Daisy Waugh in Today's Sunday Times

[XmisterIS]

Why do any of you pay the smallest attention to this shoot? I haven't bought or read a newspaper in years, if ever, and I'm none the worse for it. Why anyone needs to read a paper to find out that some people don't like cyclists much, and then post that on the forum, is beyond me. Just let it go; tomorrow everyone will have forgotten about this woman, whoever she is.

Because these are the idiots who give me close-passes, drive aggressively 1" from my rear tyre, left hook me without caring, look directly at me and pull out into my path, deliberately pull across into the cycle lane when I try to filter past them in traffic jams, etc, etc ...

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Because these are the idiots who give me close-passes, drive aggressively 1" from my rear tyre, left hook me without caring, look directly at me and pull out into my path, deliberately pull across into the cycle lane when I try to filter past them in traffic jams, etc, etc ...

With respect, they're not. This is just some woman in a newspaper trying to stir up some publicity for herself. The more people respond to it, the more it's worked.
I don't especially like it myself (from what I've read on here; obviously I haven't actually gone and read the article in question - why would I?) but I think the best way to deal with articles like the one in the OP is to completely ignore them. Any response shows that it's been read. This is a Good Thing in the newspaper world; the fact that the response may be largely negative is neither here nor there.

 

[yello]

Any response shows that it's been read. This is a Good Thing in the newspaper world; the fact that the response may be largely negative is neither here nor there.

That's my take on it too... as genuinely irritating as I find such brain dead opinion pieces.

It's not big and it's not clever. Anybody idiot can generate a response by making outlandish statements. Clarkson makes quite a decent living out of it. I guess it's easier, and more profitable, that responsible journalism... whatever that might be in this phone hacking era.

 

[swee'pea99]

We'll have to agree to differ on this one. I do understand the 'they only do it to get attention' take on it, but I also believe this stuff is genuinely dangerous, and should not go unchallenged. They should not do this. So long as they're allowed to with impunity, they will. Calling the powers that be to account in an articulate and reasoned way just could pay off in discouraging such irresponsibility. Simply 'ignoring it with dignity' certainly will not.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Depends who the "powers that be" are ... if you're talking about the newspaper editors, their only response will be "wow, look at all this reaction to that piece about pushing orphans under buses. Cool." A negative reaction will get much the same response as a positive one. I believe so, anyway.

 

[pepecat]

I guess it's the same as art, in a way. Some artist (i forget who) once said that no reaction is worse than a negative one.
Positive reaction - all good - people are taking notice.
Negative reaction - not good - but people are taking notice
No reaction - not good - people don't give a sh*t.

If you're a journalist / writer / artist / etc ANY reaction is better than none at all. She's getting what she wanted.

 

[swee'pea99]

Of course. But there's a difference between what she wants, what her boss wants and what their boss wants. Notoriety and fame are not actually the same thing, and I can (maybe I'm naive) envisage at least the possibility of her editor being forced to address the question of whether or not (s)he/they want to be associated with 'that kind of journalism', and calling in Ms Waugh not to congratulate her for creating a stir but to tell her that that kind of thing is really not good enough and she needs to display a bit more savvy if she wants to stick around in the land of milk, honey and expense-account lunches.

 

[JohnHenry]

Yeah, right - the boss in question being Rupert Chuffing Murdoch.

 

[swee'pea99]

Who's under no real pressure on the PR front right now, let's face it...

 

[albion]

What sort of person would alter a Wikipedia page?

I was half expecting the agony aunt bit to say "stand up for yourself and slice his little winkle off while he is asleep"

 

[Allirog]

Panda, Zebadee and Bashe. Sounds like the kind of names Walt Disney would have chosen if he'd added three extra dwarves to the line up in Snow White.I suspect she likes children as much as she likes cyclists.

 

[dellzeqq]

check out her wikipedia page, anyone want to add to it?

http://en.wikipedia....iki/Daisy_Waugh

genius! Thankyou so much for that!

 

[Tynan]

read her bit in last weekend's Sunday Times, pissing and moaning about cyclists in a lighthearted and so not serious way, about getting cyclists moaning at her without actually menyioning why they did

 

[Crankarm]

If you believe in karma then this air head has a shed load of bad karma heading in her direction at some point.

Let's hope it's soon.

 

[Hover Fly]

Latest in a long line of BSers.