Gil Scott-Heron obituary by Channel 4 News (UK)

[alp227]

Run time: 03:02 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zD8wUZ50jw   Posted on YouTube: May 28, 2011 By YouTube Member: Channel4News Views on YouTube: 349   Posted on DU: May 29, 2011 By DU Member: alp227 Views on DU: 2511

 
Krishna Guru-Murthy also interviewed musician Jazzie B about Scott-Heron after presenting this report. It includes excerpts from Scott-Heron's older pieces "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised", "The Bottle", "B Movie" (noted as critical of Ronald Reagan), and his more recent "I'm New Here" (2009) and summarized his early life and family.

Although Scott-Heron was American, a British newscast covered his death more than the American network news shows; the American newscasts devoted much time to the Missouri tornado, the 2012 election, the president's state visit to Europe, and Memorial Day. On Saturday's CBS Evening News, Russ Mitchell (16:25 mark of this video) read a 20-second summary with excerpt from "Revolution". However, Mitchell ended the Evening News with a profile of the 100th annual Indy 500 race. NBC Nightly News spent only 32 seconds (18:55 mark of this video) on Scott-Heron; Lester Holt read a brief summary with photos and this particular line from "Revolution": "NBC will not be able predict the winner at 8:32 or report from 29 districts." and squeezed in that GSH disliked his media alias "Godfather of Rap" and released 12 albums after "Revolution". NBC positioned this summary right after a full story previewing summer movies, and earlier NBC had a full story about the Casey Anthony trial...why is that trial of a mother accused of killing her daughter and covering it up so newsworthy, again? ABC I assume did the same although I can't find video of that, but David Muir found time to spend one full minute gushing over vintage photos of Hollywood stars enjoying their summertime.

[Scuba]

1. Thanks for posting. I was thinking of Gil only Friday when....

NPR had a program celebrating Kennedy's "man to the moon" speech. My first thought was "A rat bit my sister Nell, with whitey on the moon".


BTW, I'm white and a supporter of the space program. I latched onto Gil in the mid-70's when I was in DC. He occasionally appeared at the Psychi-Deli and other venues.

A great loss.

[marias23]

2. Loved his music and his message

With tears in my eyes I am recalling when I saw him and 20 musicians at the legendary Joyous Lake in Woodstock. RIP Gil.
This white man thanks you for for the education.

[alp227]

3. C4 ended playing "Revolution Will Not Be Televised" over Egypt protest footage

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXOtlzZzWLo

[earcandle]

4. Glad to see mainstream media give some love to Gil Scott-Heron! We play his music all the time.

He made a big difference.  

[alp227]

5. haha...except this is BRITISH mainstream media

the American mainstream media was too busy with summer movies and Casey Anthony as I pointed out in the OP, and today Sarah Palin successfully stole the show at this Washington DC motorcycle rally as the media (even NPR for crying out loud) were obsessing over Palin's appearance there. I'll see how PBS NewsHour approaches the Scott-Heron death, or maybe they'll relegate that online.

[earcandle]

8. thanks for the heads up. our media is a bunch of douche bags of skin.

[Gregorian]

6. I'm so thankful that he made his last album recently.

I can hardly watch this without crying. In jail, I felt imprisoned myself. Hardly anyone noticed. A perfect example of the injustice of our god damned drug war failure.

Somehow, as trivial as it may sound, it seems that his last album was a kind of catharsis. An ending. Little did we know.

[butterfly77]

7. KICKIN...

[alp227]

9. video is now private - channel4.com still has it -

http://www.channel4.com/news/gil-scott-heron-dies-aged-62