A particular bugbear of mine is the blanket acceptance that it’s ok for media outlets to take pictures of grieving people at funerals. Do we really need to see a picture of a 12 year old’s stricken mother as her daughter is brought to/from the church/graveyard?
I don’t think we do. I think it’s a gross invasion of privacy and I don’t understand why we simply accept this. I can tell you for a fact that if I were ever in that position and I saw cameramen I would insert the cameras, shards of lens end first, up their holes.
But more than that, why do we feel the need to report on funerals at all? Yes, the death of a 12 year old girl is awful and tragic and newsworthy. Her funeral is not. It’s should be a time for her family to grieve, away from the public eye, and without strangers writing cloying, sickly and turgid articles about the whole thing. Attempts to sound sincere and profound come across as nothing but patronising and artificial. You would need to be a skilled wordsmith to make funeral reporting anything other than vomit-inducingly bad.
We all know what happens at a funeral. None of them are that different from the other. A service, some prayers, probably a sermon given by a priest who barely knew the deceased, if they knew them at all, lots of crying and upset people. Only the names change.
Irish people have an uncommon interest in death and funerals. That is reflected by our media who no longer see or no longer care that their presence is a repellent intrusion into people’s lives. And those people have no comeback when their misery is used to sell newspapers and fluff up news bulletins.
They’ll claim they’re only giving the people what they want but would people really miss it if it were gone? I don’t think so. And we’d be better off for it.
To my shame I hadn’t given it much thought before but ye your right on the button. Good post.
I agree with you in general but is it really and uncommonly Irish thing?
Unlikely.
It’s not just Irish people. It’s knuckle-dragging uneducated cunts the world over.
It’s just the media pandering to the lowest common denominator as they do in every country. There’s a reason that The Sun is the biggest selling newspaper in this country.
The majority of people are uneducated, “America’s Next Top Model”-watching, McDonalds-eating, racist, homophobic, semi-illiterate morons.
It’s life, Twenty. Doesn’t make it right, though.
Yeah. My great uncle was a somewhat public figure, and my grandmother has a newspaper clipping of herself and my father at his funeral.
This post makes me think of it, their obvious grief burned into my memory. It’s extremely voyeuristic.
But then, I saw Antonio Banderas talking about hte Spanish papparazzi, and how he had to carry his wife over the back wall when she went into labour, to try and get away from them, and to the hospital without being chased and photographed. People are weird.
We are the cock, the media is the hand that wanks it.
Yeah, completely horrendous. There may have been a bit of justification to report from Mick Lally’s funeral, but the twelve-year-old victim’s? Or the recent young crash victims down the country? Sick.
I don’t know if it’s a particularly Irish thing, but you’re definitely right. Family at a funeral are already pretty shite without some tit looking for a few euro taking snaps from afar.
The weird thing is that even the “good” papers seem to use those photos.
Yep – it’s just accepted without question.
broadsheet.ie did a post yesterday with a slideshow of the funeral. Rather out of place, I thought, considering the stuff on there is much fluffier/quirkier/videos of catsier.
It’ll be live broadcasts of the crashsites with victims still entwined in the wreckage next..
They’ll say its a public service ,to shock “Young people” into being more careful on the roads..
Over here in Spain it’s even worse. They love their gore (ref: the bullfighter, mouth, horn photo you so nicely posted) so when there’s a tragic accident the papers will actually show the bodies lying round. Very considerate for the victims’ families really.
The only good thing about covering funerals is that it may be the only occasion where the British press don’t use a moronic fucking pun in the title. (Although when Jimmy Greaves dies, it’s going to be awfully fucking tempting)
Australian television news is really base stuff. They’ll film a the car crash (or ‘smash’ in dumb aussie speak) from a helicopter in the hope that the victims will be gored and decapitated for extra effect. The relatives might just be watching the news in their kitchen to see their loved ones head on the bonnet of their car.
I thank Rupert Murdoch for the trend.
Lung – bullfighters are cunts and deserve everything they get. I have zero sympathy for them.
“Although when Jimmy Greaves dies, it’s going to be awfully fucking tempting”
Excellent.
haha, yes it was
It’s the TV interviews, to get the deceased family’s reactions, which sicken my shit .
“How do you feel?”
How the fuck do you think I feel .
Media – bunchaspas sometimes.
I always hated the Late Late Show for that.
‘How did you feel when the terrible tragedy happened? Did you cry? Do you want to cry now?’
When I lived in LA all the local TV stations regularly showed live helicopter footage of police car chases. All the rage after the famous OJ Simpson chase. They had helicopters in the air all day and would interrupt regular programmes to show this stuff.
