The purpose of this thread is to answer sort of a silly question. It has to do with our news media, both TV and newspapers. But before I get to the question....: I'm a news junkie. I spend considerable time on the laptop reading world news in English and German (I tinker with Russian and Norwegian, but not enough to count). This thread isn't about whether our media lean left or right, or about whether or not it brings untruths. Leading up to the silly question: This morning I got up about 5:45, an hour before my wife, as usual. I turned on to the local ABC channel, for an hour of local news, which is usually quite good. At 7 it turns to national and world news., which is usually OK. (Now, here comes the silly question.) This morning we immediately got two or three voices going on and on and on... about Prince whatsisname and his American wife and his mother, and his life, and and and.... The silly question is: does anybody this side of the pond give a rat @#$% about anything about the British royal parasites, and if so why? I'm looking forward to as many silly answers as I can get.
My mother was British. She may have had some affinity for The Queen Mother, but not for the rest of the silly lot. I used to read of the goings-on over there when I was a kid in the 60s and her relatives continued to send her The Daily Mirror, The Sun, and other periodicals of the day. That continued through much of my adult years via The Economist, but that was more political than social (to the extent they can be separated.) I believe the assumption is that it's still The Motherland. Or it's the news equivalent of "It's Panda-monium at the zoo!" We are offered no menu. They serve us what they want us to eat. And now for something completely different:
I was a news junkie for much of my life, but I have been cured in recent years. It seems that so much of what is broadcast/telecast is just irrelevant or simply fabricated as part of a propaganda machine. The nice thing about the internet is I can watch as little or as much as I want, and I don't have to pay any attention to what goes on with the "Royals". I think a lot of the coverage is designed to distract people from what is really going on in the nation and the world.
I like to follow what goes on with the Royals because it is NEWS and it affects British Public Opinion which interests me as well.
I continue to be shocked that the adultress was mourned and idolized while everyone around her was faulted.
My 2 cents on this is that while many don't give 2 cents about the royals or any other celebrity, including sports stars, actors, recording artists, has-been politicians, people famous just for being rich, etc, many do. And using "celebrity" to bring open minded listening and new understanding to various causes, especially when experienced by the celebrity themselves is good PR and fundraising for those causes. I believe Harry is advocating for mental health awareness as his biggest cause, with the subset of that being advocacy against drug and alcohol abuse, and suicide, as a way to deal with emotional problems. It's hard for me to find fault with that, but I can understand how it can be annoying to others. I should add that some of what passes for "news" these days is actually a product of an outlet's "Entertainment" division, so ratings are a higher concern than truth and objectivity, and celebrity stories are always good for ratings. So there is a capital incentive for running celebrity stories too. Guess we can't begrudge a capitalistic economy from scraping money out of everything it does, or we'd be hypocrites, n'est-ce pas?
I don't personally know anyone who could care less about the Royal Family but, either it's a media-driven idea that we care about that stuff or there are people who actually do, I don't know. But the magazines are there in the store, so I assume that someone buys them, and we see it on television and even hear about them on the radio. Then again, I've never understood how late-night comedians have become newsworthy.
I think the "Jerry Springer" coverage of this far outweighs any coverage of their advocacy. I doubt that anyone is annoyed by their good works. Your celebrity analogy is a good one: no one cares about their personal drama. Not the royals. Not the athletes. Not the musicians. Not the actors. Nunuvem.
Now, if Queen Elizabeth were to go on a rampage, and start gunning people down in the streets of London, I want to hear about it. I want to see the video. But I can't think of much else she could do that would interest me.
I've always respected had, respect for the Brits, I guess because we were on the same side in War 2. If the British liked the Queen and the Royals I generally respected that also. I felt similar about the Ausies and Canadians and New Zealanders. Many of their actors and actresses were the best in the world. And I always sort of liked that stiff upper lip displayed by many British men. I liked Winstin Churchill. I have always felt the English speaking countries should, if possible, stick together, in case a bunch of we rag-tag Americans bit off more than we could chew. I came to like Shakespeare. The young prince and his American wife will come to find their way. He is in a position to earn a great living by merely being who he is whether anyone likes it or not. Not our business. Much going on in the stratosphere of money that is none of our business or we wish we could partake. That's for somebody else, not us. I won't speak of his Mother, she's no longer with us and we only know/knew part of the story. I've met a few Brits in Engand, I knew them in Korea, so for me personally, to the Brits everywhere, a tip of the hat.
IM glad we have got rid of the little scrot, wonder if he will succeed in getting rid of your first amendment. PS We don't want him back you can keep him
Maybe as a sort of comedic interlude to avoid repetition. I do not watch TV news but I can image that just about everything a person watches can get repetitious and boring. I mean, Middle East war? Heard about that 2 days ago. Another flawed Biden speech? Heard enough of ‘em. Five hundred people were shot in Chicago last night. Again? Boring. Megan and Phil get ostracized by the Royals in England? Hold on Mabel, I thought they moved to some cave in Idaho with the crown jewels! Interesting! Biden gave another speech. Pelosi is drunk again trying to give a speech Omar is preparing a speech about something she knows nothing about. AOC wants to give a speech but doesn’t want to sound stupid again. Yawn .......