I'm not sorry, and I blame Allison Pearson.
Oh look, it's a rather over ripe peach.When blogging and responding to articles both elsewhere online and in the press, there's always a case for two diametrically opposed responses. Like I did with Kamm's rampant apologia for rendition yesterday, you can fisk hard and fast but do so without peppering it with what might well be valid but also distracting insults and expletives, or you can go the whole hog and just call a cunt a cunt, as Kid in the comments does. I try not to do that too often for a couple of reasons: firstly, because it's not pleasant, the writer probably isn't a cunt however reprehensible their views, and it makes me look like one of the green-ink brigade, even here in the deepest depths of cyberspace, not to mention the deeply misogynistic tones of doing so, even if no such offence is meant, and how it also doesn't really make me feel any better in any case; and secondly, because then when you only rarely do exactly what I've just described, it seems to make the result all the sweeter.
This is one of those such occasions. Last week, while commenting on Shannon Matthews and the media response, I happened to come across Allison Pearson's views on Matthews' mother. Worth keeping in mind throughout all of this that Pearson is and remains one of the McCanns' biggest supporters in the press. Her blithering that "this kind of thing doesn't usually happen to people like us" summed up both how the press had responded to the Madeleine disappearance and how it hasn't to Matthews. The sheer class snobbery, something already endemic in the Mail, was overwhelming, and just to labour the point, Pearson said that "Shannon was already a lost child" and went on to make observations that were stupid at best and downright deplorable at worst, saying that "allowing a passing parade of boyfriends to play tickling games with your vulnerable small girl is, at best, naïve" and also that "Shannon Matthews was already a victim of a chaotic domestic situation, inflicted by parents on their innocent children, long before she vanished into the chill February night."
Pearson herself has two children, and it's jolly good that she does, because otherwise she wouldn't be able to make such blasé generalisations about how others should look after theirs. Not content with kicking Shannon's mother while her daughter was and still is missing, Pearson obviously thought that wasn't quite potentially offensive enough. No, she had to go one better: kicking a mother when her daughter has just been raped and murdered. Yeah, I wish I was making this up too.
Fiona MacKeown, the mother of Scarlett Keeling, the 15-year-old girl who was raped and murdered in Goa, seems less like a grieving mother than an avenging tigress.
The dehumanisation therefore sets in immediately. In Pearson's fucked up, microscopic little brain, MacKeown is not someone who wants justice for her daughter's murder, something that the local police appear to have covered up, but rather a vicious creature that is out for vengeance, and more than willing to rip out a few throats in the process. Someone who ought to be supported when at her most vulnerable is instead about to be clobbered by the Daily Mail's latest and worst Glenda Slagg.
With her swishing curtain of grey hair, Fiona is taking on a corrupt local police force which initially denied that her cub had been the victim of foul play.
This is a pretty old cub we're talking about here, considering that Scarlett was 15. Never mind that the analogy is bogus, stretched to complete breaking point, and that MacKeown is instead doing what any relative, regardless of whether she was the mother or not would do if they had the personal strength to do so, in Pearson's grim calculus this is just the beginning in a build up towards far more than dehumanisation.
"If police had taken more interest in previous [suspicious] deaths, then Scarlett might not be dead now," growled Fiona.
Ah, she's growling now. I see, like a cat. How much exactly do you get paid for this you witless, brain-addled fuckbubble?
Maybe so. But isn't there an even better chance that Scarlett would still be alive if her own mother had not abandoned her for several weeks after an argument and recklessly continued her own holiday?
Or perhaps if whoever it was WHO FUCKING KILLED HER hadn't done so she would still be. Scarlett and her mother don't come into this; the entirety of the blame lies with the murderer. But then, how could the murderer resist?
Instead the blonde teenager, as tempting as a ripe peach, was left in the care of a 25-year-old tour guide - a local man she'd only recently met.
As tempting as a ripe peach. In case Pearson hasn't been paying attention, over the last month or so we've seen similar "ripe peaches" who have been killed by men, in at least one of the cases purely for his own warped sexual pleasure. They however weren't excused for their crimes because those they killed were beautiful and therefore apparently asking for it; they were rightly put behind bars for more or less the rest of their lives. They say that the Daily Mail is the most misogynistic newspaper, and with such writers as Pearson, who needs enemies?
I don't know what they call that in globe-trotting hippy circles. Back here on Planet Parent it's known as dereliction of duty.
