Can you actually fucking believe Littlejohn is actually bitching about the amount of coverage that the rescue of the Chilean miners received on Wednesday from Sky, the BBC and other media outlets? There is gratuitous sensationalism and emotionalism out there I'll grant, but this kind of story was pretty unique. I'd have been more surprised if it hadn't received as much coverage as it did, and I don't begrudge the story that. It was one of those rare stories in the media, a happy ending to what could have been a disaster. Most mining accidents rarely end any other way. It was a genuine human interest story, and a true tale of triumph over adversity, pulling together, and the test of human spirit in tough times. It was pretty horrendous for 33 men to be stuck in a horrible place for over two months, people - even complete strangers are bound to feel for the men and their families, and be glad to see them rescued. The static nature of the accident and the slow unfolding of the rescue effort explains why there was rolling news coverage at the site. It meant the reports of the rescues would be drawn out, and would give them something to actually put on 24 hour news for a change (though I doubt any but the hardest followers watched the whole thing live, as Littlejohn claims.) I imagine that there was a mawkish element to some of the commentary and reportage, but I think a lot of people were genuinely concerned that the miners would all be rescued safely. The rescue itself could have gone wrong. I think people were impressed by the miners resilience in a situation you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy, trapped in the bowels of the Earth in awful conditions for that time.
It is actually ironic that the Mail and Littlejohn are partly responsible for the way the rescue was covered. What do I mean? I mean that although it is true that bad news sells, too much bad news can put people off. Papers like the Mail are so unremittingly negative and hateful to everything that you end up needing a break from it all. People don't want wall to wall negativity, it's bad for the soul. They want to see a happy ending, walk about in the sun, see that good stuff happens to good people. The rescue of the miners, whilst perhaps not the biggest news story in the greater scheme of things (though not to the families.) reminded us that it wasn't all doom and gloom all the time. We were routing for these guys and luckily the rescue payed off, and that is as happy an ending as you can get really.
This being a Littlejohn article, all this talk of nice stuff was overlooked totally. I mean this quote probably speaks volumes about the sort of bloke he is.
"I don't know any of these people [the miners]. Nor does anyone else in Britain. So why invest so much time and emotional energy in the fate of total strangers?"
Oh it's called basic human compassion Richard. For people in a truly shitty and unique situation.
"discovered this week that twice as many men have died in accidents on British building sites since 2001 as have been killed in action in Afghanistan. But you won't be seeing a Panorama special on them any day soon."
This from a guy who takes the piss out of "elf n safety"... oh, every day. He then says in the same article.
"Call me callous, but I couldn't help wondering what would have happened if 33 men had been trapped down one of our few remaining British mines.
Under our modern elf 'n' safety culture, the emergency services are actively discouraged from risking their own lives to save others."
Yeah I'm sure everyone would have just shrugged their shoulders, packed up the rescue equipment and gone home leaving them stuck down there forever.
Idiot.
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