After getting a cross-party thumbs-down from both Michael Portillo and Alan Johnson on the BBC’s This Week over her needlessly abusive attack on Mil The Younger and wife Justine recently, Sarah Vine, aka Mrs Michael “Oiky” Gove has resorted to telling the world that she conforms to Olbermann’s Dictum (“the right exists in a perpetual state of victimhood”). Yes, she is really a victim!
Her husband still isn't getting Sam's husband's job
“My vile trolls and why I pity today’s teenagers” runs today’s headline, as she begins by pretending that the article is not really about Herself Personally Now: “Channel 4’s Teens follows the lives of a group of teenagers at a school in Loughton, Essex. If you have school-age children or grandchildren, I urge you to watch it”. But, as with most things Sarah Vine, it really is about Herself Personally Now.
One of the teenagers is apparently subjected to unpleasant name-calling, to which Ms Vine observes “This mindlessly cruel spectacle had a particular resonance as I’ve recently acquired my own small army of trolls. Not people taking a different view on things I’ve written - we columnists love to spark debate and, yes, controversy - but vicious, highly personal abuse”. Could she give an example?
She certainly could: “I am, so it seems, in no particular order, a sour two-faced bitch, so fat I look as if I don’t have any eyes and an ugly c*** who should do everyone a favour and set fire to myself … Don’t get me wrong: I’m fully aware I have a face best suited to radio — and that if you dish it out you can’t complain if you get it back in kind. But this abuse is of a different order and I admit I’ve found myself uncharacteristically wounded by these trolls”. So being abusive is clearly A Very Bad Thing.
In that case, perhaps she would care to explain the very next item in her column: “Researchers in Los Angeles say they have discovered that rich kids have bigger brains. So how do they explain Tamara Ecclestone?” Is that an isolated incident? Er, no it isn’t.
How about last week’s snark: “Part of me wants to congratulate Cheryl Fernandez-Versini for speaking out against the sexualisation of female pop stars. ‘Sexy and all that is great to an extent, but you shouldn’t have to sexualise yourself to be selling music,’ she told a magazine. The other part of me can’t help wondering how getting a huge red rose tattooed on her bottom chimes with that ethos”
No wonder Ms Vine finds taunts about her appearance come so readily to mind when she is constantly dishing them out to others. When she whines “Seeing yourself through the eyes of those who truly hate you - however irrationally or mistakenly - is, frankly, frightening”, that is a luxury she awards herself, while the unfortunate Ms Ecclestone and Ms Fernandez-Versini are fair game for the same kind of abuse.
“Vile trolls” are an interesting concept: only around when Daily Mail pundits are on the receiving end. Because such saintly individuals would never indulge in such appalling behaviour themselves. Pass the sick bucket.
I wouldn't condone personal abuse. What I would say to Ms Vine is "don't dish out what you can't take yourself".
ReplyDeleteJournalists seem to despise amateurs. Whether they be bloggers or 'trolls' (and that word they use, I do not think it means what they think it means), the consensus seems to be that it's different (and OK) when you do it for money.
ReplyDeleteBaldwin's opinion on the press springs to mind.
Shock Horror! Shameless shock jockette seriously socked story! Shucks.
ReplyDeleteShorry, life shucks says Sean.