With luck she’ll live at least another 10 months or more – then that issue of OK will be the ‘Dewey Defeats Truman’ of celeb journalism.

The ‘last words’ headline is particularly tasteless…

I wish everyone would shut up about wishing everyone would shut up about Jade Goody.

Arrrghhhh – for the love of God can I not even get away from this crap here at LC?!

ace,

Did we hurt your arm when we forced you to read and comment on this post?

If so, we apologise.

Sorry but here too? Really? I want to say ‘die, die, die, lady die, die’, but I won’t.
Nope, no one forced me, but jeeze, you can hardly escape this crap, its bloody everywhere.

I know. Hence why I’m criticising OK!

Aaron, did OK hurt your arm when they forced you to pick up, pay for and read that issue?

Or was it that they’ve been marketing themselves as a serious news and political publication, and I missed it?

Or are you just looking to keep talking about Jade, because secretly you’re working for Max Clifford?

I’m just surprised they haven’t gone the whole hog and set up big brother cameras in her hospital room.

You do know the worst is yet to come – once she does die then it is going to be wall to wall Jade Goody while the press squeeze as much as they can from this. Death sells, particularly when its someone ‘famous’. Oh god its going to be a re-run of that whole Lady Di death crap isn’t it?! Gotta go, I can feel my chest tightening and that vein in my forehead is throbbing again!

Debi Linton

Yes. And it hurt.

Next question.

But seriously. If I see something in the world of media, or popular culture, that pisses me off, I’ll go ahead and blog about it. As is my want.

And as for working for Max Clifford? I will when his bloody check clears.

I’m sorry but this thread is bullshit.

Debi, really sorry, but I think you’re being a bit daft.

Take a look at the blogosphere. Holding the MSM to account is one of the primary responsibilities of the medium. Are you seriously suggesting I can’t pass comment on the ridiculousness of celebrity media, because I’m in danger of perpetuating it?

Wow. Not falling foul of uber-cool contrarianism is tricky, no?

Aaron,

But if what’s pissing you off is an abundance of media coverage and discussion about a subject, why exacerbate the problem by adding to the noise?

Even if you put it in your own blog, why also crosspost here? LibCon has a particular, if broad, range of subjects it covers, and I’m not sure celebrity gossip is one of them, which is why it’s surprising when Jade Goody turns up on the .rss feeds of people who have subscribed to a news and politics site.

A#12

If you count celebrity gossip mags like OK as MSM, maybe. BUT if you’re going to hold it to ‘account’ then please be more clear about what harm it’s doing? Because all I can see is one group of people I’m used to ignoring wailing about Jade, and another group of people I usually listen to and respect, wailing about the wailing. The first group aren’t doing any harm (for once) and the second group seem to be wailing just for the sake of it.

I’m used to you having a point, is all.

Lecture over?

Jesus wept.

Celebrity cancer has gained an increasing niche in the market – overall I think this is a good thing – for example, I believe the Kylie effect has had a positive influence on uptake of breast screening.

And, maybe Jade Goody’s experience, (and the widespread reporting in the media) will stimulate debate, and hopefully a higher uptake of vaccination – don’t forget HPV (human papilloma virus) is the main cause of cervical cancer.

There are approx 2,800 cases diagnosed each year and it is the second commonest cancer in women who are under 35 years of age.
http://www.cancerhelp.org.uk/help/default.asp?page=2755#common

Should we start telling young women that cervical cancer could be construed as a type of sexually transmitted disease ?

Perhaps an antidote to OK’s modus operandi is John Diamond’s “C-because cowards get cancer too” – it’s one of the best reads I have come across about how somebody lives with ‘the big C’.

I think Aaron is perfectly entitled to pick up on this story – there is no doubt that the media’s response to JG tells us a great deal about some of our mores and predilections.
It seems even dying micro-celebrities are fair game in the voracious world of tit-bits and gossip.

OK! is being nakedly opportunist, but Harriet Harman’s sister, Sarah is being far, far worse: http://nhsblogdoc.blogspot.com/2009/03/ambulance-chasing-lawyers.html

(you may dislike Crippen, but on this matter, I believe he is correct)

Well you could say cancer is a type of sexually transmitted disease, but only in the sense it is also a punishment from God.

Aaron, Debi is right. Nobody is forcing you to read celebrity magazines and writing a blog on it is just adding to the hype.

The Guardian does this all the time: a continuous meta-commentary on the obssession with celebrity to the point they were actually printing more about Celebrity BB than anyone else (and I’m adding to it here).

When Dr Crippen’s item was drawn to Sarah Harman’s attention she responded by claiming: “it’s very good publicity FOR ME”

http://nhsblogdoc.blogspot.com/2009/03/sarah-harman-jumps-on-jade-goody.html

The revulsion-ometer flickered into the red after that little gem.

Aaron, Debi is right. Nobody is forcing you to read celebrity magazines and writing a blog on it is just adding to the hype.

This is a moronic statement.

