RTE News and funerals: disaster porn

IsaacWunder

Why do RTE News cover funerals? I can understand if it's an affair of state, such as a public figure or statesman, but usually the coverage is of the funeral of ordinary people dying in tragic circumstances, often accompanied by sound recordings or even video inside the church.

Should people not be allowed to privately grieve? The presence of a cameraman and reporter hardly helps the family or community affected by a road accident to pick up the pieces.

And who cares what the priest has to say about anything to do with the tragedy? They're hardly going to give some deep insight, but again RTE insist on playing their musings on the life of the dead person (who they probably didn't even know) usually accompanied by the coffin being taken into or out of the hearse.

It's just ramming cameras into people's faces for the sake of ratings, and RTE call it news.

bop1977

Slow news day and they need filler.

The Aussie

bop1977 wrote: »

Slow news day and they need filler.

Judging by the Newspapers today, you sir have hit the nail on the head...

hotmail.com

The funeral of someone isn't news.

AnonoBoy

IsaacWunder wrote: »

It's just ramming cameras into people's faces for the sake of ratings, and RTE call it news.

Have you seen the front of the tabloids in the past decade?

Unfortunately it's not just RTE who see this sort of thing as news.

I hate it but it's a sad fact that people go for this morbid coverage of deaths and funerals.

AboutaWeekAgo

Irish people love funerals.

IsaacWunder

AnonoBoy wrote: »

Have you seen the front of the tabloids in the past decade?

Unfortunately it's not just RTE who see this sort of thing as news.

I hate it but it's a sad fact that people go for this morbid coverage of deaths and funerals.

By that logic every episode should feature a report on who's dating Georgia Salpa, bikini girls, an Andy Capp cartoon, a horoscope and an agony aunt.

People go for morbid stuff, I get that, but that doesn't mean that the state's public service broadcaster should give it to them, and certainly not by using ordinary people's lives as this kind of fodder.

harry Bailey esq

bop1977 wrote: »

Slow news day and they need filler.

I dunno about that, is it just me,or does the week between Christmas have a disproportionately high amount of tragic events? I mean in the past couple of days there have been two plane crashes,a ferry disaster in the Adriatic and a crash landing at Heathrow that could of turned out very badly.Closer to home we had a murder-suicide in cork,murders,domestic violence, rapes and other violent crime seem to skyrocket on Christmas week, as do fire tragedies

kneemos

Same thought occurred to me.
They could report it without the voyeuristic pictures.

Pwindedd

AboutaWeekAgo wrote: »

Irish people love funerals.

Oh god do they. I know it's a cultural thing or whatever but it's a curious phenomenon to the uninitiated. My husband was berated once for not going to the funeral of a friends mother. "I've never met the woman" he protested. "Yes but you know him, you should've been there" was the reply. We found it all a bit odd. We personally wouldn't attend the funeral of anyone we hadn't met.

Muahahaha

How would the Beeb cover a murder suicide in the UK, would they typically send a camera crew to the funeral too? If they do I don't think the footage would make the main national news, probably shown on the local news afterwards or something?

BMJD

RTE jizz themselves at the thought of having any Catholic related stuff to report.

Bipolar Joe

My Uncle was apparently news worthy when he died, despite being just a regular guy. Seeing these complete fucking scumbags at the gates of the church, the doors of the undertakers, and following cars of relatives around made me want to get violent. Fucking vultures.

Harry Palmr

The Public Death Cult is strong in Ireland no doubt about it.

porsche959

Muahahaha wrote: »

How would the Beeb cover a murder suicide in the UK, would they typically send a camera crew to the funeral too? If they do I don't think the footage would make the main national news, probably shown on the local news afterwards or something?

BBC wouldn't, a tabloid like the Mail might.

So that's RTE. The same ethics as the lowest grade UK gutter press.

SEPT 23 1989

"tragedy" really glosses over the brutality of these murderous acts

hotmail.com

porsche959 wrote: »

BBC wouldn't, a tabloid like the Mail might.

So that's RTE. The same ethics as the lowest grade UK gutter press.

Local BBC news would frequently cover funerals like this. The national BBC would also cover funerals for high profile deaths with the consent of the family and often have that funeral as their top story.

The BBC is no different or better than the mainstream media.

Ralf and Florian

The Irish are obsessed with funerals.RTE are pandering to that obsession.

AnonoBoy

IsaacWunder wrote: »

People go for morbid stuff, I get that, but that doesn't mean that the state's public service broadcaster should give it to them, and certainly not by using ordinary people's lives as this kind of fodder.

I wasn't trying to excuse it - just explain why they are covering it.

I agree they shouldn't be there - there's nothing in the public interest to be gained from broadcasting from a funeral.

darkdubh

Its a kind of a cliche but true,anytime I'm on the phone to my mother she insists on regaling me about whos died,usually someone I don't know from Adam.I never got the Irish morbid obsession with funerals.I hate them and I'd only go to one of it was a close relative or friend.

efb

The indo jerks itself off over funeral coverage

AlanS181824

Awful.

Dirty Steve

Always found it to be in bad taste. I can't imagine any regular people wanting a loved ones funeral to be covered by the media.

Son Of A Vidic

AboutaWeekAgo wrote: »

Irish people love funerals.

So true. When I lived overseas, anytime I came home I'd barely be out of the airport and I'd be getting the death report. It didn't matter that I hadn't a fecking clue about who died.

Tail Docker

"Reposing.." They adore a bit of auld death. Nothing like it. It leaves me cold tbh.

Highflyer13

AboutaWeekAgo wrote: »

Irish people love funerals.

When I was on my summer holidays down wesht the granny used to love banging out the death notices at 5pm and 10am every day on mid west radio. She'd tell us all to stfu. Loved her death notices she did.