Outrage at tragic Flack’s treatment reassuring but will it lead to change?

MUSIC fans will likely be familiar with northern Irish band the Divine Comedy and their talented lyricist and singer Neil Hannon. Recent events have stirred memories of one particular song released by the band back in 1998. Hitting the airwaves a year after the death of Princess Diana, Hannon and his band mates used the song to take a swing at Britain’s vicious tabloid press and the insatiable public appetite for the celebrity gossip they thrive on.

One particular verse very neatly summed up the toxic relationship between the UK’s ‘red-top’ press and their ravenous readers.

“Lovers watch their backs as hacks in macs/ Take snaps through telephoto lenses/ Chase Mercedes Benz’s through the night/ A mourning nation weeps and wails/ But keeps the sales of evil tabloids healthy/ The poor protect the wealthy in this world,” Hannon sang.

The song – and the memories it evokes of Diana Spencer’s death in Paris and the incredible public grief it inspired – seems timely in the wake of the suicide of TV host Caroline Flack.

Ms Flack, like so many celebrities before her, was hounded for months by the tabloid press as she endured the most public of breakdowns.

With her mental health clearly deteriorating, the press were relentless in their savage mockery and faux moralising. Tragically, in the face of such non-stop abuse, Flack felt she had no option but to take her own life.

It was a cruel, needless and sad end to a promising life and it has provoked shock and outrage across the UK and Ireland.

The media, mainly the tabloid press and gossip magazines, have come in for severe criticism with calls for boycotts growing by the day.

In one example of the public anger over Flack’s lonely death, several hairdressing and beauty chains have decided to stop providing celebrity gossip mags for their waiting customers. It’s a small step but a worthy one.

For all the fury at the tabloid journalists and their paparazzi colleagues, is the Flack tragedy likely to result in any significant change in how the tabloids treat their victims?

The depressing answer, based on past experience, would seem to be no.

Having hounded her to her death the tabloids have now started lionising her to sell even more copies. The same papers and magazines that harassed Ms Flack to the point of suicide are now full of tributes and images of their erstwhile victim.

Sadly, as was the case with Princess Diana 23 years ago, the public might be furious with the tabloids but most are still paying for and lapping up their coverage.

For the tabloid editors it’s a win-win situation. Having profited handsomely from Caroline Flack’s misery, they can now capitalise even further on her death.

One would wish that this time things will be different and we might see real change. Sadly that seems like a forlorn hope.