Tuesday 4 March 2014

Rossgate

By now the events surrounding Jonathan Ross's proposed MC'ing of the Hugo awards have been well covered - see (for instance) Cheryl Morgan: http://www.cheryl-morgan.com/?p=18632 and Adam Whitehead: http://thewertzone.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/worldcon-2014-announces-jonathan-ross.html

I did not think Ross was a good choice for the MC and tweeted as such. But my dislike of Ross's TV persona was my own problem, nobody else's, and I would have been far better off shutting up. Furthermore, despite the high-minded sentiments of my last blog post, I did Ross a particular disservice by automatically presuming that he would be paid for his appearance. In fact, Ross had kindly volunteered his time. My contributions added nothing to the debate and I apologise for them.




6 comments:

  1. I gotta ask, Al.

    What about the treatment of his wife and daughter? I'm fairly disgusted by it all and everyone involved with the affair. Maybe he was the wrong choice, I don't know one way or the other.

    On the other hand, what happened is a perfectly example of what has been going on for years. If folks even dare to utter anything less than full compliance, perhaps have a doubt, a disagreement, said/did something years ago, this is the result.

    And I look up to you as an example of what is working in this very dysfunctional genre. I looked forward to the day when I could call you a peer.

    Today, frankly, I'm ashamed to refer to myself as a science fiction writer.

    Progressivism deserves better than this mob mentality.

    S. F. Murphy
    On the Outer Marches

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  2. This is why we can't have nice things.

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  3. Well, the hatchet job that New Statesman did on Seanan McGuire was really a class act.

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  4. Bravo for being big enough to come out and say it like this.

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  5. I applaud you for this, sir. We all make mistakes, but not many of us can address them this honestly.

    I agree that Mr Ross was probably not a good choice, but the whole episode illustrates that there are deep problems in the SF community. I've only been involved in it as an active member for four years, and in that time I've been shocked by the viciousness of the group-behavior (much of it fuelled by somewhat extreme politics). I've had death threats and seen many things I wouldn't have believed. Events like this are going to keep happening, and keep getting worse, until the community realizes that it's doing tolerance wrong.

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