Intellectual Snobbery

Or Tabloid TV?

I don't normally watch ITV News. To me it just doesn't seem like a proper news programme. In fact, I've been know to refer to it as "news-lite". Sometimes I reflect on this and wonder if I'm being a pretentious ar*e and occasionally someone I know will say that I am. This doesn't really bother me. Not as much as ITV News does anyway. The point is that I wouldn't normally watch ITV News.

Today, I watched the ITV lunchtime news. I'd spent the morning watching the opening of parliament on BBC 1. I've still got some kind of cold/flu thing so I didn't really absorb much of the Queen's speech. I had a moment of lucidity just as ITV News started so I thought I'd watch it to get a summary of the speech and see what people were saying about it. The Queen's speech, in which she sets out the government's intentions for the year, was bound to be the lead story.

Maybe I wasn't as lucid as I'd thought. In fact, the first story was, quite obviously, the news that Kyle has been diagnosed with breast cancer. I should say that I do find this news very sad. Kyle is a young woman and this must be very upsetting for her and her family. I hope she makes a full and fast recovery.

But ITV News spent the first 8-9 minutes of a 25 minute news programme covering this story. This, on the first day of a new parliament after a general election. One famous woman and her admittedly sad medical condition, or a speech which will affect every person in the country (and many from other countries as well). Well, it's no contest for ITV News. Kyle is famous, she's attractive, she's had lots of hit songs, and she's made some pop videos which can be included in the reports. It's a no brainer, right?