Dear Sir,
l HOORAY for the Majorca Daily Bulletin, and even more importantly, hooray for Ray Fleming. A real news paper and a real columnist. For some years I and thousands like me, have witnessed the meteoric rise in misplaced hero-worship of anyone and everyone who makes it on to the public arena. We now have the ridiculous situation where a footballer (for example) will earn in a year, enough to fund a small hospital, a motor racing driver could finance the spending of a small town council and even mediocre TV celebs command three months average salary for you or me, to open a supermarket. I am not saying that George Best should shrug off this mortal coil without mention of his past abilities and contribution to football, but the almost hysterical breast-beating and eulogies heaped upon him by (mostly) other overpaid and over-hyped personalities leaves me saddened and not a little fed-up. The man was born with a gift, which he was fortunate enough to be able to exploit, gaining large financial rewards and massive public recognition. He spent the next 30 years sticking up two fingers at the responsibility such a position and rewards invoke. So let's have less of the crocodile tears and a bit more realism please. Let's learn the lesson that these highprofile people are no better than anyone else. They just have a wonderful talent that we don't possess. They work no harder than we do and their socks smell just the same I'm afraid. So let's just enjoy and admire their skill, be it with the ball, at the wheel or on the TV, but for goodness sake let's call a halt to this mindless hero worship of them and bring a little more realism into our lives.
Malcolm Harmer, by e-mail.
Dear Sir,
l RAY Fleming's assessment of Press and BBC coverage that has accompanied the demise of George Best is all too true. There does seem to be an awfully unwholesome, and some would say un-British attitude in the Press over the past few years that concentrates on squeezing every last morsel and detail of a story dragged out ad infinitum, in its quest to obtain even more and more circulation, together with ever greater lurid headlines to splatter the mastheads of Tabloids.
It has already been confidently asserted (by pundits on the BBC) that George Best's funeral will attract greater crowds than Princess Diana's, and egged on by the rest of the Media, I am sure that it will.
While on the subject of the Media in general and the BBC in particular,,one must castigate the latter for its policy of scaremongering that has taken the place of factual reporting recently. I have noticed this tendency with increasing annoyance and last week kept a note of the following stories that began each morning's Breakfast Programme.
l Monday, I quote: One in SIX lorry drivers on the roads in Britain fall asleep at the wheel, suffering from a condition called SLEEP APNOEA.
l Tuesday: With Avian Flu almost upon us, G.P.s are reporting that they have run out of flu vaccines; old people will suffer.
l Wednesday: Drinking even ONE GLASS OF WINE, can seriously affect foetuses of pregnant mothers.
l Thursday: The expected cold winter will see GAS supplies exhausted or in very short supply, leading to THE OLD suffering.
l Friday: And this little gem to end the week: Imports of plants and bushes/trees contain malevolent INSECTS that threaten indigenous wild life!
All the above solemnly announced on the BBC,plus attendant EXPERTS to back up these ludicrous assertions with dodgy statistics and the inevitable phrase that begins studies have shown that ....
Truly, reporting has never been so debased as it is today in Britain and very large amounts of sodium chloride are needed in believing the practitioners who parade their over-the-top offerings, whether read in papers or watched on Television. Thank you Mr. Fleming for highlighting the travesties that pass for journalism today.
Phil Green, Son Ferrer.
BEST: NO ROLE MODEL