Forgiveness
Its nice to be able to forgive yourself, after all, everybody makes mistakes. Who among us have never regretted something they said or did? So forgiving oneself is never all "that" bad. Unless you're an axe wielding, homicidal maniac that is, then you would have to be a narcissist on an unprecedented level to be able to forgive yourself.
But what if you wanted to not only blame and forgive yourself, yet also blame everyone else and forgive them too?
Well that's a problem, to cloak yourself and everyone else in the shadow of guilt, only to forgive everyone (including obviously yourself) suggests a level of self love and appreciation that very few of us possess.
Not for The Guardians Marina Hyde it isn't though. OK Russell Brand is the object of Hyde's self forgiveness, but this isn't really about Brand at all
So lets have a look under the hood in this textbook example of self-flagellation with a twist of brutish collective responsibility all topped of with an apology to herself which is greedily accepted by herself on behalf of herself
The brave victims of Russell Brand’s misogyny deserve full support. This time, let’s get it right
OK, well first of all, these women are "alleged victims" and not "victims" what they currently truly are are is accusers.
The new claims made me think about the media’s treatment of the woman he so famously humiliated on Radio 2. I hope we all know better now.
This would be a royal "we" Hyde wasn't the only person who got things wrong, ALL media got it wrong apparently.
Back in the day, though, a lot of people were thrilled to be on what they thought was Russell’s side of the line. For a certain type of mournfully uncool man on the left, Russell Brand was quite the excitement.
Back in the day I was very much a Labour supporter (although support was waning fast) So were all my friends, not one of us thought Brand was cool, "Sachsgate" aside, Brand was a womanising sleazebag. I'm not saying there were no "mournfully uncool" men, just that I didn't know any of them
You only had to watch their little faces in his presence – lit up at being fleetingly indulged by the kind of guy who would probably have bullied them at school.
OK then...
Brand’s inevitable journey toward alt-right-frotting wingnut
I had no truck with any of this bollocks – but I don’t think it will quite do for me to spend even a nanosecond on self-congratulation, because I got other things wrong.
He's a what now? Now I've looked into the term "alt-right" it appears to be a massive umbrella term. Dr. Jordan Peterson is "alt-right" (he's just a conservative) But largely it appears to be a left-wing term for a left wing conspiracy theorist. A term that enables the left to give themselves some distance from people with views they disapprove of.
Today I want to talk about something that at the time was called Sachsgate, because it seems quite a useful way round the current insider debates on “who knew what when” as far as Brand was concerned.
As for the wider backdrop, explaining “the culture” for women during the 2000s is quite hard if you weren’t there. (I am very much looking forward to Toxic, a forthcoming book by the writer Sarah Ditum, which promises to enlighten those who swerved the decade and bring back shudder-inducing memories for those who didn’t.)
Well I was there, I know exactly what our culture was like. Amazingly, the forthcoming book that Hyde is looking forward to is written by someone with the exact same views as herself, ie: very left wing and very feminist, I would suggest normal people swerve her upcoming book
When it wasn’t unremittingly vicious (Britney), it was weird and gross, top to bottom. And 2008 was also the year in which even the then Lib-Dem leader, Nick Clegg, felt moved to tell GQ he had slept with up to 30 women.
Was it, was it really now, I have no idea what the media were saying about Britney because I don't buy newspapers. I am wondering why Hyde neglects to link any articles though. She does however link Nick Clegg being pushed to reveal his bodycount (sexual partners). I'm not really sure what is weird and gross about this. In fact, in 2023 people talk about a persons bodycount more than they ever have. Ironically. The Guardian itself can't get enough of talking about how many sexual partners someone may have had
What is completely bizarre, with the benefit of 2023 hindsight, is how the Sachsgate story was framed, both by those who were reflexive defenders of the BBC and “comedy” AND by those who wished their destruction. Fleet Street quickly settled into tribes and covered it as a story where each assumed the other was acting out of vested interests.
Is it really bizarre? Is it any different to what happens in 2023? (narrators voice, it is no different)
When the Brand expose broke last weekend, I found myself transported back to that time. And with my 2023 head on, rather sickening alarm bells began to ring, because I knew – I knew – that I wouldn’t have centred anything I wrote about it on Georgina Baillie
Look Out! Here comes an apology
Yet despite getting it right on the vileness of the broadcast, the tabloids pursuing the BBC got it wrong by endlessly and ferociously slut-shaming Georgina Baillie.
No links provided here, now why is that? Does no information exist, has Hyde just made this all up? Or is there an ulterior motive?
Why lookee here, this is what you might call an ulterior motive.
If I had written this, then I probably wouldn't link to it while I was allowing myself passage on the path to moral redemption either.
They cast the entire affair as an insult to Andrew Sachs
Did "they" So it looks like no apology is coming forward (at least not yet) Of course, Andrew Sachs being a globally famous actor while his granddaughter is someone nobody outside her family and close friends had ever previously heard of its little wonder the framing is around Sachs himself. Because without him, the story becomes less sensational, and tabloids do love sensation
She said (Baillie) the media maelstrom had sent her “insane”, subsequently telling the Guardian she was “a tart with a heart, a nice girl”. I am mortified to see I reacted to this by saying she should stop banging on about the whole thing.
Well, I'm pretty sure Baillie never actually went insane, but to go from being a nobody to being propelled into national notoriety overnight must have been utterly terrifying for her. Whatever harassment she went through at the time, she appears to have handled it extremely well
In fact, Baillie sank into addiction and out of the public eye.
Well this is just bollocks, Baillies drug addiction was long before she met Russell Brand as she admits herself on Piers Morgan show (report Daily Mirror 2023). and why would she remain in the public eye? She wasn't in the public eye beforehand, and being the victim of juvenile twats like Ross and Brand isn't going to keep you in the public eye for very long.
Georgina’s reflections (The Mirror 2023 again) were so without fury and blame as to be utterly heartbreaking.
Interestingly, Hyde already knows Baillies drug addiction wasn't because of Russell Brand, but being disingenuous appears to be a hallmark of Hyde's Journalism. Whilst I do (finally) agree that Georgina's interview is heartbreaking (drug addiction must be awful) I'm struggling why someone as worldly wise as Georgina is (and was at the time) would reflect on the actions of a moron with fury or blame. After all, the relationship was consensual and Brand paid for her to go into rehab, not that the gesture any way makes up for being a twat, but he didn't actually have to do anything at all.
I’m just one of the many people who got many different things wrong about how that story should have been covered and framed.
Ooh! Here it comes, the hand wringing remorse...
If we have learned anything – and I’m not entirely convinced we’ve learned nearly as much as we think we have – then it is vital we all treat these newly uncovered stories better.
And........No, there it goes again! We all got things wrong, we should all endeavour to do things differently yet she remains unconvinced "we" can (that royal we again)
So, a wonderful way to forgive yourself and everyone else at the same time. Left wing conspiracy theorist Emily Maitlis (she really has drifted into fantasy land since her BBC days) called the article refreshing and honest.
Previously mentioned Sarah Ditum tweeted this in support
Yeah, I'm not sure if she read the column either, neither am I sure Ditum knows what misogyny is. But I would really like to know the difference between "excellent" and "really excellent"
Needless to say, I wont be buying her upcoming book
They haven't, The tribalism is still there and it always will be. The right wing will always be right wing and the left wing will always be the left. Culture wars will come and go, and the World continues to turn.
And journalists like Marina Hyde will continue to centre and forgive themselves in the ever increasing maelstrom that is public discourse.
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