Jolly good. Perhaps if you have daughters and one of them is subsequently whisked away, you'll not begrudge me the right to blame your fucked up small-minded bourgeois values rather than the person responsible, while adding that your daughter was clearly asking for it because she resembled a plump plum, just ready to be devoured.
Mrs MacKeown is now to be questioned by Goan police for negligence - a tactic she claims is a "disgusting" attempt to "switch the focus" away from their own failings.
If anyone's trying to divert attention away from their own mistakes, I'd say it's Mrs MacKeown.
Oh, what's the fucking point with even bothering to argue against this diatribe? Fuck you Allison, and fuck your paper for printing this despicable rant which simply couldn't want a day longer to be formed in that shell-like wrinkled, busted contraption in the middle of your head that couldn't possibly be described by anyone that has read your prose as a brain.
Scarlett was last seen at 4am in a bar surrounded by several men. Witnesses say she was totally off her head on ecstasy and cocaine.
Surrounded by men? On drugs? Clearly this was another lost child abandoned by her parents and therefore which is eminently explainable to the fuckwitted readers out there in middle England that are no doubt nodding sagely along with your sordid analysis. She doesn't matter because she was clearly a whore, took ILLEGAL SUBSTANCES and was just waiting to be plucked by any man who set eyes on her.
That kind of behaviour would have made her vulnerable in her home town back in Devon, let alone in a culture where Western girls are all too readily viewed as sexually available.
Oh, I see. Not only is it her fault and her mother's fault, but it's also both of their fault for going somewhere where the filthy fucking backward savages just can't wait to get their hands on the succulent white women. Does Pearson really not see just how enormously offensive this is? No, of course she doesn't; she's far too fucking moronic.
Forgive me for being a boringly conventional bourgeois mum, but what the hell were Fiona MacKeown and her partner thinking of taking seven kids on a six-month "dream trip" to India - and then leaving one of them to fend for herself? Why wasn't Scarlett in school studying for her GCSEs?
You know, I'm almost tempted to agree with Pearson. I don't think it's the greatest idea ever to take a 15-year-old out of school for six months at one of the most important times in their school life; then though I remember that this abnormal amoral "conventional bourgeois mum" has just more or less justified a teenager's death because she was very attractive and in a country with a load of darkies that were just bound to want to rape her and murder her. You can take Scarlett's GCSEs which will now never be filled in and poke them right up your arid cunt.
The loss of any child must be a horror beyond imagining. But there is something about Fiona MacKeown that makes me want to scream at the TV.
Why exactly? Because she wants justice for having her pride and joy taken away and because she has been denied it? Or is it because her lifestyle and everything else offend your "conventional bourgeois" values so much that you therefore think that she ought to be kicked and assaulted while she's down?
Not an ounce of doubt or regret seems to weigh on this laid-back woman. She told reporters that she had counted every mark on Scarlett's body.
Similarly, doubtless not a "doubt or regret" will weigh on the fucking harridan bitch that wrote this completely heartless piece. Personally, I hope you fucking choke on your words.
"There were almost 50 bruises and abrasions. She has clearly been battered and assaulted. I feel vindicated."
Vindicated? For crying out loud! Any normal person would be tearing out their own hair with grief and remorse.
And does it not cross your tiny fizzog that perhaps this is exactly her way of responding to that grief and remorse? Many others would have collapsed at the tragedy of their daughter dying after drowning; MacKeown instead questioned that and yes, she has been vindicated. If she hasn't grieved yet, that will doubtless come once she has achieved justice, and not before. My own mother, bless her, has questioned the McCanns because to her mind neither of them had showed enough emotion, and she ought to know, because she lost one son in an accident before I came along. I therefore don't question her on that view, despite my disagreeing with it. None of this however occurs to Pearson, or if it does, she keeps it hidden to instead only keep the most base prejudices out in the open.
Mrs MacKeown says her one consolation is that she's "got some photographs of [Scarlett] having a fabulous time".
She still doesn't get it, does she? Fiona MacKeown is an unrepentant member of the Me Generation, one of those people who would rather be a best mate than a parent.
Again, who the fuck are you Pearson to question what MacKeown is going through or state that she doesn't get it? It's you that doesn't get it; your unbearable cruelty to those going through hell through your column is far worse than any offence that Matthews' mother or MacKeown have ever committed. You're the lowest of the low, a bottom-feeding cunt that uses other people's misery against them and gets paid for doing it. You and the "newspaper" you write for are not just a disgrace to journalism, you're a disgrace to humanity itself.
It's more fun being a friend to your kids and, quite frankly, a lot less hassle.
