December 28, 2003
RECOUNT! RECOUNT!
Trust an anti-Australian Brit like Andrew Sullivan to relegate hard-working Aussie headcase John Pilger to a mere second place in his 2003 Sontag Awards. Beaten by Margaret Drabble? Oh, yeah. Right. Sure, she’s got the crazy eyes and the bowl haircut of the tragically concerned, but Drabble’s work in the fields of paranoia and delusion are as nothing compared to Pilger’s.
Admit it, Andrew. It’s because she was born in Scabsborough or Sewershire or some other upper-class British area, isn’t it? This sort of ugly prejudice makes me sick.
Posted by Tim Blair at December 28, 2003 01:40 AMIt's a bowl fringe. And the rest is extensions, imported from the former East Germany.
Posted by: tim at December 28, 2003 at 02:17 AMIf it's any consolation John Pilger did win Private Eyes's "understatement of the Year" award for his thoughtful remarks on the US administration "the current American elite is the Third Reich of our times".
Posted by: Ross at December 28, 2003 at 02:36 AMI'm from Werribee, Rob. I know a bowl-cut when I see one, even if it is disguised by commie add-ons.
Posted by: tim at December 28, 2003 at 02:55 AM"Wow, nice save."
He just can't handle the TRUTH, Rob!
Posted by: Angus Jung at December 28, 2003 at 03:48 AMThe contest is obviously fixed. After all, how can Robert Fisk, the journalist for whom “Fisking” is named, and whose work has been described by the Toronto Star’s ombudsman as “compelling testimony that columnists shouldn't suck and blow at the same time,” not even place for a Sontag Award?
Posted by: OmbudsGod at December 28, 2003 at 04:38 AMIt's okay. I removed the two duplicate posts... but I'm afraid that I can't do anything about the missing url for your link. You must have forgotten to insert something, & the url was stripped out.
Posted by: Andrea Harris at December 28, 2003 at 04:42 AMYou inflicted John Pilger,Rolf Harris,Peter Tatchell and Germaine Greer on us,have you no shame?
Posted by: Peter UK at December 28, 2003 at 05:41 AMOh please OmbudsGod, supply that URL. That wasn’t mere visual joshing, was it?
Posted by: ForNow at December 28, 2003 at 05:50 AMMr. T says "I pity the fool who believes Drabble drivel."
Posted by: Reid of America at December 28, 2003 at 07:00 AMI would love to give her a real reason to hate America. I think it isn't so much the content, lets face it Pilger and Drabble are both hitting the same note. Drabble evokes the imaginary dead kids bit better. Pilger is working the Bush as hitler fantasy too much. It was a close call but I have to agree with Sully on this one.
Posted by: Papertiger at December 28, 2003 at 07:40 AMI admit this may be odd (OK it is odd).
And yes, both Drabble and Pilger are, well, lunatics. Or at least they sure sound like lunatics.
But...
I think Ms. Drabble is kind of hot.
Really, I'm not kidding.
I would definitely do her.
Posted by: DemDeez'n'Dose at December 28, 2003 at 08:31 AMDrabble wins for unhinged prose style in this case. Pilger, however, is more likely to take home a Life Achievement award.
Posted by: Mike G at December 28, 2003 at 08:54 AMActually, I was disappointed Pilger was even named. I think these things should be amateur, and Pilger's definitely a pro. (In other words, I was looking for new names to put on my shit list, and Pilger's already near the top.)
Posted by: Angie Schultz at December 28, 2003 at 09:09 AMHang on! Where in Werribee can I get a Trabant trim?
Posted by: slatts at December 28, 2003 at 09:59 AMDon't you just love the tribute Pilger got from his peers who judged him Media Personality of the Year at this year's EMMA awards: "The judges cited Pilger's Carlton documentaries, notably last year's Palestine Is Still The Issue. They commented that John Pilger "goes the extra mile to bring us the alternative truth."
Slatts,
He's dead now, but there used to be a guy in Watton Street who cut everybody's hair in the one bowlish format. He was known as Cannonball Biondo.
Posted by: tim at December 28, 2003 at 10:09 AMI should be clear to everyone. Being British-born, Andrew Sullivan demonstrates yet again the true depth of the Trans-Atlantic Axis of Evil!
Posted by: Antony at December 28, 2003 at 10:28 AMIt's tough, but I have to give the nod to the appropriately named Drabble. Her descriptive name is kind of a train wreck between drivel and babble.
Posted by: Mike Messina at December 28, 2003 at 11:04 AMWhat's the ENEMA award?
Oh Wait, sorry, misread that.
Was likely the length of the URL to the Toronto star story - they have the worst fucking URLs.
Posted by: matt at December 28, 2003 at 11:38 AMAdmit it, Andrew. It’s because she was born in Scabsborough or Sewershire or some other upper-class British area, isn’t it?
My geography of the English Class System is incomplete, but I don't think Sheffield is an upper-class area.
Margaret Drabble was born in Sheffield (Yorkshire). Her father was a barrister, a county court judge and a novelist.
She was understudy to Vanessa Redgrave at the Royal Shakespeare Company - which probably explains a lot.
Posted by: Peggy Sue at December 28, 2003 at 01:00 PMSlatts,
Are you sure the EMMA award was not for "going the extra mile to bring us the alternative TO truth"?
Posted by: Major John at December 28, 2003 at 02:50 PMhey peggy-sue. ya just gotta love those working class barristers...
Posted by: roscoe.p.coltrane at December 28, 2003 at 06:36 PMFor shame, class and Englishness have nothing to do with it. No way Pilger could come up with a nearly Nobel line like:
"My anti-Americanism has become almost uncontrollable. It has possessed me, like a disease. It rises up in my throat like acid reflux, that fashionable American sickness."
The grace, the ease, the imagery: simile, on simile. The biting invective of "that fashionable American sickness." Sullivan was simply giving credit to a master of the language without fear or favour.
I speak, of course, from the lofty position of disinterested Canadian.
Posted by: JayCurrie at December 28, 2003 at 06:55 PM"She was understudy to Vanessa Redgrave at the Royal Shakespeare Company - which probably explains a lot."
Lynn Redgrave is apparently a Ron Jeremy fan. This is probably the origin of Vanessa's anti-Americanism.
Posted by: Clem Snide at December 28, 2003 at 10:49 PM"Oh please OmbudsGod, supply that URL. That wasn’t mere visual joshing, was it?"
The piece appeared on March 8, 2003 in the Toronto Star and is now available in the archive for a fee.
Ombudsman Don Sellar wrote:
Labelling "unprovable" all claims that Mohammed was the 9/11 "mastermind," Fisk went a big step further and asked if he'd really been captured.
That brazenly disputed the self-evident fact that Mohammed's shaggy face, photographed after capture, was glaring at readers, directly above Fisk's piece that ran on Page 1 in the early edition.
"Of course it may all turn out to be true," Fisk wrote deep in the column, awkwardly covering all bases.
Given the column's Doubting Thomas premise, it was an eye-stopping concession.Sellar concludes that Fisk’s column is “compelling testimony that columnists shouldn't suck and blow at the same time.” Posted by: OmbudsGod at December 29, 2003 at 01:01 AM