Former BBC anchor Michael Buerk has criticized the extensive media coverage of Liam Payne’s death, calling him “a drugged up, faded boy band singer.”
Buerk, who was the face of BBC News for almost 30 years until his semi-retirement in 2002, was speaking on Radio 4 show “Today” about how foreign reporting had changed over the past four decades.
“I think it’s really, really different,” he replied. “There was more of an appetite for seriousness. It was only last week that I think this program decided that the most important thing that had happened in the world was that a drugged up, faded boy band singer had fallen off a balcony. Even the 10’O Clock News, which is normally good on these things, thought it was the second most important thing that had happened in the world. And I think there was a wider agenda or a wider appetite; if you look at the news these days, they seem to be hammering away at the same half dozen stories while whole continents go unmentioned for month after month.”
Payne, who rose to fame as a member of the group One Direction, died at the age of 31 last week after falling off a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Initial toxicology reports indicate drugs were found in his body while local reports said drug paraphernalia was also found in his hotel room.
It’s not the first time the BBC has faced criticism over its coverage of the death of a public figure. Following Prince Phillip’s death in 2021, the broadcaster was forced to set up a dedicated complaints page for viewers frustrated with the wall-to-wall coverage.