Was the BBC correct to lead with Jade on a "quiet news day"?

I was interested in Peter Horrock's comments on the BBC editors blog.

The BBC has been criticized for the so called Jade Fest on Sunday as it led many of its news bulletins with the demise of Jade Goody.

What came in for particular criticism was that it led on Radio 4,for some the monolith of quality news.

So was the BBC setting the news agenda or having it set for them?

Horrocks defends the critics by saying that

the circumstances were that the early part of Sunday was relatively quiet - when, later, Ken Clarke made his comments on inheritance tax, many parts of the BBC News output then led on that story.

Some have written that Gordon Brown must have been quite happy about the timing of her death as it took the Paul McNulty second home scandal out of the early bulletins.

Horrock defends the decision on the grounds of internet traffic

We know that from the statistics that we have on a minute-by-minute basis from the news website that many more people visited than normally would on a Sunday - and the Jade Goody story was overwhelmingly the most popular story.

Is that the purpose of the BBC?

Rather lost for words over OK's Jade cover

One questions the publication of this week's Hello magazine given that the reality Tv star is not dead.It is understood that Jade's family have given their blesing to the cover,but really what does this tell us abot OK's respect for the sanctity of death and its accuracy in reporting?

Maybe it was the case that Jade Goody's timetable did not fit in with the magazine's publishing deadline,some are even suggesting an accidental publication.

So far the PCC has recieved a dozen compliants but has yet to decide whether to take action according to Guardian media

Jade-let's not get this out of perspective

A lot has been written and will still be written about the media coverage of Jade Goody but do read Charlie Beckett's piece.

The last two paragraphs I believe put the whole sags in context

By all means let’s get this in perspective. The death of the policeman in Northern Ireland is more ‘important’ than Jade’s impending demise. The dignity and solidarity shown at his funeral commends itself to that community and the media in its serious coverage of a hugely symbolic as well as tragic event.
Celebrities don’t make history in the same way. The media should not confuse the two. But in her own, highly mediated and yet hugely human way, Jade has added something more than just 15 minutes of fame.

One theory on our appetite for Jade stories

There is a good post in the Guardian this morning.

Madeleine Bunting writes on the media coverage of Jade Goody which it appears will continue until her sad death at the pace in which it has been conducted since she first found fame

The British economy is in free fall, but for a good section of the population, the subject about which they most want to read, watch or surf is death

Which may well be true and she continues

The most striking thing about the coverage is how celebratory it is

but maybe this is the reason

It's not hard to see why we might want to reassure ourselves of the better qualities of human nature and the possibility of redemption just now, as we emerge bleary-eyed from a 20-year delusion that we could indulge our debt-driven preoccupation with house prices for ever.

Glover hates the mass worshipping of the ordinary

It is worth reading Stephen Glover's piece in this morning's Indy as he discusses the blanket Jade Goody coverage over the weekend.

Yes it is a sad story and yes the media have done an about turn on the Big Brother star but Glover whilst recognising the sad personal circumstances make the following observation.

I am happy to accept that she is not a monster, and I even rather admire her expert manipulation, or that of her advisers, of the media. But I hate this mass worship of the ordinary. And it seems to me that intelligent columnists who romanticise her life and invest her death with heroic significance are writing sentimental nonsense. What has already happened is bad enough, but I fear it may be only the beginning, and that it may all end with even the supposedly serious media forcing us to witness her death.

Enough said

What a difference 2 years can make

There has been much in the papers this morning about Jade Goody.

Whatever you may feel about her past activities you have to feel dreadfully sorry for her and and family.

I hope that she can find some comfort in her remaining time on this earth.

However the case once again shows the hypocrisy of some of our papers.

As this blog shows,the Sun must surely be reminded of some of its past pronouncements on Miss Goody.This piece from January 2007 for example after the end of celeb big brother(Ht-Martin Belam)

SANITY has prevailed. Thank Heaven for that. Jade Goody went into the Big Brother house appearing to be simply a fun-loving working-class girl canny enough to have made millions from her 15 minutes of fame. It was all a meticulously manufactured lie. She has left the house with her true personality laid bare: A vile, pig-ignorant, racist bully consumed by envy of a woman of superior intelligence, beauty and class. Incredible as it may seem, last night’s vote was the most important in Britain since the last General Election. OK, it’s just a reality TV show. But it became a referendum on whether our nation, with the eyes of the world on us, was prepared to back a home-grown yob over a dignified Indian actress. We weren’t and the result has restored faith in the British public. Hopefully Jade will now slither back under the rock from where she crawled before her debut on Big Brother in 2002. As for her two spineless, sniggering sidekicks ... let’s hope they join her.

As the title of the blog suggests this is the Diana effect all over again.One vilified in the press,tragedy seems to simply wash away the past.