On September 2, 1997, the major news story continued to be the death of Princess Diana. She, along with her companion Dodi Fayed and their driver, were killed August 31st. They were traveling in a Paris tunnel near the Eiffel Tower. Questions arose immediately whether attempts by the paparazzi to photograph the couple may have led to their high-speed car crash. Her Westminster Abbey funeral took place on September 6th.
(Video from the BBC: “Breaking News of Lady Diana Crash”)
“Diana, Princess of Wales, was reported to have died in a road crash in France early this morning in which her close companion, Dodi Fayed, was also killed.
The accident happened as their limousine was allegedly chased through the west of Paris by paparazzi — freelance photographers — on motorbikes.
Last night, the Princess was taken to the Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital in the south-east of the city. The British ambassador, Sir Michael Jay, was summoned to the hospital.
Within an hour of the accident, a French police spokesman confirmed: ‘ Dodi Fayed is dead.’
Police believe the tragedy occurred as the Princess’s blue Mercedes drove at speed through a tunnel at Pont de l’Alma bridge near the mouth of the river Seine just after midnight. It appeared to have overturned and hit the wall of the tunnel.”
— A story excerpt from The Guardian:
“Di reported dead with Dodi in Paris car crash“
(Video from CNN: “Breaking News: Princess Diana’s Death”)
The Web was still new in 1997, so the following Washington Post story must have been one of the first of its kind.
“When Beverly Wills of Huntsville, Ala., saw the morning headline, she was shocked, just like millions of others. Her grief moved her to react in a way she never had before — on the keyboard of her computer.
‘The world will sorely miss her!’ Wills, a 47-year-old civilian Army employee, typed in a tribute to the late Princess Diana. ‘I am so sorry for the loss her sons will experience!! God be with you Diana, Princess of Wales!’
As did untold thousands of others around the world, Wills posted her sympathy card to one of the several memorial pages that sprouted almost instantaneously yesterday on the Internet’s World Wide Web, providing mourners with a uniquely personal outlet. Major news events routinely prod the wired community to take to their terminals to join spirited debates, but Diana’s death provoked an unusual, massive outpouring of condolences. The Internet, so often depicted as a cold, perilous sea of unreliable information, became a comfort medium for anyone with a modem.”
— “On the World Wide Web, Avenues for Sharing One’s Sorrow.”
By Richard Leiby, Sep. 1, 1997.
(Video: “News in Australia on eve of Princess Diana’s funeral”)
“It has been an extraordinary week. Extraordinary, in part of course, because what happened in the early hours of Sunday morning in a road tunnel in Paris was a far from ordinary event, both given the people involved and the circumstances surrounding the crash. But above all the week has been extraordinary — and extraordinarily moving — because millions of people, especially in Britain but also all around the world, have been affected by this event and transfixed by it in a way few of them would have expected.
….In the immediate aftermath of this tragedy it is the press and the paparazzi that are likelier to bear the brunt of popular disgust. This is so both of the particular photographers who followed the princess’s car and of the press in general.
….Like the monarchy itself, the public has mixed feelings about journalists: it depends on them for information, entertainment and even protection against the powers that be; and yet it rightly also hates the excesses that occur when celebrity and communication collide. This week the power of mass communication has been more evident than ever. Yet so too has been the force of personal emotion. Perhaps that should not have been surprising. But it was.”
— A story excerpt from the Economist:
“The tragedy of Diana: It has been an extraordinary week”
Sep. 4, 1997
