Sunday, March 22, 2009
The PM and Goody
When he became prime minister Gordon Brown was apparently keen to roll back the celebrity obsessions of his predecessor Tony Blair. It seemed somehow inappropriate that the nation's leader should be so obviously in hock to a febrile celebrity culture when, really, didn't he have more significant things to do with his time? So to hear him issue a paean of praise to the deceased Jade Goody, whose sole claim to public attention is to have appeared, foul mouthed and ignorant, on a reality television show, is surely an immersion in celebrity vacuousness too far? There are many, many more sufferers from terminal diseases at too young an age who have given much to others, lived their lives with charity and warmth and suffered their approach to death wih quiet dignity. But, of course, they haven't appeared on television, or screamed about the unfairness of life on cable television channels and in celebrity magazines, so naturally why would Gordon Brown be interested in them?
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5 comments:
I look forward to the OK magazine special "Jades Life"- Boo hoo to her
Normal terminally ill people don't have cheap votes behind them.
I think that even if Jade Goody is famous for being a loud mouthed biggot, i still feel that media coverage that has now been given to cervical cancer and the droves of young women taking smear tests means she deserves every bit of praise that she gets.
I feel more sympathy for those who suffer this terrible illness in quiet dignity, but these people, unfortunately, do not get anywhere near the coverage that jade goody gets, thus they will never be able to bring this disease into the public eye. this is just how the press works. would you rather a situation in which the press and gordon brown ignored jade goody, so that cervical cancer is no longer at the forefront of the public eye, leaving thousands of women at risk due to lack of knowledge? to be honest i am quite happy to endure the endless radio and television features about jade goody, considering the alternative.
If Gordon Brown had said nothing, what are the odds that the Sun would have run a campaign about it?
Possibly - pity they don't want to run a campaign about the absence of comment on the three British soldiers who returned from Afghanistan in body bags on the same day, where they'd been fighting a war they'd been sent to by....oh, Gordon Brown.
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