The Newsroom

George Best

Too much coverage? (November 2005)

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TV
TVN
cat posted:

a) Most of you (myself included) weren't even born when Best was actually playing, and as such really couldn't grasp the significance that this has on people of Best's generation.

b) You don't give a toss about football, and have probably never kicked a ball in your lives

c) You have no idea about what makes an interesting news story


George Best was a great footballer, a legend, I accept that.
I enjoy football, and I have worked in football for a while.

I appreciate that this is a very significant story, and should lead the news,

BUT

Not that it should change TV Pres even slightly, and warrant a news report, just a short time after the 1:00 News, that even involved the story!
MA
Matrix
mccanmat posted:
On the ITV news channel, they just had a break outro with no sound just a silent ITV news outro


IIRC thats the special opening, it was used not long ago for another death...

Out of all the coverage, whether at the Cromwell hospital or Studio I've found the most moving comments coming from Dennis Murry in N.Ireland.

I do have to agree with Dickie Best's comments thought - The media should calm down now, someone has died.
DU
Dunedin
cat posted:
Do you think, possibly, all your relcutance to accept that this actually is a ''big'' story could be because:

a) Most of you (myself included) weren't even born when Best was actually playing, and as such really couldn't grasp the significance that this has on people of Best's generation.

b) You don't give a toss about football, and have probably never kicked a ball in your lives

c) You have no idea about what makes an interesting news story

Whilst I'm not that fussed, even some of the most braindead members on here coming out with ''this is daft, he's only famous because he got wasted all the time'' must surely be able to see that whilst the audience for this story might not be them, there's a fairly massive market out there who actually genuinely give a damn, and remember Best from his playing days rather than his later struggles with alcohol.

All of this nonsense - amusing though some of it can be - about ''scum alcoholic, he deserved it'' does rather show a lack of understanding about his condition, and a really unfortunate sense of immaturity.


You're so very, very wrong.

I love football and I think Best was an awesome player (yes, I wasn't alive when he played, but I've watched the videos and documentaries like any football fan).

But....

If Best hadn't been an alcoholic who abused a donated liver, do you think the coverage would have been remotely similar to that seen this week?

Really?

Want an example- think of Emlyn Hughes- another simply fantastic footballer who achieved so so much through an outstanding career. Perhaps not quite in the same league of Best as a footballer, but still one of this country's greats. The coverage of his untimely death was how it should have been- he had long standing cancer and died slowly (just like Best) but the tributes and coverage came at an appropriate time AFTER his death.

Anyone who believes the ridiculous levels of coverage BEFORE his death were due to his football career (rather than his drinking) are kidding themselves.
KB
Kent Brockman
Quote:
Want an example- think of Emlyn Hughes- another simply fantastic footballer who achieved so so much through an outstanding career. Perhaps not quite in the same league of Best as a footballer, but still one of this country's greats. The coverage of his untimely death was how it should have been- he had long standing cancer and died slowly (just like Best) but the tributes and coverage came at an appropriate time AFTER his death.

Anyone who believes the ridiculous levels of coverage BEFORE his death were due to his football career (rather than his drinking) are kidding themselves.


You've actually proved cat's point to an extent - to compare Best to Emlyn Hughes demonstrates that you don't appreciate the impact Best had.

Hughes was a fine, fine player, no arguments there.
But Best was (excuse the pun) THE best. Not only that, he was an icon, the most famous person in the country along with the Beatles for about five to 10 years, and all because of his talent and charisma.

Like cat said, it should pretty obvious that there's a huge audience out there that will be saddened by Best's passing, and they won't care one iota about his drinking.
DU
Dunedin
Kent Brockman posted:
Quote:
Want an example- think of Emlyn Hughes- another simply fantastic footballer who achieved so so much through an outstanding career. Perhaps not quite in the same league of Best as a footballer, but still one of this country's greats. The coverage of his untimely death was how it should have been- he had long standing cancer and died slowly (just like Best) but the tributes and coverage came at an appropriate time AFTER his death.

Anyone who believes the ridiculous levels of coverage BEFORE his death were due to his football career (rather than his drinking) are kidding themselves.


You've actually proved cat's point to an extent - to compare Best to Emlyn Hughes demonstrates that you don't appreciate the impact Best had.

Hughes was a fine, fine player, no arguments there.
But Best was (excuse the pun) THE best. Not only that, he was an icon, the most famous person in the country along with the Beatles for about five to 10 years, and all because of his talent and charisma.

Like cat said, it should pretty obvious that there's a huge audience out there that will be saddened by Best's passing, and they won't care one iota about his drinking.


