life_of_tom (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} life_of_tom) wrote,@ 2009-10-06 15:20:00 |
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Charlie Brooker stokes my burning flames of rage with his wonderful nuggetts of word-coal
This is an email I sent. I seem to have become angry about journalistic issues associated with a boyband member's death. I needn't bore you with the details if you don't want.
Dear Press Complaints Commission
RE: Jan Moir's article on the Daily Mail's website dated 17 October 2009, 'a strange, lonely, troubling death' (url ref: http://dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1
Just in case any points I noticed have been been missed in the inevitable storm of rage at this woman's recent article, I'd like to submit these points:
1: Accuracy.
I'll just take some quotes, shall I?
'Something is terribly wrong with the way this incident has been shaped and spun into nothing more than an unfortunate mishap on a holiday weekend, like a broken teacup in the rented cottage'
It has NOT been represented as a casual mishap, it has been represented as a tragic accident that cruelly robbed a successful young man of the rest of his life, devastating his family, colleauges and friends.
'Healthy and fit 33-year-old men do not just climb into their pyjamas and go to sleep on the sofa, never to wake up again.'
Yes they do. Tragically, sadly, awfully, people die in unexpected ways every week. This can be due to previously undiagnosed heart conditions or any number of other medical complications.
'As a gay rights champion, I am sure he would want to set an example to any impressionable young men who may want to emulate what they might see as his glamorous routine.'
Her article itself states that he was reluctantly 'outed' as gay. I respectfully suggest that this woman stop putting words into a dead man's mouth.
'Let us be absolutely clear about this. All that has been established so far is that Stephen Gately was not murdered.'
No, that is NOT all that has been established. I can confidently state that he did not die of AIDS, get abducted by Aliens, shoot himself, get decapitated in a bizarre gardening accident, try to ingest a fully functional and running chainsaw, or foolishly attempt to headbutt Chuck Norris. To me that line reads like a blatant attempt at insinuation, the attempt to plant the idea in the reader that murder was ever even suspected without actually saying so.
2 Right to Reply. I would suspect that neither this woman or anyone else associated with the Daily Mail did not have the courage to phone either Steven Gately's family or anyone associated with them to see what they had to say about the idea they were 'spinning' the truth to protect either their son's reputation, or their own. Perhaps this is because phrases like 'outrageous' and 'if you print that filth, you'll hear from our lawyers' would not have sat well with the overall tone of the piece.
5. Intrusion into grief or shock.
Just leave his family alone. The assertion that his mother is somehow lying, either to herself or others, or otherwise obfuscating the truth about his death, is nothing short of appalling. And what about Andrew Cowles? This man has lost his husband, and Jan Moir is speculating about his unwitting complicity in the man's death.
12. Discrimination, both subsections.
The wanton linking of this man's death with the death of Kevin McGee is insulting on so many levels. I am especially appalled by the insistence that this 'strikes another blow to the happy-ever-after myth of civil partnerships.'
Oh really. Did Bill Clinton and John Major's alleged infidelities somehow 'strike a blow to the myth' that powerful men can have successful marriages?
Her blatant shoe-horning of as many names of prominently known homosexuals (Elton John and David Furnish, Kevin McGee and of course George Michael) into her article reeks of prejudice. How is George Michael's lifestyle relevant to Steven Gately's? I'm heterosexual, does that mean people can draw conclusions about my lifestyle from the behaviour of Liam Gallagher, or Steven Hawking? Hey, hang on, Steven Hawking is disabled and he left his wife! Maybe by Jan Moir's pathetic twisted logic, disabled people can't have valid marriages either!
The notion that somehow because two people who happened to be homosexual and married (well, one was divorced actually, but never let's not look at the facts here- Jan Moir clearly hasn't) have both died recently, ALL homosexuals are somehow tainted by association, is as glaring an example of a logical fallacy, nay, sheer idiocy as I have seen in a VERY long time indeed. I'd express it in the syllogistic terms every philosophy undergraduate knows, but you'd probably think I was being pretentious. So I won't- I don't want anything to detract from the point I'm making about HOW DISINGENUOUS, HATEFUL, AND DEVOID OF HUMAN KINDNESS THIS ARTICLE IS.
Jan Moir even mentions Elton John who, if you want to take a famous example of a homosexual man, who seems to be the perfect example of a man who lived a fairly hedonistic lifestyle (I believe it was him who once said to Q magazine that 'we flew over the Alps and I thought "that's all the Coke I've snorted") finding a certain stability in his life through a relationship. I don't see any attempt at balance here at all in the piece.
I would like the Press Complaints Commission to investigate these allegations and bring the fullest possible sanctions they can, both legal and financial, to the fullest extent of the law, against the Daily Mail, the Editor of the Daily mail, and the author of the article.
