Whatgetsmygoat

It was sad to hear of the death of David Cameron's son,Ivan. You look at the pictures of the parents, David and Sammantha and you know that their whole world has been shattered.It is a personal tragedy for the Cameron family and friends.

What I resent is the over the top coverage by our media of this child's death. On Wednesday Newsnight, the first fifteen minutes of the programme was devoted to this tragedy. The coverage in the newspapers was ludicrous!This was not a celebrity, this was not someone who chased fame,but a sick child. It is a mark of how personality/celebrity driven our media is that this item dominated the news. The BBC treated this like it was a national tragedy, which it was not,the sheer carpet bombing of coverage was screaming at us: YOU MUST BE UPSET ABOUT THIS!! THIS IS A SAD STORY!!

Most of us don't need to be told how to feel, especially when Ivan Cameron was not a public figure.The death of Princess Diana in 1997 opened the door to this type of coverage.Hysterical,sentimental and lacking any sense of propoprtion. We've seen this with tragedy in Soham, and more recently with the Jade Goody saga. Private tragedies are now blown up into huge events due to a dumbed down media.With a 24 hour news culture, competition and celebrity culture, our media has thrown restraint to the wind, and adopted an overly sentimental personality obsessed style of coverage.

You don't believe me? Just look at how many tabloid and "serious" journalists covered Jade Goody's wedding last week.

I fear that Jade Goody is being Dianafied!

Let me explain. The media ( or certain parts of it)seems to be pushing Jade's story onto us. The more coverage she receives, the more importance the story will appear to be. Last night, I caught the late night news bulletin on five. Guess what the lead story was??It wasn't the banking collapse,Gaza or Afghanistan.

Jade's illness is a tragedy for her and her family. You would have to be devoid of humanity you felt no sadness for this young woman and her two young sons. Her main aim is to ensure that her children are provided for after she has gone. What was touching has been her comments that her sons get the proper education that she never had.

What we should not do is make this into some media event that we should all share in.Let's remember who Jade is, she's a young woman who was created by reality TV and became rich and famous as a result. This fame is achieved without having any talent or education to speak of.
Jade is not Princess Diana or Mother Teresa. Hopefully the media will get the right sense of proportion regarding this story.Mind you, our media is so celebrity driven and so dumbed down , that nothing will surprise me.

Remember the news coverage of Paris Hilton's release from jail??