Liam Payne fans left furious as Michael Buerk blasts singer and rages at BBC

Liam Payne fans left furious as Michael Buerk blasts singer and rages at BBC. (Image: Getty)

Veteran BBC journalist Michael Buerk has come under fire after he criticised the amount of coverage surrounding Liam Payne's death.

Michael, 78, claimed the One Direction star's death should not have dominated headlines for the past week and branded the 31-year-old a "drugged up, faded, boy band singer".

Appearing on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Michael, whose reporting of the Ethiopian famine in 1984 inspired Live Aid, said: "Last week, this programme 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 happened in the world.

"If you look at the news these days, they seem to be hammering away at the same half dozen stories while a whole continent goes unmentioned month after month.”

Michael Buerk's reporting of the Ethiopian famine in 1984 inspired Live Aid. (Image: Getty)

Many listeners were shocked by Michael's comments and took to social media to share their anger.

One Twitter/X user wrote: "Blimey. Michael Buerk on #R4today expressing his surprise that the death of a 'drugged-up fading boyband member' led the news. He seemed so ... disdainful...There was no need for him to be so dismissive, it just felt sneery."

Another listener said: "As soon as I heard this on BBC Radio 4, I was sure Michael Buerk would be trending unfavourably."

And a third described him as "horrible" and "insensitive".

Liam Payne tragically died in Argentina last week. (Image: Getty)

However, some did defend the former newsreader's comments. One said: "Thanks, Mr Buerk, for putting into perspective on R4 the hyperbole over Liam Payne. While not wishing to speak ill of the dead, or belittle the grief of the deceased's young followers, the media overkill attending Payne's misadventure at such a momentous time was ridiculous."

And another echoed: "Michael Buerk… the official spokesman for a majority of the nation today! Well done for saying what most of us thought."

Liam tragically fell to his death from a third-floor balcony at the CasaSur Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, last Wednesday (October 16).

A post-mortem examination said the singer died of multiple traumas and an "internal and external haemorrhage"

Liam found fame with One Direction on The X Factor. (Image: Getty)

Payne found fame alongside his One Direction band members - Zayn Malik, Harry Styles, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson - when The X Factor creator Simon Cowell formed the boy band on the ITV talent show in 2010.

The singer first auditioned in 2008 when he was 14, singing Frank Sinatra's Fly Me To The Moon, with judge Cowell telling him to return to the talent show two years later.

Payne previously said he struggled with alcoholism at the peak of his success with One Direction, describing hitting "rock bottom" to The Diary Of A CEO podcast host, Steven Bartlett.