to hate it when famous people die

[2rebecca]

OK I'm in for a flaming, but I'm in my late 40s, I lived through the ANC/apartheid/ "free Nelson Mandela"avoiding S African fruit in supermarkets/ being delighted when he was released and became an excellent president, sad when his successor was an HIV denying plonker,and the fact that S Africa is developing corruption levels like the rest of Africa and still has a huge violence problem (mainly black on black), but find the wall to wall media coverage completely OTT.
Obituaries are interesting when they are brief and concern someone whose story you don't know. When they are endless and cover someone whose story has been extensively documented it just makes me avoid the media.
It's nothing against Nelson, when the queen dies it will be even worse , and every time a media luvvie dies the media goes into overdrive.
All I needed to hear today was "Nelson Mandela has died", not everyone and their dog repeating stuff I've heard before, especially as I heard it last night anyway.
Someone famous dying is news, endless anecdotes and preprepared staements aren't news.

[Sexykitten2005]

Probably going to get flamed but I agree. I can't get past the bad stuff I've heard about him either. I know he's not the devil but I certainly don't think he's was an angel. I've turned tv off.

[timidviper]

Absolutely agree.

[NoComet]

I'm your age too and can't be bothered to read it all.

DD1(15) would probably be fascinated, but she's in the middle of mocks, so I hope she's revising not reading the news.

[lecce]

I think YABU. There will be a lot of people hearing and seeing details of his life for the first time - and it is certainly worth hearing and seeing. I am old enough to feel I should know more, but I have a learnt a lot over the last few hours and, though I feel I should have made more of an effort to learn some of these details while he was alive, I am moved to learn about them now he's dead.

You can always switch off/turn the page...

[NoisyDay]

Me too,it's a pain in the ass.At least there is dedicated news channels these days and they don't interrupt normal programming to blab on about it.

[Hassled]

But as you say, you're in your late 40s. And obviously educated enough/interested enough that you do understand Mandela's contribution. You're not necessarily the target audience - how much does your average teenager know? These "look back at what they did" features serve as a useful educational tool for a lot of people.

[AMumInScotland]

What bugged me was one of the announcers saying that it was 'a shock' and 'very upsetting' - really? I mean, yes, sad he's gone, but at 95 and increasing frail it's not exactly surprising. And, tbh, he has looked so frail and confused lately that wanting him to keep living for much longer would seem more 'upsetting' to me.

[BohemianGirl]

I'll be shot, but there is a lot of truth in 'one mans freedom fighter is another mans terrorist'. He was a murderer, but he's been sanitised like Gerry Adams etc.

[squoosh]

I understand what you mean OP, sometimes the blanket coverage can be ridiculous, but I do think the deaths of some famous people are more newsworthy than others.

And in my opinion, in this case yes, YABU.

And anyone who can't 'get past the bad stuff' they've heard about Nelson Mandela is an imbecile.

[squoosh]

He is NOTHING like Gerry Adams!

I do despair of the world sometimes.

[BroomstickRider]

I find it a bit over the top but like PP have said, there are actually people who don't know much about him ... there's some twitter picture thing doing the rounds where someone had put 'RIP the great actor'.
What I do find really annoying is people going on about his death is a tragedy. How can the death of someone very elderly who had been ill for quite some time a tragedy?

[flumposie]

Agree totally!enough.

[FutTheShuckUp]

Agree with amuminscotland

Its not sad at all- its lovely that someone who was so admired and did so much lived to such a ripe old age in a country where so many had no hope of such a long life.

[Fakebook]

I agree with you.

I'm getting pissed off with all these pictures coming out of all the "famous people" who had the pleasure of meeting him. Then there's endless pics of dip shits like David Beckham, The Spice Girls and Naomi Cambell...like its really important for us to know this. It's a shame really.

[LostInWales]

AMum you are so right, to me it starts to be cruel when a great man (or woman) becomes frail and confused. Seems unfair that they are still going when they are a shadow of the person they were. When my grandpa got very old he didn't recognise any of his grandchildren, enjoy food, go outside anymore when he was an amazing business man and had fought in WWII, it seemed unfair after all he had done that was good to reduce him so much. Also this year I have lost a relative in their 30's and may lose two more before they get much over 70 so it might be selfish but 95 sounds amazing and brilliant to me.

[LostInWales]

Although saying that people thought he was an actor, oh my. Even my youngest child has an inkling of who he was.

[Iamsparklyknickers]

It's at saturation point now isn't it?

I think in cases like Mandela, where they've reached a certain age and death has been imminent for a while, there is so much pre-prepared stuff that the coverage is just too intense.

It's not nice to say, but unexpected deaths you tend to get a little respite if you stay away from the news channels because they just don't have the material.

[oscarwilde]

Its not 'tragic' - the man was nearly 100! I think the news coverage where presenters burble on trying to find things to say is OTT.

That said, my toyboy DH was only in his early teens when Mandela was released from prison and clearly lived down a well and much of the actual history is news to him and still very interesting for me. The news channels have had months, even years to prepare for this. There is no need to have news presenters wittering on asking for 'reactions'. It was the same inane rubbish with the royal birth.

[Bunbaker]

DD's Facebook page is cluttered up with posts from her "friends" mourning his death. They are all 13 and 14 and don't really know who he was. They are just jumping on the bandwagon.

I, on the other hand, had tremendous respect for this great man, but haven't actually posted anything about him, except for this thread.

May his legacy live on.

[southeastastra]

my dh is dreading the day cliff richard dies

[IamInvisible]

I disagree.

For the sake of the younger people and the teenagers in this country, it needs to be told. DS1's(18) passion is History, he soaks it up and goes out of his way to learn and find out about it. DS2(16) does not. I want him to know as much as he can about people like Nelson Mandela. If he finds that out through special programmes and tributes after his death, then that is a good thing.

These sort of news reports are going to become less and less because the world is now largely populated with people who are not bothered about the greater good.

[Iamsparklyknickers]

I wish the discussion surrounding Mandelas actions prior to his imprisonment wasn't so black and white - like it or not it contributed to the person he became and in turn enabled him to achieve what he did.

I struggle to reconcile his actions because that's my personal feeling about violence, I have no personal understanding or experience of what he went through so as a complete outsider I can't help but compare it to the IRA, French Resistance during WWII, or even - to a point - Al-Queda. It throws up loads of questions about what our morals are and what is and isn't acceptable in the face of things we find unacceptable. It's a valid discussion imo.