Royal Wedding
The week’s world news was dominated by one event, i.e. a wedding of
two people in London! Dan Rather, American journalist and the former
news anchor for CBS Evening News provides some wonderful insights about
the plight of world news masked by a “Royal wedding”. To use Rather’s
words, it is all about a “week of silliness in April”. Writing to
huffingtonpost.com, Rather writes:
“Remember the millions of dollars, hundreds of staff and hours of
coverage spent on a wedding in London when crises around the globe and
here at home festered. Remember the unseemly pas de deux between the
press and a reality TV show huckster peddling racially-fraught
falsehoods, as both interviewers and the interviewee seek a bump in
ratings.
“And then please take a moment to remember the eight American
soldiers and one contractor killed by an Afghan soldier at the Kabul
airport in a war too easily forgotten. Remember the hundreds likely
being killed in Syria and Libya, not to mention the death and unrest
plaguing countries like the Ivory Coast, which almost never earn more
than a mention on our most-watched newscasts.”
With fanfare and British flags flying everywhere, Prince William and
his long-time girlfriend, Kate Middleton, got married last Friday in a
moment that will shape the future of the British monarchy. The London
Metropolitan Police said, a million people lined the path of the royal
procession, and half a million gathered near Buckingham Palace to watch
the bride and groom, now known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge,
kiss (twice) on the palace’s balcony.
The journalists who gathered in London forgetting the news of the
world generated fairy tale-like news. The television viewing estimates
around the world may have reached the three billion range. Australians
held bouquet-throwing competitions while some people in Hong Kong wore
Kate and William masks. There was much fanfares around the world by
people who forgot the woes of their lives.
|