h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The national radio station in the UK BBC5Live is described as being about News and Sport.

I listen to it a fair bit...and it is very popular. The News headlines are broadcast every half hour..and there are frequent updates in between times.

But just now on 8pm News...getting on for around 10 hours since the suicide of the Welsh national team manager was first announced..it is still the first item on the news.

Second is the death of the latest British soldier to be killed in Afghanistan.

I think that stinks.

I expect it's an indication of the assumed priorities of their audience.

I just went back to that station and still the whole programme is endless interviews and phone-in.

And it's 'should have died in such tragic circumstances' over and over. No-one, or maybe 1% can say the *guy HUNG himself*.

And you wouldn't believe the unending praise of him as a human being..

Even myself as most reviled figure on h2g2 now would get unending praise if I hung myself Hey that's an idea..

But the stupidity of people astounds me. Do they think if you have finally made up your mind to end this hell hole we call existance..you are going to go around blabbing about it?

Of course if it's a cry for help that's one thing.

But NO you don't..and you are immensly happy because you finally made that decision to get out of it.

I've known a few in the mental health world..and people are always so shocked. Well that's just stupid.

On and off they now clips of the guy's interviews.

I can honestly say that is a profoundly depressed person IMO.

His voice is all from the throat..ie no heart of feeling in the words. Mono tonal. Zero sing song. Going through the motions of being alive...sounds like from my experience of people with mood disorder.

I'm not even the slightest surprised now. despite being a footie fan, I don't recall noticing him on the media before..or especially high profile.

It's like the media have created this big image/creation in retrospect. (Maybe I just kept missing hearing about him though?).

Apologies for butting in, but as I'm a Leeds fan I'm a little more familiar with Gary Speed's media image.

Speed had a great reputation amongst fans for the clubs he played for, and with his ex-teammates, yet he managed to stay out of the spotlight. He played about 600 league games for a few clubs, and lots of the players & journalists he's worked with (Robbie Savage, Gary MacAllister, Bryn Law) are the people leading the tributes. I think the reason he's getting so much coverage is that he was very close to lots of people in the industry.

That's not to say he was distant from the fans - I've got Everton and Bolton fans texting me with anecdotes about him. Very humble, happy to speak to people, never wanting to put himself on a pedestal.

He was sat with Leeds fans at Donny last year, when he was scouting us before we played Sheff Utd, and seemed delighted that we'd rather applaud him than the players on the pitch.

I have the feeling that you wouldn't be as confused by the image he has if he'd played for Arsenal. Not a criticism - I work in a mainly Manchester Utd/City filled office, and they all seem just as surprised that he's quite so well regarded. If you'd never seen him around your ground, there's little to distinguish him from the majority of footballers.

It's very interesting to hear your take on his moods and delivery. It's honestly something I'd missed, but I'm not as in tune with this sort of thing. It's good to read that kind of insight, while I'm trying to make sense of the whole thing.

Anyway, I hope you forgive this intrusion.

No worries.

Yes I hadn't ever heard him speak before on the media...And all I heard yesterday was how happy he always seemed.

Well I finally got to hear him on the radio today. And that voice sounded anything but happy.

And the nicest people will kill themselves..often because they are just too sensitive and can't handle it.

But yes he did sound like a typical depressive to me when I heard his voice.

The headlines were in the same order on Radio 4 for most of the day, which struck me as rather odd, too. I assume someone thinks that's the appropriate priority, but I can't image who or why.

TRiG.

It's still beyond my understanding why exactly so much fuss was made about it *all day*.

Even up until midnight on 5Live it was the number one News story.

I rarely watch TV news now so I don't know how they did it.

I often think it gets exagerated about the way people say the media *create* a story..but it felt like that from the start to me. I was listening to 5live when the story broke..and the football pundits were talking as if the end of the world had come. Even when 7/7 happened I don't remember that degree of broken choked voices.

I think the fact it was suicide is a big part. And still that is hardly mentioned. It's like that's the big thing really but no-one talks about it..just the unending stream of anecdotes about his niceness.

I do find it quite unprofessional in a lot of ways for the BBC to behave like that.

But I suppose it filled a good chunk of air time for them fairly cheaply. 5Live now often does repeat stuff since the BBC had to make big cuts.

Radio 4 alternately said that he'd killed himself or that he was found hanged. I don't think there was a single news bulletin which said both. The word suicide was never used.

Yes, I'll accept that he was a famous man (though I'd never heard of him; but I don't do sport), and it was a newsworthy event, but top headline throughout the day was pushing it, especially when there was a soldier killed on the same day.

I suspect the thinking in the newsroom was that the soldier's death wasn't a "story". The military had released very little information. It was a headline with nothing further to say. And that got its priority bumped down. It still felt odd. The military, I've always thought, is important to the UK.



I haven't listened to RTÉ news in yonks. I really should.

TRiG.

It's getting ridiculous.

I just had to turn off 5Live. Suddenly there is all this stuff about depression and the facade of putting on an act. They are going to the other extreme.

Someone has set up a phone counselling thing for football people from any league. That's GOOD.

But what is new? Depression like cancer can affect anyone. Yes the percentage chances of you killing yourself are much greater if you have a mood disorder. That's been known for about a 100 years at least....plus the putting on the facade stuff...the act...Jesus are people really not aware? Like I say the guy was so clearly depressed from his voice..and no sign of laughter in anything he said..(I've been there..and I know plenty of others who have...never so bad to actually do it myself...I can't do the facade thing very well for very long...I get angry).

But maybe it's the start of football facing up to a bit of normality. There are gay footballers, depressed footballers, alcoholic footballers, (well that's been accepted for sometime).

Footballers and football managers are PEOPLE...not bloody saints.

But apparently there are now shrines everywhere for him in football land.