Pickled Politics, Green Taxes and the Bishop: Blogger Bloopers
I have a “Clueless Correspondents” category waiting to start - for highlighting howlers in the mainstream press, but Rumbold over at Pickled Politics has forced me to introduce a “Blogger Blooper” category first.
What Rumbold said as an aside in an article about petrol taxes, taking a sideswipe at the nearest Bishop:
A few people still think that man has nothing to do with climate change, but then they are just incestuous paedophilic kidnappers, according to the Bishop of Stafford.
What the Bishop of Stafford - Gordon Mursell - actually said, according to the article linked to by Rumbold:
“I am simply trying to use an analogy to get people to wake up to the consequences of what we are failing to do, because if we don’t there won’t be a future for our children either.”
Rumbold seems to have fallen for the traditional BBC website sensational “pull paragraph”. Even so, the “incestuous paedophilic kidnapper” bit is a vivid imagination on Rumbold’s part. I looked everso hard, and I couldn’t find the “incest-”, “paedo-” or “kidnap-” words anywhere in the article.
The BBC even put the quote above in a different coloured box to emhasise it.
Going the extra mile, the first version of the page with the News Sniffer (and this one was only online for 30 minutes, while the full version had a full 12 hours before the Pickled Politics article was published) still had this sentance:
Mr Mursell added he was not accusing people of being child abusers but shocking analogies were needed.
Misquote Bong !!
There are a lot of frothy moral indignation games of bosh-bash-Bishop going on in the papers, raising huge clouds of hot air. Even the religio-bloggers and the greenie-weenies are getting in on the act. The Guardian Newsblog is more balanced, but still questions the analogy.
The Times - sensibly - publishes the full text of what he actually wrote. In regulation manner, the fuss turns out to be lots of fluff about a very small story. This is the relevant paragraph:
And yet Josef Fritzl represents merely the most extreme form of a very common philosophy of life: I will do what makes me happy, and if that causes others to suffer, hard luck. In fact you could argue that, by our refusal to face the truth about climate change, we are as guilty as he is – we are in effect locking our children and grandchildren into a world with no future and throwing away the key. We are right to be disgusted at these crimes. But mere disgust is too convenient. There are lessons for all of us to learn.
Me?
I think that the Bishop was probably not quite as “wise as a serpent and gentle as a dove” as he should have been, but that a far larger factor is that there’s a gallery of vultures out there who just like playing bosh-bash-Bishop - even if it involves doing violence to the sense and sentiment of what was said.
I can’t see why there’s such excitement about an analogy in a letter to a couple of hundred congregations from somewhere North of Birmingham. Brum must be wishing that their Bishop would do that, or dance naked next to the Floozie in the Jacuzzi - or something.
I find it extremely interesting that there is a greater emphasis overseas on reporting the facts, rather than throwing opinion around.
And I think that Church of England Bishops need the hide and constitution of a rhinoceros; and the horn and ability to charge at 30mph would probably come in useful too on occasion.
Wrapping Up
I’d also suggest that the only people who should be asked about the appropriateness of this analogy are probably the grandchildren of the inhabitents of Kiribati: they started evacuating their country back in 1989 due to rising sea levels.
Their grandchildren may in reality be locked out of their own home by climate change.
Categories: All WW, Blogger Bloopers, Clueless Correspondents, Daily, Knockabout, Political Blogging
I am perversely proud that I forced you to introduce a whole new category.
“The Nazis and their allies murdered six million Jews, which was wrong. Matt Wardman wrote an article about my post, which was also wrong. Now, I am not saying that Matt Wardman is the same as the Nazis, but shocking analogies are needed to get my point across.”
From the above paragraph, you could argue that while I did not call you a Nazi, the inference was that there was some equivalence between you and them. That is exactly what the bishop has done. If you are writing about a scientific debate which is far from settled, you don’t suddenly bring in an incestuous paedophilic kidnapper as an analogy, and then express faux-regret when people criticise you for it. And the quote which you highlight confirms this:
“And yet Josef Fritzl represents merely the most extreme form of a very common philosophy of life: I will do what makes me happy, and if that causes others to suffer, hard luck. In fact you could argue that, by our refusal to face the truth about climate change, we are as guilty as he is.”
“We are as guilty as he is.” That says it all.
I agree that sometimes the media will misrepresent what a person actually says, and I did make sure to check the direct quote from the Bishop, since I doubted anyone could say such a thing. And sorry if this comment sounds a bit aggressive, it is not meant to.
Rumbold - your comment is pretty restrained compared to some of the stuff flying around. I wish people were able to criticise Bishops without laying into them as if they’d murdered a member of the royal family.
It was a clumsy, and possibly tastless analogy, maybe trying to hard to use a current event to illustrate a point, but I’m pretty much in agreement with Matt on this. I just hope, for the sake of balance, that the same bloggers get just as excited when a bishop says something they agree with. I am reminded of the firestorm which erupted over Rowan Williams and sharia law, what is it about bishops and their media reaction?
Anyway, at least he’s got us talking about it…..