You don't have to fight daily battles over bedtimes and body piercings. And if you have a row with your "mate" you can storm off, unlike an old-fashioned authority figure who has to weather the storm and stay put always and forever.
Oh my god! Scarlett had body piercings! Someone call the middle-class outrage brigade! Oh wait, they already did. Just what is your point exactly Allison? Do you want MacKeown to come and personally show you how sorry she is for her "mistakes" so that you're sated? I suppose you'd like that, and could write about it. TERRIBLE MOTHER WHO ABANDONED HER DAUGHTER TO DEATH AT HANDS OF EASTERN SAVAGES ON DRUGS SAYS SORRY TO TOP DAILY MAIL COLUMNIST. Read all about it!
This week, John Dunford, head of the Association of Schools and College Leaders, warned that schools are the only moral framework in many children's lives.
With the erosion of traditional family life, parents are no longer giving their offspring basic social skills or a sense of right and wrong.
I'm sorry, what's this got to do with MacKeown and Scarlett? Both seemed to have social skills and a sense of right and wrong; it's only you and the fucking murdering bastard who killed her that don't.
It's a bleak picture that brings to mind W.B. Yeats's great poem about a world where the natural order of things has catastrophically broken down: "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;/Mere anarchy is loosed, and everywhere/The ceremony of innocence is drowned."
Welcome one and all to Daily Mail island, where everything is going to hell, the kids all have body piercings and Allison Pearson knows exactly what the remedy is and how to dispense it. Roll up so you too can have the foot of middle England stamping on your bonce forever.
For parents who are poor and ground down by work, or the lack of it, there may be some excuse. But articulate, middle-class people should know better.
That didn't save Matthews' mother though did it? You assaulted her just as you're attacking MacKeown now. The reality is not that "articulate, middle-class people should know better", but actually those that Allison "even my parents must think I'm the lowest form of cunt" Pearson passes judgement on should know better.
Since Scarlett's brutal killing, Fiona MacKeown has fought for her daughter. Would that she had exercised half that dedication and sense of responsibility while Scarlett was still alive and in need of a mother's care.
Hug your children tight Daily Mail readers, because who knows when you too might be damned in the pages of your favourite newspaper for letting them go off on their own with another adult they trusted. You too can then experience the wrath of the very worst writers that man has ever known, with all their preening, self-centred superiority. How ironic that the newspaper which so rails against nanny statism thinks that every parent other than ones that resemble their own values exactly are the product of their own downfall. If Allison was perhaps a little wet between the ears and trying to impress the thrusting Paul Dacre, this sort of vicious attack on a grieving mother could be justified. As it is, Pearson is either 47 or 48 and at the "peak" of her career. One can't help but conclude with hoping that this typeface executioner falls under a train or something similarly messy and nasty. Then instead of blaming Pearson for being on the tracks her family can perhaps sue the train driver and company.
Related post:
Enemies of Reason - Least surprising Daily Mail headline ever...
Labels: Allison Pearson, cunts, Daily Mail, Daily Mail-watch, Fiona MacKeown, fisks, Scarlett Keeling, swear blogging
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Heh. It's impossible to write a short piece about this vile old witch. I only discovered Pearson last week when I read the Matthews piece on here. Awful, awful woman. Gets paid real money to slag off people in distress and call them bad parents. Yet they show more dignity and compassion than I think she'll ever possess.
Posted by
Anton Vowl |
Wednesday, March 12, 2008 10:50:00 PM
Accompanying this horrid opinion piece is an equally disgusting article picking apart their private life.
Posted by
Mellomeh |
Thursday, March 13, 2008 12:07:00 AM
Worth remembering that the Mail doesn't just attack those grieving for not coming up to their moral standards, but also women that have yet to be convicted of any crime; Meredith Kercher apparently unlike Scarlett Keeling wasn't asking for it.
Posted by
septicisle. |
Thursday, March 13, 2008 12:59:00 AM
I just looked at that link mellomeh provided. Didn't read the story, just looked at the picture captions.
Picture showing a messy interior:
A room in the caravan Scarlett Keeling and her family call home
Picture showing another view of messy caravan:
The family caravans are a far cry from the idylic image Fiona MacKeown painted
Picture of Scarlett in a bikini riding an elephant:
This is one of the last pictures taken of Scarlett in Goa before she was found dead on the beach
Picture of Scarlet and Fiona MacKeown:
Scarlett was one of Fiona MacKeown's nine children by five different fathers
Picture of a rather untidy caravan site:
The family live on a run-down small holding in Devon
Picture of Scarlett and her boyfriend:
Scarlett with boyfriend Julio Lobo, ten years her senior
He is also black.