So answer this question:

If Best hadn't been a drinker, would there have been a bedsite vigil for the past weeks, and acres of coverage a month ago when he just about scraped through?

Think about it in the context of all other "greats" across their fields (not just football, not just sport) who have died that you can remember.

Think Ronnie Barker. Arguably the greatest British situation comedy actor of all time. Can you remember a bedside vigil before his death?

It's a human interest story that's gone too far. The reaction post-death is entirely appropriate but we've been hearing it nonstop for a week now so its impact has been very much lost.
KB
Kent Brockman
Dunedin posted:
Kent Brockman posted:
Quote:
Want an example- think of Emlyn Hughes- another simply fantastic footballer who achieved so so much through an outstanding career. Perhaps not quite in the same league of Best as a footballer, but still one of this country's greats. The coverage of his untimely death was how it should have been- he had long standing cancer and died slowly (just like Best) but the tributes and coverage came at an appropriate time AFTER his death.

Anyone who believes the ridiculous levels of coverage BEFORE his death were due to his football career (rather than his drinking) are kidding themselves.


You've actually proved cat's point to an extent - to compare Best to Emlyn Hughes demonstrates that you don't appreciate the impact Best had.

Hughes was a fine, fine player, no arguments there.
But Best was (excuse the pun) THE best. Not only that, he was an icon, the most famous person in the country along with the Beatles for about five to 10 years, and all because of his talent and charisma.

Like cat said, it should pretty obvious that there's a huge audience out there that will be saddened by Best's passing, and they won't care one iota about his drinking.


So answer this question:

If Best hadn't been a drinker, would there have been a bedsite vigil for the past weeks, and acres of coverage a month ago when he just about scraped through?

Think about it in the context of all other "greats" across their fields (not just football, not just sport) who have died that you can remember.

Think Ronnie Barker. Arguably the greatest British situation comedy actor of all time. Can you remember a bedside vigil before his death?

It's a human interest story that's gone too far. The reaction post-death is entirely appropriate but we've been hearing it nonstop for a week now so its impact has been very much lost.


For the third time, I don't disagree that the weeks of coverage as he lay in his hospital bed became over-the-top.

The fact that Best was an alcoholic wasn't the main reason why press were camped outside the hospital for eight weeks - he's not the only 'famous alcoholic' to die, and none of those garnered such coverage, did they?

Best garnered the coverage because of his stature as a football great. The fact that 90 per cent of people paying tribute in the media over the next few days will be footballers should tell you that.

Like I said in my first post on this thread, Best's fluctuating condition had a bearing on that amount of coverage too. When he was first admitted he was in a very bad way and in danger of dying there and then, and the media covered it appropriately.
Since then he's fought back and then declined several times, and it made it pretty difficult for the media to judge the situation. They didn't want to leave the story alone for fear of not being on top of it, but on the other hand it got over the top last night when the obituaries were being rolled out while he was still alive.
BR
Brekkie
Well, with the coverage of George Best over this week (and the last couple of times he's been in hospital) I think there will be far more people thinking "At last!" rather "How sad!" now he has died.
JC
JamieC
From Popbitch

"Sky News - subtle as a turd in a punch bowl
I was watching Sky News waffle on about an upcoming update about Bestie outside Cromwell Hospital when a woman reporter in a red scarf turned to the camera, waved frantically, stuck her thumb up, made a cut-throat "he's a goner" sign across her neck and put her thumbs up again. Immediately, the Sky News guy in the studio said along the lines of I can tell you now that George Best has died. What a disgusting set of unsubtle bloodsucking f***ing leeches."

I saw that as well. It was disgraceful.
MO
Moz
Nice to see that Sky News are ignoring the big story of the weather in the SW, and 2000 trapped school kids to talk about some news which is so not breaking it's untrue. Someone's died - news has broken, it's NOT breaking.

Get your priorities right Sky! Chuck the Best story over onto SSN and cover something which is happening NOW and effecting a whole region.
CW
Charlie Wells Moderator
I'm glad that it would appear that News 24 have made the winter weather there main news at the moment instead constantly going on about the death of George Best. Should atleast make the 6 o'clock news more varied tonight.
MO
Moz
Charlie Wells posted:
I'm glad that it would appear that News 24 have made the winter weather there main news at the moment instead constantly going on about the death of George Best. Should atleast make the 6 o'clock news more varied tonight.

Yep, the main story on N24 was the 'major incident' in the South West, with Best firmly in second place. The 6 however led on the Best story. Sky still have it as breaking news! Rolling Eyes
LO
Londoner
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