COMMENT POSTED TO A COLUMN BY KATHERINE VINER IN THE
GUARDIAN
"Online abuse
pollutes the water in which we all swim. As the Guardian’s first female editor,
it is important to me that we tackle it"
Well, apart from the egregious mixed metaphors, that's a
very questionable statement at all levels.
"...abuse pollutes the water in which we all swim"
does sound like something from an official announcement in North Korea, the
kind of language which would immediately have raised the antennae of a George
Orwell.
Is that what you are aiming for? Who decides what’s pollution and what’s not?
With so many tough and controversial issues in the world’s
news – upon some of which, mind you, The
Guardian already does not permit readers to comment – I see further restrictions
as a dangerous course. It is easy for a newspaper to be a propaganda sheet, and
indeed, all newspapers, including The
Guardian, do work this way a good deal of the time. Fairly open comments
are one of the only ameliorating practices for this natural tendency.
Stimulating conversation, great comedy, and good literature
always contain things which bother some. Are you proposing to reduce things to
pap and political correctness just because some are bothered?
This does sound rather like an unwelcome warning, albeit in
soft language, announcing a dark new course.
