One of the few pieces of writing that made me emit an admiring whistle last year, was by
the Economist’s political correspondent Bagehot. He argued that Britain did not have the far-left and right political parties of Europe because
the British media provided an outlet for hatreds their respectable European counterparts ignored.
‘To pick a recent case study,’ Bagehot continued, ‘the Sunday Mirror reported on September 5th that the estranged second wife of an obscure Conservative MP was working as a prostitute. The following day, the outwardly respectable Daily Mail carried abject quotes from the MP on his doorstep, saying he knew nothing of his wife’s actions, and could prove that he was separated from her. At this point, the Mail noted coolly, the MP “began sobbing”. The piece concluded by naming his three children.’
The deadpan style – ‘At this point, the Mail noted coolly, the MP began sobbing. The piece concluded by naming his three children’ – is more effective than flaming polemic, and it confirmed my view that unless the media’s quarry is a very evil man you should always sympathise with the hunted rather than the hunters.
Andy Gray is not an evil man. I was not shocked by the revelations about him because I work in the media, where you may be surprised to learn, the standard conversational opener of men (and women) is raucous and raunchy banter. Give them a chance to attack a victim, to drive him or her out of a job and kick them when they are on the floor, however, and they become as hypocritically pious as a sadistic Sunday school teacher flogging an irreligious child.
Take this piece on Gray from this morning’s Mail. It begins:
‘Had Andy Gray not been born with the ability to head a ball extremely hard into the back of a net, one wonders what would have become of him. As a young man he was cursed with a face only a mother could love; a sallow, greasy complexion which led to acne well into his 20s, topped with a curly mop of hair so unruly he was surely grateful for the early onset of male pattern baldness.’
Nothing Andy Gray has done is as bad as what that journalist was thinking when he clicked the “send” button.
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