This is an email I sent. I seem to have become angry about journalistic issues associated with a boyband member's death. I needn't bore you with the details if you don't want.
Dear Press Complaints Commission
RE: Jan Moir's article on the Daily Mail's website dated 17 October 2009, 'a strange, lonely, troubling death' (url ref: http://dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1
Just in case any points I noticed have been been missed in the inevitable storm of rage at this woman's recent article, I'd like to submit these points:
1: Accuracy.
I'll just take some quotes, shall I?
'Something is terribly wrong with the way this incident has been shaped and spun into nothing more than an unfortunate mishap on a holiday weekend, like a broken teacup in the rented cottage'
It has NOT been represented as a casual mishap, it has been represented as a tragic accident that cruelly robbed a successful young man of the rest of his life, devastating his family, colleauges and friends.
'Healthy and fit 33-year-old men do not just climb into their pyjamas and go to sleep on the sofa, never to wake up again.'
Yes they do. Tragically, sadly, awfully, people die in unexpected ways every week. This can be due to previously undiagnosed heart conditions or any number of other medical complications.
'As a gay rights champion, I am sure he would want to set an example to any impressionable young men who may want to emulate what they might see as his glamorous routine.'
Her article itself states that he was reluctantly 'outed' as gay. I respectfully suggest that this woman stop putting words into a dead man's mouth.
'Let us be absolutely clear about this. All that has been established so far is that Stephen Gately was not murdered.'
No, that is NOT all that has been established. I can confidently state that he did not die of AIDS, get abducted by Aliens, shoot himself, get decapitated in a bizarre gardening accident, try to ingest a fully functional and running chainsaw, or foolishly attempt to headbutt Chuck Norris. To me that line reads like a blatant attempt at insinuation, the attempt to plant the idea in the reader that murder was ever even suspected without actually saying so.
2 Right to Reply. I would suspect that neither this woman or anyone else associated with the Daily Mail did not have the courage to phone either Steven Gately's family or anyone associated with them to see what they had to say about the idea they were 'spinning' the truth to protect either their son's reputation, or their own. Perhaps this is because phrases like 'outrageous' and 'if you print that filth, you'll hear from our lawyers' would not have sat well with the overall tone of the piece.
5. Intrusion into grief or shock.
Just leave his family alone. The assertion that his mother is somehow lying, either to herself or others, or otherwise obfuscating the truth about his death, is nothing short of appalling. And what about Andrew Cowles? This man has lost his husband, and Jan Moir is speculating about his unwitting complicity in the man's death.
12. Discrimination, both subsections.
The wanton linking of this man's death with the death of Kevin McGee is insulting on so many levels. I am especially appalled by the insistence that this 'strikes another blow to the happy-ever-after myth of civil partnerships.'
Oh really. Did Bill Clinton and John Major's alleged infidelities somehow 'strike a blow to the myth' that powerful men can have successful marriages?
Her blatant shoe-horning of as many names of prominently known homosexuals (Elton John and David Furnish, Kevin McGee and of course George Michael) into her article reeks of prejudice. How is George Michael's lifestyle relevant to Steven Gately's? I'm heterosexual, does that mean people can draw conclusions about my lifestyle from the behaviour of Liam Gallagher, or Steven Hawking? Hey, hang on, Steven Hawking is disabled and he left his wife! Maybe by Jan Moir's pathetic twisted logic, disabled people can't have valid marriages either!
The notion that somehow because two people who happened to be homosexual and married (well, one was divorced actually, but never let's not look at the facts here- Jan Moir clearly hasn't) have both died recently, ALL homosexuals are somehow tainted by association, is as glaring an example of a logical fallacy, nay, sheer idiocy as I have seen in a VERY long time indeed. I'd express it in the syllogistic terms every philosophy undergraduate knows, but you'd probably think I was being pretentious. So I won't- I don't want anything to detract from the point I'm making about HOW DISINGENUOUS, HATEFUL, AND DEVOID OF HUMAN KINDNESS THIS ARTICLE IS.
Jan Moir even mentions Elton John who, if you want to take a famous example of a homosexual man, who seems to be the perfect example of a man who lived a fairly hedonistic lifestyle (I believe it was him who once said to Q magazine that 'we flew over the Alps and I thought "that's all the Coke I've snorted") finding a certain stability in his life through a relationship. I don't see any attempt at balance here at all in the piece.
I would like the Press Complaints Commission to investigate these allegations and bring the fullest possible sanctions they can, both legal and financial, to the fullest extent of the law, against the Daily Mail, the Editor of the Daily mail, and the author of the article.
