Chilé Miners - Overkill?

Lenny Lovett

So the miners have been rescued and I am very pleased for them and their loved ones. But, did we really need 24 hour coverage on BBC News and Sky News? Was it overkill? There was no such coverage for a group of Chinese miners who were trapped in a mine last year for three weeks. Here's a humourous look at it by Richard Littlejohn:

Sky featured a scorecard in the corner of the screen, like a live football match. I was waiting for Andy Gray's Last Word on the operation, complete with computer graphics and slo-mo replays.

This was, of course, a legitimate and compelling story. But that doesn't explain why one small-circulation British newspaper felt it necessary to publish a special souvenir edition yesterday.

What kind of weirdo wants a cut-out-and-keep guide to a mine rescue on the other side of the world, let alone pen portraits of every single miner involved and details of their dental records?

My own reaction to the news that they had been rescued was: that's great. If I'd been told they had all perished, it would have been: that's sad. But I wouldn't have bothered catching a bus to the Chilean embassy and hanging a teddy bear on the railings.

I don't know any of these people. Nor does anyone else in Britain. So why invest so much time and emotional energy in the fate of total strangers?

'Oi, Doris, hurry up with that pizza. They're bringing out Carlos Barrios any minute.'

'Is he the one who wants to be a greengrocer or the one with the mistress?'

'Nah, he's the geezer with the diabetes.'

'Chuck us another can of Stella.'

Most of the armchair humanitarians following the rescue on TV and discussing drilling techniques like geological experts couldn't even point to Chile on a map until this week. They probably still can't.

In the global village, you can be a disaster tourist without leaving your front room. If it's Tuesday, it must be Haiti.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1320621/Chilean-rescue-These-armchair-ghouls-point-map.html#ixzz12RCDy02Z

steelcityblues

It made me wonder what other stories were being buried!

jdivision

People say they want positive stories. Then they get one and they give out about it.

uvox

Typical Richard Littlejohn - neither funny or thought provoking, and with whiff of racism to it too. Probably pissed off it detracted from coverage of Thatcher's 85th birthday.

Richard Littledick: http://enemiesofreason.co.uk/2010/05/28/littlejohn-****/

(replace the four *** in the url with the c-word, lowercase.)

Dude111

I read the Miners are getting pissed that people wont leave them alone!! (Reporters,etc)

I can understand that!!!!!

jdivision

Yeah right, they're gonna make a fortune out of it.