BBC - No stone unturned in its quest for quality news

The BBC, maintaining its responsibility to keep its audience up-to-date with the ins and outs of “protest mother” Cindy Sheehan, reports today the apparently irresistible news that Sheehan is getting divorced.

The husband of a bereaved mother camped outside US President George W Bush's Texas ranch has filed for divorce.

Patrick Sheehan cited "irreconcilable differences" with his wife of 28 years, Cindy Sheehan, who has demanded Mr Bush withdraws US troops from Iraq.

Why, exactly, the details of this woman’s personal travails are thought by the BBC to be of interest/value to its audience is anyone’s guess. Perhaps any reason to focus attention upon Sheehan’s continuing theatrics in Crawford is considered good enough reason for the Beeb. Of course, it might be of understandable interest if, as Sheehan is reported to have told The New York Times, the reasons for the divorce are the very antics for which she has gotten so much publicity. But the BBC, probably unwilling to tarnish the moral authority of Sheehan’s protest, instead attributes the split simply to “the stress of dealing with their son’s death.”

This only reinforces my belief, mentioned yesterday, that the media ought to be ashamed of itself for acting as enablers as Sheehan turns her private grief into a public spectacle.