All severely curtailed however after one guy, being pursued by numerous police cars, stopped his own car on a freeway ramp, got out, put a shotgun in his mouth and blew his head off on live TV.
What a simpering cunt! Especially the first paragraph.
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/mothers-tears-for-michaela-2322931.html
Just goes to prove Twenty’s point.
And the last paragraph too
i realise the media how to flog their stupid papers
but christ they are cunts
‘How did you feel when the terrible tragedy happened? Did you cry? Do you want to cry now?’
Pat Fucking Kenny, rhymes with stunt.
Spot on Twenty. Photo’s at funerals are not news.
Lise Handjob morelike
I’ve just had a look at that article in the Indo by some bint called Lise Hand.
I feel like throwing up.
And I agree 100% Twenty with your blog and “The Other Ron” puts it very well too.
Oh, and by the way, I looked at that slide show of Mick Lally’s funeral. Does everybody going to a funeral nowadays dress for going to a soccer/GAA game. Or the beach. Or the pub ?
I don’t know. As it is a comfort to families when their loved one has a large funeral, maybe it’s a comfort to know that the rest of the country is sympathetic enough of their plight to report it in the newpapers and on TV.
Generally, when families request a private funeral, their wish is respected.
Personally, if the reporting is done respectfully, I see it as a good thing for the bereaved.
Going off message, but too good not to share…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__Co6GAaXFw
Groan.
Has Jimmy Greaves gone to meet his Saint or thanks to his pundit job at ITV, does he have to earn his Spurs first by showing some bottle?
The big exclusive in this Sundays shit rag red top (Sindo inc of course)
Completely agree with you Twenty, well put in your piece. The media both print and TV have an unnatural interest in picturing/filming people grieving in this country.
What a shower of spineless cunts..thanks Mr Murdoch et al.
It’s the same lark anywhere media follows the Murdoch model. “You just buried your wife and 10 year old daughter who were tortured, raped and butchered by a lodger you had in your house to make a few extra bob. How did it feel to find their dismembered bodies when you got home from the pub with your mates? How has this devastating loss affected you? Do you feel any guilt? Do you think it would be better if you cried now or would you like me to keep asking questions until you do?”
Anyone who has a funeral should have a ‘family spokesman’ who reads a prepared statement which reads “Go away you filthy parasites, how dare you intrude on these people while they bury their dead”
I see Ryan rubbery is performing his duties tonight. Status quo mix of “acceptable” oirish guests to appease the middle class suburban set.
Who watches it? Entertainment? Gah. RTE signals the death of Irish talent once they get onto it one way or the other though. It all morphs into Ryan Tubridy.
‘acceptable” oirish guests’..One or more of Ronan Keating, Niall Tobin, Miriam O’Callaghan?
Who’s on HM? i’ve an hour to kill before I knock off for the weekend.
”RTE signals the death of Irish talent once they get onto it one way or the other though. It all morphs into Ryan Tubridy.”
I can see the Fox-News of the World headlines:
Ryan Rubbery eats young Irish talent. We interview the grieving mothers…
Gerry Ryan is on. Lost a bit of weight
just to cap off a shitty day, tuned into rte and saw blair saying “there was 2 options. war or not”. wrong. hans blix was the third option. turbridy didn’t say shit.
Why do people watch this drivel? Ryan Turbridy is Jimmy Saville light.
2 people I know lost their jobs today. 8 in total from a group of 30plus. poor fuckers.
i think I’m going to buy a tank, drive it up to donnybrook and take over rte. it’s less than fucking medioce pathetic shit full of useless, spineless, stupid pathetic, pandering, smarmy, scarf-wearing, rugby playing low-brow cunts in front of the camera
shit.
whore
I’ve come to bury Caesar not to praise him
though it be August and media is in slow time
yon poor lassie is press hound’s fodder
is there no matter her families pain
funny watching the anti-war muppet show outside easons this morning. shame they don’t get so riled up by the incomptent corrupt filth we have in power here.
i was watching tennis, as usual, last night when I saw the french open winner, schiavone, do this. she won.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlaC9lBqfeY
hahaha
great headline
“Tony Blair pelted with shoes and eggs”
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20100904/tuk-shoes-and-eggs-thrown-at-blair-6323e80.html
Next up – Cowen ?
good point tomo. cowen would eat the eggs and sniff the shoes maggot
itchy – i think he’d have a damned good try at eating the shoes as well – and harney would finish off any left overs!
the saturday afternoon film on rte is
Karol: A Man Who Became Pope.
