Saturday, February 18, 2012

Live blogging Piers Morgan's coverage of Whitney Houston's Funeral

Okay, I am sitting here on Saturday trying to get some work done and I have the Whitney Houston funeral playing on the teevee. And I am watching CNN, which is, unnaccountably, broadcasting a church service.

12:46: As the Black church funeral proceeds, devoted entirely to glorifying God, Piers, unable to utter the word "God," as whoever his female co-host seems easily capable of doing, Piers, clearly trying to make sense of his "church service," is "uplifted." We will see, as this proceeds, whether Piers is able to formulate the word.

1:45: No word from Piers for a while. White people have taken over the podium, however, talking about non-religious things, although Kevin Costner says he grew up in a church. That's something. And now some white music promoter (don't know his name), is admitting that, yes, God meant something to Whitney, but what she really liked was music.

2:02: Black people have taken the podium back, and the subject is now back to God. Meanwhile the white people running the television stations have only scheduled 2 hours for the funeral, apparently unaware of how long black funerals are. It could be days.

2:19: Stevie Wonder, a secular singer, is singing. About God. He's black.

2:43: Still no word from Piers. All this "church service" stuff may have been too much for him. He was probably unaware of the strong Christian influence in the Black community. Maybe he can have some well-known Black person on his show to explore this whole "church" thing.

3:09: The white media controllers have apparently fallen asleep at their panels, otherwise all this talk of God would never have been allowed to go on this long on national television (the funeral now in its fourth hour), even for a Black pop celebrity. Why couldn't Whitney have been almost completely white and secular, like Princess Diana. Sheez.

3:15: Another sermon has started. It's a Black sermon, about God. Piers is slumped over in his chair.

3:41: Network officials are getting nervous thinking about the fact that they have been paying Piers time and half for overtime for the past 2 hours. The cost to CNN could be significant.

3:48: Piers is back. He's awake. He calls the funeral "uplifting, moving." The "mix was good." He saves his most lavish praise for one of the White speakers. He thinks Kevin Costner's address was "moving, funny." The Black stuff, the stuff about God, he's doesn't seem to be able to make much sense of. He's sure what he just saw is "very common" in Baptist services, which, as we all know, are all about 4 hours long. No mention of "God." He asks a guest if this is like many "musical events." The music was "off the charts."

Okay, well, we're signing off now. We were waiting for Piers' evaluation, and now we have it. As to our own evaluation of Piers' performance today, it was, of course, largely non-existent, since he only said a few things to introduce it, said almost nothing during the service, and said only a few things afterward. It was almost all funeral and very little Piers.

In short, the mix was good.

Have a nice rest of the weekend.
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2 comments:

Teri Murphy said...

I laughed my head off over this post--even though I heard something completely different in Morgan's commentary as I note in Houston Funeral Brings World to Black Church

Lee said...

I've been two two black funerals, the father and sister of a very close friend. Baptist church. Great choir. Phenomenal pastor and message.

I loved it.