Those who know me will be all too aware of the huge pollen collecting inset in my hair about the delightfully dead Jade Goody. I was asked by a website I write for to come up with a piece about the whole media circus surrounding her, in specifically Michael Parkinson's comments. It was a hard piece to write because I couldn't use my normal tactic of using my opinion as fact. I also couldn't call her the pig face she was, but that's journalism for you. Anyways, here it is.
PS, I know it's a bit late, but I was asked to. I wouldn;t have written anything more about her if I had the chance.
Perhaps.
Michael Parkinson has slammed the media reaction to the death of Jade Goody and has claimed that she represents “all that’s paltry and wretched about Britain today”.
Parkinson’s comments came days after the death of Goody. The Big Brother runner up died after a much publicised and Max Clifford orchestrated battle against Cancer.
Goody found out she had Cancer while participating in the Indian version of Celebrity Big Brother, a show hosted by Shilpa Shetty; the British Celebrity big Brother contestant who was the target of racist bullying by Ms Goody while on the show.
Parkinson, the retired TV chat show host said: “Jade Goody has her own place in the history of television and, while it’s significant, it’s nothing to be proud of.”
“She was brought up in a sink estate, as a child came to know both drugs and crime, was barely educated, ignorant and puerile. Then she was promoted to celebrity by Big Brother and from that point on became a media chattel to be manipulated and exploited till the day she died.”
The comments were published in the Radio Times and have received a mixed reaction. Several columnists for the Mirror have attacked Parkinson such as Tony Parsons. Parsons has called Parkinson insensitive and puerile before attacking the former broadcaster personally: “it’s a crying shame Jade could not have done something worthwhile with her life. Like interviewing Billy Connolly.”
Tony Parsons is best known for writing books that fall into the ‘lad-lit’ genre, with titles such as ‘the family way’ and ‘one for my baby’.
Michael Parkinson has been a journalist since the age if 16, he is now 79.
Max Clifford, the PR expert behind the recent coverage has expressed surprise and sadness at the comments, according to the Independent.
Relatives and friends of Ms Goody have also attacked Parkinson. Now magazine have reported her grandmother, Sylvia Craddock, as saying she’d “love to wring his neck.”
Her former teacher has also defended her. According to the Independent, John Finagin said: “Never make the mistake of thinking Jade was not intelligent. Anyone who can run a media career and a business has to be really, really smart.”
According to PR inside, Ms Goody’s beauty salon was forced to close after it failed to make a profit.
A.N. Wilson of the Daily Mail has defended Michael Parkinson and in his column spoke of “the tawdriness of our media and the ugliness of our society.”
Defence of the comments also came from people from Parkinson’s home county of Yorkshire. Letters to the Yorkshire post spoke of the difference between Ms Goody and Jane Tomlinson, one letter said: “Sir Michael Parkinson is correct in everything he has said. Jade Goody only did it for Jade Goody and the look-at-me attitude.”