I have to admit I don't know this story at all but I obviously gather than Scarlet was murdered. I don't think it matters if mum herself did the murder, she doesn't deserve ripping apart so vicously - twice.
If there is a case to answer it's up to the police to sort it, not some a "news"paper.
As for Pearson herself. I don't know if you have to be a complete asshole to work at the mail, or if you get training in it, or if people who work there are actually decent people but are paid to pretend to be assholes (which to me removes their integrity and thus they become assholes for another reason).. whatever the case, the Mail is much more of a black mark on this country than the government could ever do.
Posted by
Chris |
Thursday, March 13, 2008 1:09:00 AM
In summary, it appears MacKeown left her daughter with this guy who she apparently trusted. Her daughter then turns up dead; according to the Goan police, she drowned. Mother refuses to believe, gets a second opinion, which finds that she had over 50 separate bruises. Most likely was raped and killed. Mother demands justice. Daily Mail eviscerates her.
By quite a few accounts the Mail, because of its success, such as it is, pays well and has a decent pension scheme, unlike other papers. Davies in FEN, to come back to it for the umpteenth time, makes clear that if writers don't produce what's expected of them, it gets sent back to them, or it simply doesn't get in at all. They learn the lesson the next time. Most on the Mail are probably decent liberal people who decide to produce this crap for an easy life, regardless of the consequences. Others, and I would presume Pearson is one of them, are just complete fucking scum.
Posted by
septicisle. |
Thursday, March 13, 2008 1:43:00 AM
Feel free to remove my comment on the Kamm post - I thought it was funny spoken in my head but there baldly on the screen it looks hysterically nasty and vindictive. I sometimes forget that in many ways below-the-line commenters have a duty of care to the blog they are contributing to (i.e not to go off-topic; not to undermine a valid posting by being somewhat over the top), and as a pseudonymous sometime commenter (for work reasons) I could appear to look like a sock-puppet, thus potentially inadvertently causing a more negative view of the author. So, apologies...
As for Pearson and the Mail, I'm not surprised that they have taken a very negative line against Fiona MacKeown: they want to attack Scarlett outright for being (allegedly) a sexually-active, drug using minor. But even the Mail's readers might recoil if their paper of choice ran attack pieces on murdered children, so the mother gets it both barrels.
Posted by
Kid |
Thursday, March 13, 2008 4:38:00 AM
kid: no need to apologise, if I felt that it wasn't suitable I would have removed it. You doubtless spoke for those who would have just dismissed Kamm in similar terms without going through his contradictions and evasions.
I think it's a good idea to have something approaching a comment policy though, which my next post will be on.
Posted by
septicisle. |
Thursday, March 13, 2008 8:10:00 PM
I got back from work to find the middle of a Richard and Judy 'debate' on this very topic. The most rational of the guests tried to move the conversation over to the police investigation, but Richard kept stopping him saying that wasn't the topic under discussion. Apparently the topic was "Would you leave your 15-year old child with an unknown person abroad". Wonderful upper-middle class fodder.
Posted by
FlipC |
Friday, March 14, 2008 9:44:00 AM
[applauds]
Since you say comments encourage you, I thought I'd better post one. Great article, great blog. Keep it up :)
Posted by
mcgazz |
Friday, March 14, 2008 11:15:00 AM
"witless, brain-addled fuckbubble" poetry, pure poetry! And what a smug looking bitch she is too.
Posted by
Ruth |
Sunday, March 16, 2008 2:14:00 PM
The voice of reason at last -thanks.Scarlett was murdered and then raped again by the British press,how do they sleep? Sharon MacKeown.
Posted by
Beau |
Wednesday, March 26, 2008 2:19:00 AM
Fiona and her family are lovely people, they live near me, what happened to Scarlett was a tragedy. What the stupid journolistic cow should realise is that Scarlett was a 15 yr old left in the care of adults, not a 3 yr old left alone in an apartment while her parents went for a drink. I imagine that many 15 yr olds are left while their parents go out, tragedy can strike, even if a minor is left for a couple of hours in their own home.
Class snobbery, Fiona is a gypsy therefore worth berating, Fiona lives an alternative lifestyle, therefore worth berating, Fiona home educated,(legal, I do it too) therefore worth berating.
Fiona is worth 1000 Allison Pearsons!
Posted by
Gina xx |
Monday, May 25, 2009 8:29:00 PM