Why i'll never buy a tabloid again

[JBOY]

Today i attended my first funeral.

Whilst i'd always expected that to be my gran, in her late 80's or another old and distant relative, it was infact the funeral of a close friend of mine, who died in an accident on new years eve.

The service itself was emotional, and although i have never really believed in god i prayed today that none of my other friends, should die having lived on this earth for such a short time. Some 400 people attended the service in that small church, many of the mourners were simlpy unable to fit into the building, and yet they remained outside silent and respective.

the funeral procession involved the local constabulary, and for once i was grateful of a police presence. As my friend had once wished that she arrived at her marriage on horse drawn carriage, so she was taken to her burial. a procession of cars from those who attended the service followed the coffin and carriage for 4 miles from families church to the graveyard. The town i used to lvie in where this occasion took place is famed for its many, many roundabouts. I'm grateful again to the police, who attended the 9 roundabouts that the procession passed. stopping traffic to allow us through, also to the many motorists. who waited nearly 10 minutes at a time, patiently, without honking horns or shouting abuse.

At the site of the grave. More people appeared who had not attended the service. in total, somewhere in the region of 500 people gathered to pay their respects to a woman who had only been 20 years old when she died. Another emotional moment occured when, as my friend had wanted at her wedding. two white doves were released into the air, whilst not her future possible husband and her, two of her best friends instead released the birds.

I have never been so saddened as i was today. so many people had come along to pay respects.

As always, there is one thing to tinge any day, any moment. As the burial took place, and as the final flowers were being placed upon the coffin, there was a repeated flash from atop a nearby hill.
and then some paparazzi scum made a runner through the trees and sped off in his car.

We had gathered to say goodbye, to mourn our lost friend. he had come for a story, a nice snap of lots of people to go in the papers. When the media initially reported the death, it was done tastelessly with no attempt to cover the loss that had been felt for this person, merely as a story to point blame at edinburgh city organisers.

The newspaper tabloids have disgusted me more than i can express here. to intrude so rudely on such a personal moment.

[MrL_JaKiri]

You've never noticed the tabloids intruding on a personal moment, or ignoring one for grounds of good taste?

What about The Sun, publishing pictures of Foe lying dead on the football field.

[deerbarn]

mind me asking why exatly her funeral was so huge?

[Belgarath The Sorcerer]

Jboy, that was very well written, I salute you. Might I also suggest that you send it to the tabloid(s) in question, in hope they publish it.

[Deffeh]

Originally Posted by MrL_JaKiri

You've never noticed the tabloids intruding on a personal moment, or ignoring one for grounds of good taste?

What about The Sun, publishing pictures of Foe lying dead on the football field.

Im sure JBOY isnt suggesting it was a one off, but something like that can really only kick home once it actually happens to you

[Dante Hicks]

The mainstream press (local and national) in this country is nothing short of disgraceful for various reasons, and unfortunately this is highly indicative of one of them.

[Evergreen]

Jboy if this is likely to cut v close to the bone I suggest once again you close this thread before Fair Comment upsets you.

[wakey]

tbh JBOY you perhaps being a bit harsh on the tabloids by boycotting them. Most of the paparazzi dont work for a specific paper and are instead freelance selling their pcitures to whomever will pay for them be it a tabloid, broadshee, magazine or website. Really you should be boycotting not just the tabloads but any organisation who perchase paparazzi photos, in fact in a perfect world it would be good if everyone would boycot such organisations so this 'harashment' that both normal members of the public and celebs get from these members of the paparazzi would have to stop if they actually wanted to have a voable product to sell but sadly the nature of people today is they want to see pictures of everything no matter who's privacy is invaded..

@Dante Hicks : The sad thing is the british media is considered one of the better ones in the world. Not only is it more balanced but our paparazzi is also apprently less intrusive than in other countries which when you look at how bad it is over here makes you wonder how it could be any worse elsewhere

[Dilly_D]

funerals are never fun, and having uninvited people there snapping photo's because of the circumstances surrounding the death, certainly isn't fun either. For whatever reason, it's somewhat 'normal' nowadays for idiots to just invade a rather private ceremony and feel that they have a right to be there. If it was anything other than a funeral, I'd probably pound the piss out of each and every one of them