Injunctions
May. 23rd, 2011 11:53 amGossip is a basic, low-down human activity. It's hard to see how society could function without it.
Sometimes it's malicious, sometimes merely informational.
If gossip is untrue it becomes slander and libel. And it can be addressed in law. No problems there.
But if the gossip is true it functions as a kind of rough justice. Mr Moneybags the adulterer may not like being talked about, but tough; he should have kept his trousers on.
And if he goes round the neighbourhood trying to shut people up he becomes a bully and an oppressor.
And that's at least as bad as being an adulterer.
I don't know whether gossip can be defined as a human right, but when someone tries to stop me doing it I feel that it is- and then I rebel and get stroppy and feel all righteous about it.
Most people do. Which is why a certain footballer's name is all over the Internet and his mug shot is on the front page of a Scottish newspaper and everybody is laughing at him.
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Date: 2011-05-23 10:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-23 11:29 am (UTC)As Lou Reed says, "You're gonna reap, reap, reap what you sow."
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Date: 2011-05-23 12:16 pm (UTC)Which in G - er, the footballer's case was "wild oats", really. Zero sympathy for him, I have to admit.
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Date: 2011-05-23 01:43 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2011-05-23 01:26 pm (UTC)I salute you for it.
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Date: 2011-05-23 02:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-23 06:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-23 08:06 pm (UTC)If football clubs go bust that just shows that the clubs value those skills higher than the fans do.
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Date: 2011-05-23 08:12 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2011-05-24 04:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-24 05:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-23 02:40 pm (UTC)You might have expected me to take a contrary view just for the hell of it.
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Date: 2011-05-23 03:20 pm (UTC)As it is, it's dragging out for ages and people like me, who don't read the tabloids and normally would have remained completely oblivious, are now aware of what he's been up to.
Besides, we already have libel laws. If what the papers printed was untrue, he could sue them. If it was true, then he should face the public, apologise to his fans and then behave himself in future.
I do take your point about a double standard in that the hoi polloi can do what they like -- though they will be censured by local gossip and, of course, damage their relationships -- but if a sportsman is making money out of his image as an upright family man, eg through sponsorship deals, then he would be profiting from a lie. If, on the other hand, all he's doing is playing football and nothing else, then I don't see that it matters who he's sleeping with.
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Date: 2011-05-23 03:26 pm (UTC)And perhaps it's not so bad- We all know Wayne Rooney's a slag, but it hasn't stopped him scoring goals- or having kids wanting to wear his shirt.
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Date: 2011-05-23 03:16 pm (UTC)What's that quote... Mansfield/OH, 1917: "It has been said that there are three grades of mentality. People of the lowest mental grade talk about people, those of the next talk about things, and those of the highest talk about ideas."
... of course it omits "and arseholes censure what other people talk about."
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Date: 2011-05-23 03:41 pm (UTC)I was randy, I was a Rev- what's to complain about?
Normally I could care less about footballers and their floozies. I don't follow their sport. I only get riled when they start making it illegal for us to talk about them.
And sometimes it is in the public interest that we know about the carryings-on of the rich and famous. For example it would have been a very good thing if Dominique Strauss-Kahn had been gossiped about more. The same is arguably true of Fred Goodwin.
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Date: 2011-05-23 04:34 pm (UTC)On the whole, I am anti-super-injunction.
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Date: 2011-05-23 06:06 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2011-05-23 06:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-23 09:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-23 09:25 pm (UTC)Seen this?
http://www.fleetstreetfox.com/2011/05/do-not-read-this.html?spref=tw
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Date: 2011-05-24 07:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-23 08:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-23 09:27 pm (UTC)I like how parliament and the judges have been bouncing off one another- the way they were designed to do. I think today- indeed this whole series of events- has been good for democracy.
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Date: 2011-05-23 11:08 pm (UTC)no subject
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