The media making martyrs of people.

[The Ponderer]

Just think certain areas of the media go over the top in their praise of people like George Best when they never had a good word to say about them while alive, in many ways I believe they actually contribute to a lot of these peoples problems. Thought the whole Princess Diana thing went way over the top when she wasn't the most clean living person either and they weren't slow in printing her problems either. Yet someone like Mother Theresa who has given up her whole life to care for the sick and needy gets only a passing mention on her death.

[Loosehead]

They only care about selling papers, that means building people up and knowking them down. In death it means fawning admiration. The papers are a product of the society that buys them, they only print what will sell.

[andy hughes]

As I have observed when this issue began on here - the adoration of the late George Best says less about him, and more about society as a whole. In the same way, any pop star who dies is assured a Number One single the following week.

It says something interesting about society that we need to comfort ourselves with this rosy nostalgia about people we didn't know, and who patently exhibited varying unpleasant behaviour when alive, which are re-aligned as 'character flaws ' when they die.

The worry is, that we set a precident with honouring sports stars who spent more than half their life as a 'celebrity', whose career was over at twenty-seven, and who's undeniable skill is a distant memory of those who witnessed it, and hearsay for those who didn't.

Is Gary Lianker feeling alright?

[jno]

What are you talking about? Mother Teresa got regular, frequent and wholly admiring mention in the media through the last 20 years or so of her life. Plenty of nice stuff was printed about George Best too - lots when he was still playing, and mostly still kindly (though not invariably) when he went into long decline.

[Octavius]

Yes I do believe that the George Best thing was over the top, but remember other headlines ... Sir Freddy Flintoff.... Sir Johnny Wilkinson? Many people need the dictation of the media as they lack free thinking, especially Sun readers.

[gary baldy]

Call me a pompous old git but a martyr is someone who suffers hardship or death for a cause. Mis-use of the word martyr i'm afraid.