Wossgate in the News

[ffutures]

The row over Jonathan Ross's selection (then quick resignation) as Hugo Award presenter has reached the London Evening Standard, apparently because his wife has closed her Twitter account.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/jonathan-rosss-wife-jane-goldman-quits-twitter-after-online-abuse-9170364.html

Still not convinced it's a major news story...

Comments

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

It isn't. Give it a week and it will be forgotten by everyone outside fandom.

It's also been in the Mail, the Gruniad and the New Statesman. Oddly (or perhaps not) the last was the most inaccurate.

[daveon.livejournal.com]

The last had a fair bit of spin. There's another piece coming there I'm told. Yay.

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

Oh, wonderful. This isn't doing anyone (including Ross) any good.

[autopope.livejournal.com]

The next NS piece is by Laurie Penny, and it's more about an examination of the relationship between SF fandom and conventional media than it is reportage of the recent upset. (I've read the draft: it didn't look bad to me.)

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

That's a relief.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

That ought to be interesting.

[nelc.livejournal.com]

I dunno, it's got a major celeb with history, and a bunch of weird dweebs (myself definitely not excepted), all crying before bedtime. And it doesn't matter a whit to anyone who isn't mentioned in the story, so it's easy to talk about around the water cooler. Never underestimate the usefulness of trivia.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

I think there are elements in the media who are fixated on making anything Ross is involved with into a major news story, particularly if there is any hint of fail around it.


And also, silver piece received, thank you very much. :)

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

True. At least it's happening a long time before the con, so should be pretty dead news come August.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

re coin, glad to find someone who can use it.

re Ross, I never really felt much interest but it does seem to have blown up rather suddenly - can't help wishing that they'd thought it through a little more before asking him.

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

Who decided to ask him gets murkier. Ross says Gaiman asked him (and we can all agree on that.) Gaiman says that he was asked by one of the con chairs - and as he goes on to say 'he' we know which one - to ask Ross. Before then, gnomic utterances from Loncon 3 on twitter and Facebook might have been interpreted -- and were - to suggest Ross volunteered.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

The rule mechanic for the coin is pretty groovy, you pull it out of your pocket to cancel any one fight, and then ownership of the coin passes to the person who had the most recent birthday.

And yeah I hadn't realised he was such a controversial figure in fandom, but if people were so against him that they were prepared to quit the organising committee and attendees were pulling out, then yep, it does seem like something they should have talked about, before just giving him the gig.