Sorry to go on about the Independent but... well, this is too delicious. I have just come across a Facebook row today between Rod Liddle (rumoured to be the next Indy editor) and Suzanne Moore, the Mail on Sunday columnist and my preferred candidate for the Indy job.
The exchange takes place in a thread started by someone called Claire Khaw who appears to defend Liddle against the racism charge in today's Mail on Sunday. Suzanne mocks her (and others') hopes that by supporting Liddle they will land jobs under his editorship. She also appears annoyed that he's called her middleclass ...
Rod responds [unedited] to Suzanne: "what your thrid division reporter wrote in the MoS today was a perfect example of fascism, a tirade of lies. He attempted to attribute racism to me by quoting a)things which I had not said at ... See Moreall and b) quoting me using a direct quote in SUPPORT of a black footballer who had been allegedly subject to racist abuse. Your paper is morally and politically despicable, Suz, and better still - you know it. But what will you do about it? Just pocket the cheque, pocket the cheque."
Suzanne: "Rod you can message me direct. I never go into the office. So I cant comment. Pocket the cheque for my column? Yes I will just as you pocket the cheque from Murdoch. If the MOS story is a tirade of lies i guess you can sue? As for Claire's question i dunno I have never got a job by sleeping with anyone. Quite the reverse."
Rod: "A journalist sue a journalist? You really have no morals, do you? And it's pointless waving Murdoch at me - I didn't put myself on a high horse . I didn't say I wouldn't work for you because you were a reactionary. I am well aware of who I work for and wouldn't be hypocritical about it."
Suzanne: "Yes please Rod do give me a lecture on morals. I am all ears."
Rod: "You should be, Suzanne. I know principle and truthfulness when I see it. You don't."
Suzanne: "Rod you sound like Tony Blair or something! Obviously I disagree. I dont think you know much about me at all. I Am gonna make my amoral children some amoral dinner if thats OK....
Later Suzanne writes: "Meerkats are the liberal choice surely Rod? I promise if you promise to stop challenging us with your base racist and sexist assumptions which hardly make us see the world anew.... Rod Liddle CANNOT become editor of The Indy. No no no."
Oh and it goes on and on. Doncha love the chattering classes? And Liddle has much to learn about seemly behaviour becoming a newspaper editor.
21 comments:
MA darling,
All this grown up fighting is so confusing to me. If a journalist lies about another, why is it amoral to sue them? Won’t actions like this send out a message to others in the media that if you do not follow high principles and stick to truthfulness you will have to face the consequences?
This man just threw away all his chances at the editor post revealing himself as an editor that would cover up for lying hacks just out of “principle” – because you don’t turn against colleagues, no matter how rotten they prove to be, that is just not the good old boys system, right? Murdoch just felt circulation cut in half with one look at those statements or is this just what they would want; perpetuate the behavior that has turned all these newspapers into smelly carcasses not worth our attention?
What was that anon saying about writers behaving like kids, or is it weasels?
It's the old cover-our-backs syndrome, the omerta you find among editors - and many journalists, though not all. In this case, Liddle may have cause to feel aggrieved with the MoS.
Never underestimate the immense immaturity of indentured journalists.
This is unbelievable. Can't you get the rest of it up. Why did RL call SM "middleclass"? This is either a huge misjudgement or a huge joke.
Anyone can ask me anything about it. I was suprised that a potential newspaper editor would be so rattled as to be slagging me off on facebook but yes it does appear to be the case. Today has not been a good day for him: the alleged Millwall comments go far beyond anything that can be said in a "family newspaper". I have seen them.
Anyhow its all very bizarre. I love the Indy and its poor staff have been treated so badly. I would hate this paper to go down.
I dont like bullies so my last spat was with Alistair Campbell. Otherwise I am quite nice really x
I am playing on the fact that a distant relative was in the Bosnian partizans, or was it on the Polish/Lithuanian border? One of those places. A.Y.Lebdedev should give me some crumbs. Pazhalsta!
Suzanne, you have been a heroine over the past week. we have to stand up to this man, it beggars belief he is being considered for this.
Rod could wear Suzanne's shoes as a token of his remorse.
Those would be Suzanne's fuck-you shoes...
Rod Liddle has denied even being approached by Lebedev about the Indy job. Is this a joke by Toby "Tory boy" Young and that freak James Delingpole?
Does MA have seaviews or does Anon infer she lives in a wheelie bin ?
I don't know Ms Moore but she has my vote if she stood up to the shameless Iraqi War fibber Campbell.
A sea bay does indeed greet my eyes every morn. My two wheelie bins stand sentinel to the front, one recently deprived of its contents, and not by my dustman, who took three weeks off. Hence no room for me.
Oh poppet. Nothing a furious bout of sex won't heal. x
How old are these two tattling twits? Do they really use words like 'Dunno' and 'gonna'? Spats like this would be embarrassing enough if teenagers were involved. Grow up and shut up!
I think Gavin has the classic model looks which are unusual in an author. Martin Amis has not aged well thanks to all those roll-ups, Nirps I shall have to observe more closely.
This is before we attend to female authors, of course.
I used to think Rod Liddle was a prick until I found out he's shagging someone 21 years younger than him.
My sources have it that you can read these exchanges which took place on 8 January 2010 if you become a Facebook friend of the said Claire Khaw who has set her mind on winning this year's Orwell Prize.
My sources have also revealed that she has been variously described as "insane", "manipulative", "dangerous", "very persuasive" and bent on world domination.
She holds a candle to Lord Mandelson and it is apparent that she entertains hopes of one day becoming Lady Mandelson, despite being aware of his well-known weakness for the stronger sex.
She has mounted several failed campaigns to make him Prime Minister since last summer, urging a members of the cabinet to resign and even briefly contemplating conspiring to push the current incumbent off Brighton pier during the Labour Conference.
Even now she plots and schemes.
This woman should be exposed and denounced, and your assistance, Madame Marcati, would be a great public service.
Thank you Andromeda but I am a great fan of Stephanie Beacham. x
Claire Khaw. Is that an English name?
Claire Khaw is not a WHOLLY English name, Ron, but she does reside in England and writes in English on national and international politics.
May I respectfully remind posters herein that Wheelie Bin is a registered trademark and threats to interfere with Madame's rubbish disposal arrangements should acknowledge the trademark accordingly or henceforth refer to said containers as 'wheeled bins'.
I should like to point out that wheelie bins obstruct public highways and are used as an excuse to make people redundant.
Wheelie bins, wheelie bins, wheelie bins.
Andromeda is Claire Khaw....how odd to write about yourself in the third person.
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