no news

living in italy doesn't stop me from following the dutch news. there's one dutch channel on my television and i follow the newspapers. dutch journalism seems to develop more and more the competence to spend hours on no news. two weeks ago the television evenings were occupied and the papers were filled with interviews, expert opinions and historical overviews on the 11 city skating tour that then in the end didn't happen. not enough ice.
since yesterday journalists are spending an enormous amount of time on reporting about the condition of the second son of the dutch queen who ended up in a hospital in innsbruck after being caught by an avalanche while skiing in the austrian mountains. the news is that there is no news and there will be no news in the coming 2 days. reporters are standing in front of the hospital, in front of the palace where the royal family lives but where nobody is home because they are all in austria and in front of the parliament telling that there is no news. dutch viewers are presented with holiday movies of the last 50 years of the royal family skiing in austria but still also after watching this there is now news from innsbruck. and of course there are the experts! experts on avalanches, experts on skiing, experts on the royal family, experts on austria, experts on health conditions of people who end up in avalanches, experts on health conditions of royal families and experts on dramatical situations in which queens, kings, princes and princesses were involved. serious talk-shows and well respected journalists have stopped doing their normal work and make extra hours to report there is no news from innsbruck.
i spend the whole day next to my phone waiting for a call to be interviewed. i consider myself an expert. i know more than ten austrian people, i've been in austria many times, i have been skiing in france which is not austria but would be interesting to compare, i live in italy which would give a kind of mediterranean flavor to the interview and here we have earth quakes and volcanos which also can be very dramatic. probably tomorrow they will call...