Last night, Michael Crick made me a little uncomfortable. I’m pretty sure it was his newsnight obituary of George Best, where everything was stated in the past tense, despite the fact he’s still alive.
This was followed by a studio discussion with Kirty Wark, Godmother of the Cosa Scotia, again, firmly in the past tense.
When did it become acceptable to do this? Was Newsnight so desperate to get the death scoop that they jumped the gun? And this morning, this was copied by nearly all the papers.
Did no-one stand up in a newsroom and cry, “HE ISN’T DEAD YET!”? It would serve the media establisment well if George Best now made a dramatic recovery.
On a separate note, over the next few weeks Recess Monkey will be publishing obituaries of the Queen, Margaret Thatcher, Norman Tebbit and Pete Doherty - just in case.
recessmonkey@gmail.com
editor[at]recessmonkey.com
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Totally agree with you mate. Telegraph special insert “Life and Times of George Best” or whatever it was that was masquerading as something other than an obituary.
By the way, have you revealed to us your middle name or have you decided to adopt a double-barrelled surname, Recess Monkey Monkey?
Run Seven said this on November 25th, 2005 at 1:25 pm
Ah, the joys of an edit - now you make my last comment look crazy!
And he’s now dead. ‘Twas his own fault, but RIP anyway (not that he’s got any choice in the matter).
Run Seven said this on November 25th, 2005 at 2:45 pm
I was reading “Hansard” this morning.
“Recess Monkey Dies” was the headline.
Andy N said this on November 25th, 2005 at 3:19 pm
Hansard has headlines?
Recess Monkey said this on November 25th, 2005 at 3:35 pm
I like how the press has forgiven that he was a drunk womanizer. But when seeing as he’s a football player that stuff dosn’t matter
Bob Freling said this on November 25th, 2005 at 6:02 pm
Interesting fact: only two private individuals in the UK subscribe to Hansard…
dynamite said this on November 25th, 2005 at 6:12 pm
when you describe this fact as “interesting”, you might perhaps be being a little excessive. you have certainly killed the dialogue on this comments page.
recess monkey
Recess Monkey said this on November 30th, 2005 at 5:57 pm