Veteran newsreader Michael Buerk was slammed after he described the late Liam Payne as a “drugged-up, faded, boy band singer”.
He was criticising the BBC’s coverage of the One Direction star’s death after he fell 45ft from a Buenos Aires hotel balcony last week. Asked on the Radio 4’s Today programme about how foreign journalism had changed, he said: “There was more of an appetite for seriousness.
“Only last week this programme decided the most important thing that had happened was that a drugged-up, faded, boy band singer had fallen off a balcony. Even the 10 O’clock News thought it was the second most important thing that happened in the world.”
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His cruel comments were slammed.
(Image: Getty Images)
One critic of Mr Buerk, 78, compared the journalist to “a dinosaur”. While stand-up comic and novelist Jenny Eclair simply replied: “Urgh”.
Another listener said: “Blimey. Michael Buerk on #R4today expressing his surprise that the death of a ‘drugged-up fading boyband member’ led the news. He seemed so … disdainful. There was no need for him to be so dismissive, it just felt sneery.”
(Image: Getty Images for ABA)
However, some others supported Michael’s views. One said: “Thanks, Mr Beurk, for putting into perspective on R4 the hyperbole over Liam Payne. While not wishing to speak ill of the dead, the media overkill at such a time was ridiculous.”
And another said: “The UK seems to have lost any sense of seriousness preferring fascination with fame, frivolity and froth.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
