[WikiEN-l] The outside world on biographies of slightly notablepeople

[Andrew Gray]

On 03/06/07, Gabe Johnson <gjzilla at gmail.com> wrote:

> > >Well, the front-page interview with the Washington Post and the Fox
> > >News appeareance kind of pop that bubble of "do no harm." If she's
> > >trying to stay private, then... well... that's probably not the best
> > >strategy.
> >
> > Do not confuse damage limitation with acceptance of unwelcome
> > attention.
>
> Please explain how an interview with the [[Washington Post]] is damage
> limitation.

Herewith is a short parable demonstrating the innate moral ambiguities
of the media...

Let us imagine you wake up to find innumerable people mocking you
publicly around the world. A newspaper comes to you and says "would
you like to put your side of the story forward"?

You can either a) hide and hope they decide to stop; or b) make the
most of a bad thing, and try to divert the shittiness. Which would you
do?

Taking the interview is b); it requires some guts and is a bit of a
gamble, but if you can stay cool and handle yourself well in the glare
then the entire thing will burn out pretty fast and you can go back to
normality again. If you choose a), well, maybe it'll burn out. Maybe
it won't. Maybe you'll just keep being hounded until you take b), and
by then maybe you'll be in a worse position to fend off the wolves...

(Compare, eg, the occasional publicity blip of someone accused of
having an affair with a major politician - they shoot to fame on the
terms of a muckraker journalist, they take the interviews and explain
patiently it's all nonsense, everyone loses interest and they return
to private life)

> Also, I still maintain that we are doing the subject something of a
> *service* by writing something *neutral* about this.

We are not. We are merely publicising her humiliation further. This is
not helping *anyone*, least of all us - no matter how we posture here,
we're not doing the right thing by continuing to publish a "neutral"
account of how she became a sex object for the trivial amusement of
the internet.

-- 
- Andrew Gray
  andrew.gray at dunelm.org.uk