As I said:

“Take a look at the blogosphere. Holding the MSM to account is one of the primary responsibilities of the medium. Are you seriously suggesting I can’t pass comment on the ridiculousness of celebrity media, because I’m in danger of perpetuating it?”

Nuff said.

And as I implied, but was too polite to state openly until you called me ‘moronic’ this kind of meta-commentary is just an excuse for engaging in ghoulish gossip you think you are above.

Oh pluuuuueeeeaze.

OK, my bad.

So, let it be known from this point forward….

NO-ONE IS TO EVER PASS COMMENT ON THE RIDICULOUSNESS OF OUR CELEB-BASED MEDIA, AS THIS WOULD MERELY ADD TO THE DIN.

Sound stupid? Yeah, I thought so too.

…this kind of meta-commentary is just an excuse for engaging in ghoulish gossip you think you are above.

Oh yeah. I’ve been lying in wait for weeks for the chance for an excuse to engage in the Goody story. I’m just delighted to have had the chance. And if it wasn’t for you pesky kids, I would have got a way with it.

Ha!

Who is Jade Goody?

I don’t watch strictly cum dancing.

While she’s alive the money goes into the trust fund so unpopular as this may sound, I reckon that if you don’t like it rather than whining in the throes of your brazen health, you just leave it alone.

This whole senario reminds me of watching a car crash in slow motion.

More to the point why is the plight of on celebrity (and a particually worthless one at that) getting so much attention when there are wars and homicidal tyranny (Burma and the LRA’s recent isurrection into the Congo for example) that rarely gets reported on?

Was Stalin right when he observed that a death is a tradgedy while a million deaths are merely a statistic?

Unfortunately for millions of pople all over the world it appears he was.

Stalin’s point, and I hate tto admit he had one, is that you feel emotion over an individual tragedy for someone you know, or think you know, but not for the deaths of anonymous millions, a point Harry Lime made more eloquently.

And the reason people THINK the know Goody is because of the endless publicity she has received in the ‘quality’ press as much as the tabloids, and on blogs like this.

OK Magazine is about celebrity culture, not political analysis: what other story SHOULD they be running right now?

@ ace – 6

‘die, die, die, lady die, die’

That one was in a tunnel in Paris!

Whooosh, I know.

Shatterface

Dude, did you even read the post???

I’m referring to the mawkish “tribute issue”. I know you’re desperate to hang mentioning Goody around my neck and throw me into the deep blue sea, but she was never my point.

I don’t expect OK! to publish great political tracts, I do expect them to wait until someone has actually died before producing a “tribute issue” sporting the YEAR OF HER DEATH!

Jeeesh.

I love the way people are using me as a strawman to bitch about Goody’s exposure.

Heh. Whatever.

Hah!
The idiots from OK magazine have had to defend themselves because of 60 complaints so far as a result of the issue

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/mar/18/jade-celebrity

Well, she’ll be dead in a few days so it’ll be okay.

There are 61 of us that think this is a bit grimbo, then.

Hmm, 61. Are we to measure worth by the number of complaints, because if so Stuart Lee, Salman Rushdie and Russell Brand take some beating.

I don’t see why Aaron is taking flak for this. The Goody business is a new, extraordinary (and extraordinarily awful) social phenomenon. There’s never been a case of someone publicising their own impending death to this extent. The OK thing is just the latest ugly twist.

It’s obviously deserving of comment.

(I don’t blame Jade incidentally, I’m just depressed that there’s a market for daily pictures and quotes of her miserable decline.)

This news just in: Natasha Richardson dead, middle-class still traumatized.

As recipient of the hat tip I think I should come to Aaron’s defence here!

LC does have a wide varierty of subject matter, I guess that’s why many of us turn up here. This was simply a quicky about one part of the press being particularly tasteless on a particular occassion. It didn’t take up much time writing or reading it, if it doesn’t interest you just move on!

Yeah, it’s all Akela’s fault. Quick lads, get HIM!

Seriously… Shatterface and Debi’s quaint Strawman argument was good for laughs. Even if it doesn’t really hold up to scrutiny. I’m glad I provided a suitable meatbag for them to punch. )

Aaron,
I’m with you here. I agree with your post.
Some people are making millions off the back of a dying person.
Next we’ll get a special pull-out supplement in the shape of a coffin. “But don’t you say anything otherwise you’ll add up to the hype” How moronic is that!!!

Ignore the contrarians. Some people just *LOVE* arguing the toss and this thread (and the usual suspects) is testament to that. “no-one forces you…blah blah”, yawn. Hollow, empty phrase that means absolutely F.A.

#27 Shatterface.
I can’t even believe you’ve written that.
Good gracious me.
Hello? Anybody there?
Obituaries before people even die?
It really isnt that difficult to grasp why OK! are out of order, is it Shatterface…

“Was Stalin right when he observed that a death is a tradgedy while a million deaths are merely a statistic?”

I deserve to be flayed with eels for pedantry as great as this, but I’m not sure there’s any record of Stalin saying that…

http://bailey83221.livejournal.com/87856.html

‘We are nauseated by the sight of trivial personalities decomposing in the eternity of print.’
Virginia Woolf