sambista
Joined: 25 Sep 2004
Posts: 16951
Location: way station of life
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 Posted: 04/10/05 2:16 pm ::: For American Royal Watchers, Wink-Wink, Nudge-Nudge |
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this is great stuff:
. . . Usually pageants of British royalty are packaged by American television as a There'll-Always-Be-an-England celebration, a chance to revel in the splendor and quaintness of an ancient and once powerful empire. There was not much awe on network anchor desks for this spectacle, however. The entire event, from the crowds lined up along the cobbled streets of Windsor to buy wacky wedding souvenirs to the procession of royals, aristocrats, servants, actors and other celebrities was served up with snickering affection - the way some people watch old music videos of the Village People.
And that may explain why Fox News spent so many minutes on Prince Charles's choice for the traditional wedding dessert: a fruitcake.
The British royal family dramas have played as soap opera farce for years, so it was hardly surprising that television did not record the prince's marriage to his longtime mistress with a straight face.
But the timing of the wedding, postponed by a day to avoid conflicting with the funeral of Pope John Paul II, was perfect for a television audience drained by the round-the-clock deeply solemn and sorrowful papal coverage. It also suited television reporters. Like children released after hours of sitting up straight at a school assembly, news anchors moved from the Vatican to Windsor Castle wriggling and giggling in relief. CNN sent a veteran correspondent, Walter Rodgers, to a Cornish village to glean the reactions of the locals to their new duchess of Cornwall. "Bloody trollop, isn't she?" an elderly villager replied.
Before the ceremony at Windsor's Guildhall, MSNBC diabolically rebroadcast, in its entirely, the 1981 wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer as it was covered by Tom Brokaw and Jane Pauley on NBC. The network's live commentary on his second marriage was a little less glowing. Tina Brown, who is host of a talk show on MSNBC, noted that the bride looked quite a bit like the governess who raised Prince Charles as a boy, but explained that there was nothing abnormal about it. "Englishmen always marry their nannies," she stated briskly. . . .
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/10/international/europe/10tvwatch.html?hp&ex=1113192000&en=4825e12c3edc5ec6&ei=5094&partner=homepage
while i was flying on jet blue yesterday and flipping thru the tv channels, i was stunned - stunned, i tell you - to see msnbc broadcasting princess di's wedding. really poor taste, i thought.
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no justice, no peace.
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