Dancing on graves is what journalists do
21 October 2009
There’s no need for Jan Moir to apologise for speculating about the death of the boy-band singer Stephen Gately says Rod Liddle. Why have we become so censorious and hysterical?
I have to say that I don’t particularly like newspaper and magazine columnists, as people. Smug, not terribly bright, usually cowardly, lazy, always self-obsessed, self-important and narcissistic — forever brimming with themselves, a collection of mass-produced ornamental thimbles overflowing with foaming vomit. I don’t excuse myself from most of these character traits, by the way, so I suppose you can add self-loathing to the list as well. I don’t really have any friends who are columnists (except for James Delingpole, who I speak to on the phone sometimes, when he’s feeling enraged or suicidal) and the Fleet Street writers I particularly admire — Laura Barton, Alexis Petridis, Craig Brown and our own Jeremy Clarke — seem, from their writing, to be not quite part of that gibbering throng, although maybe that’s wishful thinking on my part.
My argument isn’t that columnists aren’t good at what they do — some are very artful indeed, although it can be a thin and vapid art, not even a ‘half-art’, as Orwell rightly described photography. It’s just that personally I don’t like them very much; on the increasingly rare occasions when I am required to mix with people who do the same job as me, I experience the peculiar and frightening sensation that I am being eaten alive by mice. And I put down my drink and run and promise myself that I will be a better person henceforth and maybe try to get a job with the Forestry Commission, like I always wanted.
We have lots of columnists now because this is how things are; the good stuff about journalism — reportage — has been left behind, bullied out of existence by the internet (which, ironically, is actually useless for accurate, intelligent reportage, but that’s another story). Instead we have this moronic inferno, a high-pitched fugue of endlessly self-referential squeaking, the sonar of a thousand bewildered but nonetheless blithely confident pipistrelle bats, all mothless. And so we have the Jan Moir affair.
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A. MacAulay
October 22nd, 2009 11:11am Report this commentAs I never read the Mail, nor have ever heard of the late Mr Gately until now, I'm not sure why Jan Moir isn't being accused of racism for implying that the Spanish authorities are not to be trusted. Along the lines of "Dr Dago does a deal".
As for the homophobia, it is as clear as day when one looks at the Christopher St. Day celebrations that all those Art Historians, Interior Designers and Stylists are perfectly serious, sane, hard working citizens and to impute otherwise is to reveal a low spiritual coarsness and unfeeling humourlesness of mind.
KindnessofWomen
October 22nd, 2009 4:00pm Report this commentRod, love the distinction you draw between the double-barrelled duumvirate Alibhai-Brown and Street-Porter. The implication being that somewhere along the line the former did in fact say or do something for the benefit, enlightenment, amusement or entertainment of the human race. Would you care to enlighten us as to what this might have been?
Incidentally, folks, did you know that the literal meaning of the name 'Alibhai' is 'street porter'? (It isn't really, of course, but wouldn't it be great if it was?)
logdon
October 22nd, 2009 5:05pm Report this commentKindnessofWomen
October 22nd, 2009 4:00pm Report this comment
Actually it translates to...
Come here as a refugee of Amin's Ugandan purge. Be, in other words something that jews were denied in the Thirties. Accept that enormous privilege as an absolute right. Then to slag it off to your hearts content whilst still being a guest of fashionable Metropolitan salons.
Noa Zrk
October 22nd, 2009 9:52pm Report this comment"Janet Street-Porter — the latter of whom has never yet said or done anything for the benefit, enlightenment, amusement or entertainment of the human race..".
What, don't you like J S-P Rod?. Stout fellow!
Worthing
October 23rd, 2009 5:05pm Report this commentAs a libertarian I defend Moir's right to free speech and as a libertine I couldn't care less about Stephen Gately's lifestyle, but as a piece of exegesis of Moir's column you are wrong: she was clearly talking about a 'gay lifestyle' and not a 'celebrity lifestyle'. As far as everybody thinking that his death was unnatural, how do you know? Obviously, you think it was, but the 'I'm sure everybody thought that' style of argument is just intellectually lazy. And what are 'ordinary people'? It's true that an intense minority were angered by the piece, but if there was an intense majority - as distinct from an apathetic one - I am sure we would you have heard from them.
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