5 Rules to Prevent Pointless News Stories
Jimmy Carr joked
Say what you like about the servicemen amputees from Iraq and Afghanistan but we're going to have a fucking good Paralympics team in 2012.I'm not offended, and nor are the
Jimmy Carr already does work amongst limbless ex-servicemen, and may even have picked the joke up whilst visiting Headley Court or Selly Oak. He has not used this as an excuse but has offered to redouble his efforts for Help for Heroes to make amends anyway. He has, admirably refused to apologise.
I have just watched a spat on sky news between a bemused Patrick Mercer, former soldier and Tory MP who basically said that this probably would have been acceptable from soldiers or amongst soldiers, but the offended parties would be the Wives and Mothers who have much thinner skins. I have some sympathy for this view - the worry felt by those with loved ones on operations is often worse than the operations themselves. Against him was a silly tart called Grianne Maguire who could not hide her distaste for a Conservative politician whom she openly blamed for the "Pointless wars", despite the fact that Tories are in opposition and have been for over a decade. She was on in her capacity as a Stand-up comic, and she accused Mercer of "Censorship". Mercer responded that he was merely opining that this was in bad taste, not calling for censorship. If Grianne Maguire's witless, sanctimonious and inarticulate performance on Sky News was anything to go by, I have no desire to see her stand-up act, which is almost certainly shit. I have no doubt which is more offensive to me as a soldier: Carr's bad-taste joke, or Maguire's leftist crocodile tears. It's the latter.
Carr's joke was in bad taste, but so is the left's endless bleating about "illegal" wars. So are T-shirts saying things like "I'm with the ginger bullet magnet" worn by colleagues of Prince Harry. FUCKING GROW UP PEOPLE! "A Comedian tells a joke" is NOT NEWS.
Here are my rules, which the media would do well to learn:
- Saying something is "in appalling taste" is not "Censorship" whether it's Jimmy Carr, or Jan Moir. The laws against incitement to race and religious hatred however are Censorship. Especially when they're applied this widely.
- Public outrage, press campaigns and twitter-mobbing are mechanisms by which society may make itself more polite and civilised, running against the anonymisation of society which started with the industrial revolution which has allowed people to abuse those they are unlikely to see again. They are too not Censorship, any more than when you were a child, local curtain-twitchers telling your mum about your swearing on the street.
- Journalists, Comedians, Columnists, politicians and Lawyers are not uniquely privileged on the "free speech" front, and should not be encouraged to think that they are or should be.
- It is not clever, original, brave, interesting or even true to call the operations in Afghanistan or Iraq "illegal" or "pointless", and to do so betrays a lack of imagination.
- All humour is at someone's expense. Think about that before you get let your outrage out in response to a joke against one of your sacred cows.
7 immoderate opinions:
Carr was immature and thoughtless and I'm pleased to hear he's going to give something back to Help the Heroes.
If I had been the mother of a soldier badly maimed in these recent wars I would have been so furious I think I would have driven all night to tell this chap what I think.
Yes it's true soldiers laugh at themselves, it's a case of having to in the situations they find themselves today.
You didn't say ARRSE is for military and families, but few family members have posted on that link, it's only serving and vets.
So it was his complete lack of understanding the pain the families feel that cause me to say he stepped well over the line.
Keep these kind of jokes for his visits to Headley Court and Selly Oak. I doubt if BLESMA or Erskine Hospital will invite him to do a turn.
I've never served in HM Forces, but I do understand that it's not just the words that are said which matter; it's also about the person who said them, the spirit in which they were spoken, and the audience for which they were intended. For example, one of my mates frequently calls me a 'daft cunt', without my taking offense at all (and he might have a point about that, anyway!).
I think Subrosa has a point about the families and maybe he stepped over the mark in that way but nevertheless, he didn't mean any harm by it, and that must surely be the important thing. If the majority of soldiers aren't offended by his sense of humour, then I fail to see why we civilians have an obligation to be offended on their behalf.
I declined to click on your Grianne Maguire link because I am in a good mood and wish to stay that way.
Once again a questionable comment aimed at a specific audience that would have been heard by very few has been picked up by the media and in their mock indignation chanelled into every household in Britain. Congratulations for ensuring that any of the thin skinned soldiers' families have now been alerted to this.
Carr isn't funny, but media witch hunts are downright sinister.
Two people out of an audience of two thousand complain...and there's a media uproar.
Are the righteous jumping on every "support our brave boys in uniform" bandwagon now? Grianne Maguire and the rest of her self-righteous ilk that take faux umbrage at every slight, would do better to reserve their outrage for the fucking liars that took us into illegal wars in the first place.
Henry Crun: May I point you to rule 4?
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