Paula Murray is an idiot
Via Anton we have this piece of utter scumbaggery from Express journalist Paula Murray:
DUNBLANE survivors have “shamed” the memory of their dead peers with foul-mouthed boasts about sex, brawls and drink-fuelled antics as they reach adulthood.
So, the survivors of an atrocity try to live their lives in as normal a way as possible only to find judgement at the hands of a gutter journalist trying to stir the pot of moral outrage.
If only the doctors and counsellors who treated the wounds and mental scars of those children all those years ago had had the foresight to say: ‘Now, children, you most now go forth and live the lives of angels, not only in tribute to your dead schoolmates who no doubt would have wanted you to live puritanical lives, but also to avoid the predations of journalists barely worthy of the name who, as soon as you turn 18, will ransack your private lives in search of cheap, revolting scoops.’ All this could have been avoided.
Paula Murray is an idiot.
Posted on March 9th, 2009 at 4:12pm under Culture, media and sport
It’s funny how so many people believe that a close brush with death enobles one. You see it in the regard given to military personnel who’ve seen combat at first hand – the belief that they’ve now ascended to a higher plane than everyone else because they’ve killed or almost died in battle. Presumably, it stems from the perception that a close encounter with one’s mortality brings one closer to God and therefore Holiness.
‘Daily Express hack writes indulgent moralising crap’. It’s almost as if they’re not really trying any more.
“Idiot” doesn’t get close.
More than a decade, sheltered from the press?
Maybe Paula resents that, just a little bit.
What a cow.
Apparently she was hired by the Express last year, after four years on the Daily Record, as a news reporter. How anyone would view this mean spirited piece of trolling as news is beyond us.
Journalism.co.uk quotes her as saying, “It’s tough to hold on to a good story [for Sunday] because there’s the risk someone else in another publication will also get their hands on it.”
Not so tough hanging on to a bad one though, right, Paula? Bet you really had to fight off the competition to get this scoop.
Well, anyone googling her from now on will be set straight. (Massive hat-tip to Tim for the mighty google-fu.)
let the idiot know how you feel. Here’s her email address:
paula.murray@express.co.uk
My letter / rant to the express!
I write to convey my sincere displeasure at the the article in yesterday’s Scottish Sunday Express “Anniversary shame of Dunblane survivors”. What on earth was the point of this article other than to polarise a community and vilify ‘daft’ young men? It is an extreme example of muck raking journalism.
The massacre at Dunblane Primary School on the 13th March 1996 cast a dark shadow over the country. None of us can imagine the terror experienced by those in the gym that day. These were 5 and 6 year old children who were hunted down by a madmen and shot with large calibre handguns. At the time we were all grateful that so many of the wounded survived to grow up as normal kids. It is also impossible to imagine the ‘baggage’ that these kids will have. The guilt, the fear, not to mention the physical effects of being shot. The fact that some of these kids grew up to be normal ‘daft laddies’ should almost be noteworthy of praise.
I live in Dunblane, and like any town in Scotland we have 18 year olds who go to University, who are in apprenticeships, who go to college, who are unemployed, who play piano, who play football or rugby, who drive customised cars and who get drunk on buckfast. In short, they do what normal 18 year olds do, and I thank God that they can. So many children lost the chance that morning to grow up to be normal 18 year olds.
The kids that survived that gym hall have a legacy. They survived Scotland’s most brutal atrocity in living memory. They lost their friends and their innocence and many will endure the physical effects for the rest of their lives. Does the Express believe that because they survived that they should count themselves lucky and be Saints for evermore, or was this just a cynical attempt to cash in on the tragedy and sell more papers?
Please. Leave them alone.
i really hope you sent that letter to the express, i agree with you entirely, the survivors are just ordinary human beings who should be allowed to move on and get on with their lives.
I think the Express and those who share this view believe exactly that idea: those who narrowly escape death have been spared by God and therefore must devote their lives to the Good in gratitude for his mercy. I think this unspoken theological conception underlies this judgment. In other words, the deaths at Dunblane were, ultimately, a moral act.
The other point of view is simply to see the survivors as lucky – in an absurd universe, their childhood classmates died, for no reason at all, and, they lived ,for no reason at all.
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[...] As Chicken Yoghurt puts it: If only the doctors and counsellors who treated the wounds and mental scars of those children all those years ago had had the foresight to say: ‘Now, children, you most now go forth and live the lives of angels, not only in tribute to your dead schoolmates who no doubt would have wanted you to live puritanical lives, but also to avoid the predations of journalists barely worthy of the name who, as soon as you turn 18, will ransack your private lives in search of cheap, revolting scoops.’ All this could have been avoided. [...]
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Why should we be surprised? This from the paper which kept Madelaine McCann and Princess Diana on the front page daily long past their sell by date. This is not a newspaper, it’s just lazy journalism at its worst.
The paper has now apologised. I hope they sack that so-called “reporter”
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/90417/Dunblane-We-re-sorry
[...] behaving like perfectly normal 18 year olds? Come on, you must remember it: I blogged about it, Justin blogged about it, Tim blogged about it and Graham did [...]