The Guardian Apologizes
National Politics, Personal Comments (9)
On the Guardian’s site today instead of the horrid Charlie Booker column that has been made so much of which ended “John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Hinckley Jr – where are you now that we need you?”.
The final sentence of a column in The Guide on Saturday caused offence to some readers. The Guardian associates itself with the following statement from the writer.
“Charlie Brooker apologises for any offence caused by his comments relating to President Bush in his TV column, Screen Burn. The views expressed in this column are not those of the Guardian. Although flippant and tasteless, his closing comments were intended as an ironic joke, not as a call to action – an intention he believed regular readers of his humorous column would understand. He deplores violence of any kind.”
Actually, the only people who were not offended would have been the same members of left who like to refer to ‘Bushitler the Chimperor.’ I have strongly disagreed with the various policies of different governments over time and yet I cannot recall a single instance of doing something that really is a call for the assassination of a democratically elected leader — especially one then standing for election.
Despite the Guardian’s disclaimer that he does not speak for them, they nevertheless retained and retain the right to refuse to publish such inflamatory and probably illegal invective. Therefore I find the “apology” with which the Guardian chooses to “associate itself” to be a thin attempt at damage control at best.
Perhaps the Guardian would also find the humor in asking where John Bellingham is when Tony Blair next stands for office.
There is no humor there. There could never have been humor there. I am also failing to see the irony in this “ironic joke.” Instead of admitting that it was a mistake to publish such tripe, they are basically responding by saying “it was supposed to be funny and we’re awfully sorry that you chaps are so thin-skinned. Now please excuse us. It’s time for the grown-ups to go have a spot of tea and maybe a biscuit or two.”
If that’s an apology, then I think I refuse to accept it.
[UPDATE: Yes, that's a challenge for someone to point out either the irony or the joke in the original statement.]
MickC @ October 24, 2004