I'm sure by now Jan Moir needs no introduction. To be honest, before her column on Stephen Gately, I have never heard of her. This rather questionable Daily Mail column on his death, quickly skyrocketed her to "fame". Her column has sparked over 25,000 complaints to the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) - the most complaints that they have ever received about a single article. And the social media websites Twitter and Facebook has been abuzz with (mostly negative) comments about this column. However, judging from Jan Moir's remarks on Twitter (her Twitter account is only 7 days old) she seems to be enjoying the limelight, and she often tweets flippant and sometimes petty remarks in response to the drama.
Jan Moir didn't seem to like what Cape Town Lesbians blogger Kathryn Schneider (a.k.a Katka-Kapenaar) had to say about this senario. But then... over 25,000 people didn't like what Jan Moir had to say ;-)
The link she refers to in this tweet is the post written by Kathryn titled "We all learn a lesson (especially Jan Moir)"
After last week's column, all advertisements have been pulled from the web page, and instead of apologising for the views that many found offensive, she attempted to explain her comments. Today, Jan Moir wrote a column to apologise to the parents of the gay Boyzone star Stephen Gately, but she also critisized the 'hysterical overreaction' of critics. She also claimed that she has recieved thousands of supportive emails from readers. An extract:
However, I accept that many people – on Twitter and elsewhere – were merely expressing their own personal and heartfelt opinions or grievances. This said, I can’t help wondering: is there a compulsion today to see bigotry and social intolerance where none exists by people who are determined to be outraged? Or was it a failure of communication on my part?
Certainly, something terrible went wrong as my column ricocheted through cyberspace, unread by many who complained, yet somehow generally and gleefully accepted into folklore as a homophobic rant.
It lit a spark, then a flame and turned into a roaring ball of hate fire, blazing unchecked and unmediated across the internet.
Yet as the torrent of abuse continued, most of it anonymous, I also had thousands of supportive emails from readers and well-wishers, many of whom described themselves as ‘the silent majority’. The outcry was not as one-sided as many imagine.”
And now, the question... do you think that the public overreacted, or do you think that the reaction to her column was perhaps justified?
| Comments |
|
|
