Silly media

[abcdan]

Reagan dies, memorial service is covered. Understood. Ray Charles dies, memorial service is covered. Whaah? Was Tony Randall or John Ritter's memorial service news? Has there ever been an etertainer's memorial service that was newsworthy?

[redqueen]

1. Anything but the 9/11 commission

Anything but Ashcroft refusing to cooperate with the legislative branch

Anything but Condoleeza Rice saying 'what would we have to apologize for', after being confronted about lying to the American people in order to build support for their illegal war.

[library_max]

2. This is just a theory.

But Reagan was not exactly the African American community's favorite President, for damned good reasons. Maybe the coverage of Ray Charles' memorial is a kind of left-handed apology for all the Reagan-smooching.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Not so surprising

Ray Charles was world famous, and very influential on music of the past 40 years. All arts programmes here in the UK did items about him. Tony Randall was little known, and no-one here has heard of John Ritter at all.

If they're doing live coverage of the service on TV, I'd be surprised. A couple of minutes on the news, and items like the one you linked to, aren't exactly pre-empting much.