Bolan upset, they have had to erect a tribute board. The poor tree was dying due to the number of nails and pins hammered into it.
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May have mentioned it on here before - a local girl died in tragic circumstances, one of those dreadfully mawkish Facebook pages was opened up - one of the tributes was "God has another angle" now, either this was a mis-spelling or a very deep and profound theological observation....
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>> "God has another angle" now, ---- a very deep
>> and profound theological observation....
>>
That's how I read it at first, without even considering that it might have been a spelling mistake.
I assumed it was another of these "God moves in mysterious ways" semons, not for us mere sinful mortals to question his motives, He sends trials and disasters and evil into this world in order to test us, etc etc.
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With the greatest respect to the posters on that particular page, I guess it was more of a spelling fail.
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Now that really surprises me, how anyone can express a "hatred" of the way certain parts of language have been "Americanised", yet use that most American of grammatical terms "a fail"
> "a spelling fail"
really!
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I knew someone would pick that up as I was typing it !!
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Your wish is my command....
To be honest it offends me not. The meaning is clear and unambiguous, and it saves a few letters. - So why not I say!
Last edited by: Zero on Sun 19 Feb 12 at 11:43
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I didn't expect it to be you though....but there we are. I was only trying to be "down there" IYKWIM.
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I thought the term was "up there"?
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www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17114756
The BBC has defended its coverage of Whitney Houston's funeral on its News Channel following complaints from viewers about its duration.
The broadcaster received 118 complaints about the Channel's coverage of the four-hour service on Saturday.
The corporation said it was "part of the News Channel function to be there when major stories take place".
Another 34 complaints were received from people upset that the service had been interrupted.
Live coverage of the service began at 17:00 GMT and continued until just before 20:30 GMT, with the BBC continuing to report on the story afterwards.
"The News Channel's coverage of Whitney Houston's funeral reflected the significant interest in her sudden death as well as acknowledging the impact she had as a global recording artist," said the corporation in a statement.
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I thought she had a fantastic voice and made some classic pop songs, but agree that the BBC's coverage seemed over the top - as someone suggested earlier (I think) it seemed like a good candidate for the red button.
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Since as far as I know it wan't compulsory to watch the funeral broadcast and there are other TV stations let alone radio stations , iplayer, the internet, books, magazines, newspapers, radio, DVDs, and recorded music to, watch, listen or read not sure why all the fuss.
We seem to be becoming a nation looking for something to be annoyed about.
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Isn't it more a question of since we're licence payers we feel we have a bit of a right to say what we think the money should be spent on?
Yes, we can turn it off, but why should we have to when we've paid for thprivilegege to watch it?
Pat
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"We have a bit of a right to say what we think the money should be spent on?"
Absolutely you do but you also have to accept that some people enjoy things that are of no interest to you. There is no doubt that celebrity news appeals to a lot of people, they also have a right to have some money spent on them. Don't find it a problem myself, plenty of other things to watch that appeal to me.
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>> Isn't it more a question of since we're licence payers we feel we have a
>> bit of a right to say what we think the money should be spent on?
You can't expect to like every programme can you? The vacuous pay their licence fees too!
>> Yes, we can turn it off, but why should we have to when we've paid
>> for the privilege to watch it?
To be fair, you pay a lot less for the BBC than you have to for Sky if you want that, and it seems much better to me, and the free to air commercial channels.
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>>The broadcaster received 118 complaints about the Channel's coverage of the four-hour service on Saturday.
>>
SWMBO certainly complained about some of the extended coverage and got a polite response ( something like - on yer bike - we know best)
I find it amazing that only 118 precisely contacted them but over several days 30K plus complained about a certain Mr Clarkson.
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>> I find it amazing that only 118 precisely contacted them but over several days 30K
>> plus complained about a certain Mr Clarkson.
Coverage only affected BBC News channel, which can't have a very big audience. Clarkson was on a top BBC1 family show, and attracts complaints from people who don't even watch him :)
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I was amazed at the reactions of people in USA, to be honest. Thousands milling around outside her hotel - not as if she was going to turn up and sign autographs. Then they stood there gawping while a white van which may, or may not have contained the deceased, drives away from the hotel.
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> over several days 30K>> plus complained about a certain Mr Clarkson.
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I wondered whether any organisations were orchestrating the Clarkson protests?
Quite a strong possibility.
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The funeral of the year - Robin O'Reliant