Frankly, it was a disgusting analogy. Whilst not actually saying it, he is most certainly implying that anyone who is sceptical about climate change, or simply doesn’t act as much or in the way as the good Bishop would like is an incestuous paedophilic kidnapper.
That is a Bishop in definite need of a bashing.
thunderdragons last blog post..Not the most popular MP in the Commons…
As we’re all showing our hand on this one, I will too…
I agree with the Dragon and Rumbold on this one. To use child abuse as an analogy for climate change is pretty tasteless and extremely alarmist.
This could be put as someone who abuses your child is no worse than someone who drives a gas guzzler and leaves their lights on all day. Well, you could argue that the latter has low social and environmental responsibility, but the former is quite frankly the lowest form of life. There is no parallel between the two.
What is needed is sensible and informed debate on climate change not alarmist nonsense - it only turns people off the subject. Taxing the poor and restricting their lifestyles for monitory gain and minimum environmental impact is not the answer. Everyone knows increased fuel tax and car tax is going to make NO difference to climate change, but it will restrict the poorest in society from going about their lives.
What is needed is measures to not only tackle our impact in climate change that will make an impact, but also to protect those most vulnerable to the impacts. The richer countries will be able to adapt - humans are an extremely adaptable species. We should be working with the developing world to protect them as they will be the ones most at risk.
I do not see how comparing this issue to child abuse is either constructive or relevant. In fact it is simply deeply offensive to those affected by child abuse.
As for “Bishop bashing” - well, I agree people, in particular the media, are too quick to criticise those with faith. But this is a particularly irresponsible thing for someone in a position of responsibility to be saying - and the fact remains, it is in the public domain and therefore it is hard to simply ignore it.
I’m sticking to my statement that it was an unwise analogy.
A good summary in the New Humanist blog (quotes from the Bishop omitted to save space):
“I’m not saying the Bishop of Stafford’s heart wasn’t in the right place when he wrote a letter for parish magazines in his diocese, but he certainly chose an unfortunate analogy when he compared those who do nothing about climate change to Josef Fritzl.
Unsurprisingly the bishop has found himself in a bit of hot water and was on this morning’s Today programme to defend his words, helpfully pointing out that he wasn’t “trying to imply that people who ignore climate change are child abusers”:
Personally I think it’s good to see bishops speaking up on issues like climate change. There are plenty of people out there who will listen to what they have to say, but for future reference it’s probably worth remembering that the general public don’t take kindly to being compared to incestuous rapists.”
On the Child Abuse angle, I think there is a major problem with too much emotion (and questionable competence of the authorities) undermining the law-enforcement process. I think the reaction to this incident goes some way to demonstrate that we see reactions from emotion not reason.
I’ll write about it in detail some time, but remember Operation Ore and Pete Townshend accepting a Police Caution for looking at Child Porn for “research”? When they checked the log files on the site later (!) he had never looked at the child porn, and must have invented his story to get a caution. I’m thinking that maybe he was offered a caution or having the book the book thrown at him and took the low risk option. Many of the 8000 “suspects” traced from credit card transaction turned out to be victims of ID theft; so far there have been 39 suicides among them - I doubt whether they were all guilty.
There’s a huge can of worms here. That is why I oppose both more databases and “Sara’s Law”; they won’t help.
Operation Ore sources:
Source 1.
Source 2
Updates:
Hansard 2003
Hansard 2004 We’re Catching ‘em
Hansard 2004 stats
Hansard 2004 Judy Mallaber: We posecuted almost all of them
Hansard:2006: Judy Mallaber MP demanding that all cautioned for Operation Ore be on sec offenders register
Hansard:2004: “A high level of policing by sophisticated techniques”
Hansard:Operation Ore: claimed better policing than the Americans since we prosecuted or took action against all of those.
I think that’s enough - but I hope you see my point.
Matts last blog post..Not the most popular MP in the Commons…
“On the Child Abuse angle, I think there is a major problem with too much emotion…”
I would say exactly the same about the climate change debate as well. It seems to lack all knowledge and reason at the moment.
The enforcement issue on child abuse is a different subject. I very much agree with what you have said - it reminds me of the apocryphal story of the man mobbed for being a paediatrician after being confused with a paedophile. There is a dangerous trend in this country to simplify issues and then get the uniformed masses on the case. The very words paedophile or climate change seem to create this whirl wind of mania that is blind to the full story or any reason.
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing…
Heh.
I’ve been digging into the child abuse angle this afternoon, and it is terrifying.
I’ve also been having an argument on a voluntary sector list which does a lot (hundreds each year) of CRB checks.
I wonder how many potential volunteers the scouts have lost through false positives?
As far as I am aware, not many.
ThunderDragons last blog post..English Men Are “Hopeless”
David-Keen:
“Anyway, at least he’s got us talking about it.”
Never a good defence I find.
Matt:
There is a difference between unwise analogies and downright bad ones. To make a comparison between a paedophilic incestous kidnapper and someone whose view on a contentious scientific matter is different from the majority takes a great deal of thought. It isn’t something that naturally occurs to the average person. Moreover, it wasn’t even said in an ungarded moment, or written on a blog quickly. This was a letter to be sent out, so presumably it was read over a few times.
Rumbolds last blog post..The British in Bollywood