Now children. Sit down and watch a story about a lovely, kind, gentle, honest man.
i will not be watching but if anyone is can they let me know how the film deals with the cover-up by Karol of the sexual abuse of children by his employees? I have an inkling rte won’t allow the war to be mentioned. Next saturday afternoon on rte 1 – gary glitter discusses his hero; rte.
From now on I shall refer to the Vatican as Glitter Gulch.
Itchy, is that the tennis version of the ronaldo
step over?
they had that last night stipes. Classic moment which nobody has up on youtube. 1st set 3-3 love all, Melzer v Juan Carlos Ferraro. Melzer served a bullet and hit a ballboy square in the nuts. The crowd all at once goes “oooh”; the ballboy walks away like a dog and the crowd are all laughing. Umpire and Melzer ask the kid is he all right and he’s grimacing saying “yeah” but you can tell his balls are bruised. 4-3 and it’s break time the ballboys are all congregated around the kid behind the umpire chair pushing nand shoving their mate laughing at him. funniest couple of minutes I’ve ever seen
Obviously it was always going to be tough, but fair, interview
two cunts
http://i52.tinypic.com/143hkk3.jpg
Tubridy is a right wing conservative. He loves Washington and downing street. He’ll never give either a hard time.
the footage of blair getting escorted into easons by a half-a-dozen minders reminded me of the scene in Srebinica when Karadich was playing up to the cameras before instructing his army to murder 7,000 muslim men and kids surrounded by his gang of thugs. I think Blair will come to a sticky end. He has this crazy religious zeal glint look in his eyes about him these days. And his statemnet that muslim fanatics are the biggest threat omits the fact that it was his and dubyas christian religious fanaticism which led to hundreds of thousands killed in eyeraq and afganistan where it was 3,000 in the twin towers. As for Turbridy; he’s still speaking through his nose. Obviously not a Billie Barry Kid..and he probably didn’t bring up the point i just made. i don’t know i didn’t watch. blair and turbridy; 2 horrible stuck-up-their-own-hole cunts
dermot ahern- a Prometheus among cunts
http://i52.tinypic.com/143hkk3.jpg
Christ – father and son ?
Could be maggot; religion won’t let Tony wear a condom and turbridy may have been conceived in St. Lukes with Bertie.
probably the most wet, most limp, most damp and most stomach-turning handshake in the history of the world.
I watched the hurling final today. I do like hurling. I played it as a very young kid. From 6 to 12 or 13.. We played in Croke Park and beat some other Dublin fucking knackers to win a final sponsored by The Herald. For winning the u-12 Dulin Schools Championship we were all loaded onto a 747 down to Shannon to spend 2 weeks playing hurling teams from Clare. I think it cost us a fiver. It was fucking cool. A different planet. Hand-ball alleys and sheds full of hay. We played against 4 or 5 teams and we felt like it must feel to be Grimsby touring and playing against Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Arsenal. The kids we played against were experts. It was like Ivor Callely v David Kelly in a truth-telling competition. They were so fucking good. We were so shit and we thought we were great. That’s why I gave up playing hurling and also how I got the hurling bug.
Anyhow. Jesus why did that spew out. I meant to just post about gombeen-man Cowen today at the hurling final. (murray is in trouble in NY by a Swiss dude. Good news.)
The captain of Tipperary accepted the trophy and gave a very, very good speech.*
The 2nd worst minister for finance and now also the 2nd worst prime minister this country has ever had, and I know the standard isn’t too fucking high either, was standing right behind the captain as he spoke so eloquently with passion and pride. Brian Cowen looked very uncomforable. Kind of like how I’d feel if George Clooney was standing beside me.
Brian Cowen is leader of this country. He is a fucking joke.
Long night of tennis ahead; I could be talking to myself alot tonight, start charging 20.
*Except the first bit in irish which he ended on high note and the whole crowd cheered. 80,000 people there, probably 5% maybe 10, max 15% understood him but they all cheeered. fucking sheep.
Andy Murray crashes out of The US Open and Skysports Mark Petchey finally shuts the fuck up with his self-congratulatory shite.
http://www.artrepublic.com/articles/214-peter-kennard-photo-op.html
That wasn’t spewing at all Itchy; I really enjoyed reading that
Perhaps its a lead in to the new form of reality TV…
‘How tragic is YOUR funeral?’
We could have votes on flowers …. the number of female relatives who hurl themselves across the coffin screaming … points deducted for solemn faced priests…
Works in Iran.
Come mourn with me?