Mumsnet - please can you sort out all the Jade posts?

[PussinJimmyChoos]

Its horrible. Regardless of what she did/didn't do, she was a mother. We are all mums and God forbid we will ever have to go through something like this, knowing we will leave our kids behind and not see them grow up.

Threads like this are not in the spirit of Mumsnet and yes, I can hide them if I want, but to be honest, would like to see them deleted. I know policy is to let the debates run with minimum intervention, but tonight its going too far

Thanks,

Puss

I dont think the idea is to amalgamate all the treads about JG the last few years, but let there be just ONE discussion thread going forward.

No I dont think it was malicious either. It was quite hysterical the last few days, I reckon it was a reaction to that hysteria.

Justine, it has been done before, with mccann, babyp, as justa says, could be a good policy when matters get out of hand.

So basically we are not allowed to discuss the media phenomena of mass "grief" for a celebrity figure or discuss what we think that says about society etc? Is that really how we want to play this?

Yes agreed QS but think the problem here was resurrection of old threads rather than a mass of new ones, no? Happy to do a one thread rule if that's what folks want though.

I think yesterday, at least for me, I did not recognise that so many of them were old threads, rather than new. But there were new ones too.

Georgiemama. I think that is a valid discussion too, as I for one have been very shocked at how far the well run pr machine of max clifford can take the nation. I think it is very scary. But I also think that is a different thread alltogether. The power of media and well run pr machines that even seem to "get to" those in public office, is worthy of discussion.

I didn't see the threads last night, I was off board. Sounds like it all got a bit mad.

I do feel immense sympathy for Jade Goody and for her family, I don't think anyone doesn't. You can feel sympathy for the person and question the wisdom/appropriateness of the mass hysteria their death provokes. I felt the same about Diana.

The problem is that we are only going to be prompted to have the discussion about PR and the power of the media when something is as in our faces as Jade has been for the last few weeks, and then when you attempt to have the discussion you are branded unfeeling etc.

Of course it is done out of malice.
Pointing out that someone who now may be sad about Jade's death once may have said something derogatory about her serves no purpose.
Surely when someone loses a loved one, there have been crossed words and negative thoughts in the past. It doesn't detract from the grief.

You're right, previous cross words don't detract from the grief when someone has lost a loved one - in fact they can make the loss worse, but is Jade Goody a loved one to anyone on this board? Certainly not to anyone who previously posted nasty things about her in BB.

Selective reposting of such threads does sound a bit silly though. I get the point the poster in question was trying to make but it was probably best not made.

2shoes, i said 'many people' quite distinctly. i know you were identifying with them, that's why i didn't casually write 'anybody'.

"That member was, I assume, trying to make a point about hypocrisy/hysteria etc. Anyway we agree it's all in pretty poor taste given the timing and last night we had a word with the poster off-line and asked her to stop"

were they a regular member? Had they been contributing posts to the other threads or did they just jump in and 'make a point'?

Hopefully when you had a word off-line you explained to them that they could contribute to one of the threads set up to discuss the media surrounding the whole thing, rather than make an arse of themselves by bumping a whole load of stuff?

When you say you 'assume' didn't you ask? Didn't they bother to give a reason for their behaviour? Do they still post here?

and anyway, it's perfectly reasonable and sensible for you to identify with their situation as you share some of their challenges. this is simply not the case with the majority of people identifying with jade, they just like her off the telly.

lol beanie, i think you dropped your pitchfork.

Was there a pitchfork flying past my window???

Pitchforks? Did someone call for a witch hunt?

[hopeful]

Aitch - the thing is I expressed sadness and sympathy towards the whole situation and to Jade's family. I don't identify with her at all and I have never claimed to and nor have a lot of the people who expressed sympathy.

I think that people just found it odd when several posters started to speculate about if it was all fake, why she was wearing a hospital gown, how she managed to get so much make-up on etc? - which wasn't people just expressing a dislike of the whole media circus but was just pretty mean posting about someone who was extremely ill.

I think those people who posted like this are going to far the other way where they have this incredibly weird dislike of Jade Goody and feel the need to bang on about it all the time when any sane person can see that they don't really know anything about her as a person and seem to be holding on to some terribly bitter and pointless hatred of her based upon nothing.

These people are, in my eyes, as bad as the people who are breaking down in floods of tears all day because they feel so touched by her fight against cancer.

Most of us manage to walk a middle ground where we can feel sympathy for her without going over the top regardless of whatever her bad points were and sympathy for the people she has left behind who really did know and love her.

Arrghh - sorry 'Too far' not 'to far'

and yes, we all love a good witch hunt. I heard variously that it was 'cod' and 'some mouldies' but I suppose it could have just been a troll.

I wonder if mumsnet HQ actually had a 'conversation' which suggests a two way speaky talky thing, or if they just sent a message saying 'leave it out'? I would be interested to know what the reasons given for the bumping of the threads were, but from what they say up/down there it looks like there wasn't really a conversation.

puts pitchfork away

not me. I am not touching dog poo with a barge pole, let alone a pitchfork. Would have to be a dog owner.

imo the comparison between the camerons and Jade is different though, because firstly while people could confess to not liking David Cameron it wasn't he who had died but his child, so although people may not like DC they would empathize with the child who had died rather than the bereaved parent perhaps? whereas with Jade she was the one in the public eye, so her dying would provoke comments about what people thought of her, iyswim.

I think the problem with starting one thread is that while active convos does not get cluttered by the various elements of discussion (and there are various elements to this from sympathy to how this became quite such a public finominon), one huge thread does make it hard to dscuss various different aspects of the situation.

I personally think this shouldn't be limited to just one thread. If after weeks things don't die down then maybe, but certainly not after one day IMO.

Resurrecting old threads is a whole different issue, having said that i can see the point the poster doing so was trying to make.

i wasn't empathising with the wee boy, i was definitely sad for the family, though.

beanie, you're probably referrign to sgb who i believe said that she didn't rule out a recovery. i don't think that's motivated by a hatred of jade goody herself, tbh, but of people being emotionally manipulated en masse and LOVING it. i think, tbh, that for the naysayers, jade goody is just a cipher, shining a light on a lot of what's going wrong in society, but that far from rules out feeling sympathy for her pain as a person.

Right I can only find one but posted ona few so some have been deleted. Let's hope they disappear now.
Am more about the suggestion that this is a moldie stirring - it's a troll (but quite a well known troll), nothing more, nothing less!

You're right, we don't know Jade in real life. However, her illness reminded me personally of my sister's struggle with cancer a few years ago, which my sister lost.

For that reason I do feel some grief - misplaced, maybe.