When Katy French died I only knew her as “that so-called celeb in a coma”. I only knew her as that because I use TV3 to keep track of the time before I go to work in the morning. And she was a true example of a TV3 celebrity.
I never really intended to post about her death.
What’d be the point. I didn’t know her. Or anything about her. And if I’m honest I don’t care. That may sound uncaring; obviously for her family it is a tragedy. But I don’t post about every person who may or may not have died because of cocaine. Actually this isn’t about her at all, or her death, it is about the media reaction to her death.
Today Kevin (Disillusioned Lefty) posted a link to The Monkey’s Typewriter post about John Waters column in The Irish Times.
OMG what a load of old tripe. The John Waters column I mean, not the blog post. Did someone pretending to be a journalist actually write those things? If it wasn’t so horrendous it’d be funny. Actually, horrendous as it is, it is still hilarious as only self-indulgent tripe can be.
And of course it also further belittles the tragedy of French’s family as they have to put up with the media intrusion into their lives. Personal tragedy is the only real tragedy. This misbegotten piece of trash, from a person who didn’t know Katy is simply cashing in on her family’s pain with no real regard for what they might be going through.
French was not “personification of our fantasies” she was simply a person who was famous. And like all famous people, was therefore subject to other people’s projections and, in this case, a journalist making her less than a person in order to make some general sweeping comment about society. A general sweeping comment, btw, that says nothing at all.
She was a child. She was my daughter and Eoghan’s daughter and Eamon’s daughter and Pat’s daughter and Bertie’s daughter. She was your daughter, your little sister. She was a child of Ireland in the time of its rebirth.
Excuse me while I vomit.
Title taken from a politics.ie thread. Tags: death, drugs, John Waters, Katy French, meeja, The Irish Times
