… to ask why Giles Coren hasn’t been cancelled yet?

[mowly77]

The vile Dawn Foster tweets ffs. But he seems Teflon coated. He will never be cancelled. Three fucking columns a week … a pissing radio show, albeit on Times Radio, which surely no one listens to. I would love to be proved wrong. Absolutely love to be.

I think these people love attention good or bad.

Unfollow him. If everyone did he would be the nothing that he is. People following creates the monsters

You don’t have to be a ‘slave’ to social media to be aware of what’s going down when you check it once or twice a day as I do. His name was trending earlier & I was hoping his car had been stolen again frankly.

If you're hoping that someone's car has been stolen, who you have never met, I would argue that you are a slave to social media.

...the privately educated son of a man who was a famous satirist and BBC TV panellist. Just coincidence that Giles and Victoria now also have media careers. Nepotism definitely isn't a thing.

Having a dad in the game might get you a job, but it won't keep you in a job, especially when that job is essentially freelance.

He's (among other things) a provocateur, and he's good at it. Like all provocateurs, he'll sometimes get it wrong - where 'wrong' means more people will be offended than provoked. But if that means he ought to be 'cancelled' - in other words, have his career destroyed - then most challenging comedians, feature journalists and satirists are going to Amazon delivery drivers by Christmas.

You don't advocate the removal of a writer from their job just because you don't like what they say. As a policy, that's much worse than any offence that may have been caused. I mean, that's frightening.

He's posh white & a man

Isn't' instigating for someone to be 'cancelled' (i.e. suffer 'consequences') due to protected characteristics the very definition of hate speech? Just saying...

Or does it work in one direction but not the other one?

You don't advocate the removal of a writer from their job just because you don't like what they say. As a policy, that's much worse than any offence that may have been caused. I mean, that's frightening

This.

Cancel culture is no better than McCarthyism in 50s America. It’s so disturbing.

Yes, and the posts on here trying to drag his family into it too, speculating on his wife and his brother in law although sister seems exempt so far. It's chilling. Some of the accusations against posters like myself who despise cancel culture are also deeply nasty.

Having a dad in the game might get you a job, but it won't keep you in a job, especially when that job is essentially freelance

If you can't write, then no one will employ you as as writer, no matter who your dad is. GC's not a terrible writer (better than his sister, for a start). Most of the population couldn't do his job, but there are maybe 10,000 writers in the UK as good. Why does GC have a Times column, when the other 9,999 don't? That's where the nepotism counts. In a highly competitive profession, the initial leg-up, the connections and the exposure are everything.

Why does anyone have any job?

Having a dad in the game might get you a job, but it won't keep you in a job, especially when that job is essentially freelance

Depends who the dad is.

The key value in connections though is getting through the door in a competitive industry in the first place. Once established its a lot easier to hold on, even for the mediocre.

Coren had an entry into media courtesy of connections. I don't think he is a bad writer so much as he just doesn't have anything much to say. A characteristic he shares with most self styled provocateurs. Rather like the average toddler throwing sweets for attention.

@mustlovegin where have I said he should be cancelled? I haven't as I don't agree with it however the question was why hasn't he been & my answer to that still stands. Do you not agree he has a certain amount of privilege & posh, white, men aren't held to the same standards that others are?

I've got to say, that tweet (or those tweets) were despicable. But he's an intelligent man, he knows you don't say things like that on Twitter. He can get away with writing provocative columns for the Times, that's what they pay him for (and it's obvious that it's irony most of the time).

But you don't dance on someone's grave. Goodness knows what he was thinking. Maybe he actually knew her personally and they really hated each other? I find it difficult to believe that he would have held such a grudge for one tweet.

But given the Times continues to employ India Knight (for something much worse in my opinion) - they won't sack Giles.

Are people arguing that nepotism doesn't exist or it doesn't matter if it does?

I'm not disputing that's how Nigella got her break

She may well be friends with the Corens - who cares?!

Point I'm making is look at the difference in talent, and look at the difference in how they use Twitter.

And yea I'd rather hear from a mixture of people - and a far greater proportion of people that understand the average person's life.

It’s a bit like people who say “I hate the daily mail,” then go on to read it and be outraged by it. I know it's so tiresome. I read the DM website every day without fail
As for Giles Coren he belongs to an elite group of journalists who seem to run the country. From Boris Johnson to Ash Sarkar

He has given the impression in the past of someone who drinks more than they should, and I think he is often on Twitter when in his cups, as they used to say. Certainly he was very drunk during the exchange with Michael White.

In the discussion on anti-semitism can we not lose sight of the fact that Coren set up a dummy Twitter account to send himself anti-Semitic tweets? I think he is a damaged individual.

I think he considers himself a iconoclast. Unfortunately he is usually punching down and not up.

Imagine what kind of provocateur you'd be if you were constantly having to be nice to everyone in case someone decided to cancel you and ruin your career. Not that exciting to read, I'd imagine.

I read page one of this thread in increasing confusion. He's related to Victoria Coren?? He sent a tweet about fucking a child?? He's not married to Esther [Ranzen]!!

A quick google led to the discovery that I have never heard of Giles Coren and was thinking of Giles Brandreth.

Mr Brandreth's name is spelt Gyles.

Is doing nothing and just not reading stuff the best response to racism and sexism as well? Not sure… you can report and move on. You can challenge the individual personally. But no, if you spread it then you’re spreading the message. It’s all very well saying that you’re spreading it around to let people know what kind of person it is, but not everyone who sees it because of your sharing it is going to agree with you.

The very reason people tweet this stuff in the first place is because they know that others will agree with them and they know that their detractors will share it so that more people end up seeing it and agreeing with them.

I have never even heard of this bloke and have no inclination to start finding out. But many would. People would go and look him up after this, some people would find some of his tweets funny, would like his writing style, would start to follow him, and the very fact that only one tweet here is being highlighted isn’t exactly painting him as a bad person, just that he said a vile thing, so he will probably have gained several followers overnight, which is exactly the opposite of what you want to achieve.

@Bryonyshcmyony

Why does anyone have any job?

Sorry could you clarify what you mean by this comment, as it wasn’t clear to me?

The issue we are discussing here is obtaining a job via nepotism, which I think most would agree is not a good thing.

@Teenytinytina

I read page one of this thread in increasing confusion. He's related to Victoria Coren?? He sent a tweet about fucking a child?? He's not married to Esther [Ranzen]!!

A quick google led to the discovery that I have never heard of Giles Coren and was thinking of Giles Brandreth.

I was the same 😀

I don’t find comments about raping a child amusing or laughing at someone death

But I’m pleased it wasn’t Mr Brandreth

@longwayoff

Giles Corey's father was an amusing and influential columnist with a long reach in the media world. Thus we are in receipt of Victoria, who seems OK, and the lovely Giles. Who should have been stood in the corner more often when a child. Talentless, arrogant, spoilt and over-indulged.

If his career is due to connections and very little else, is the same true of his sister?

His father was a VERY talented humorous columnist, and I agree that his sister seems ok, if a bit smug - and is very bright. She could certainly make a living as a professional poker player if nothing else, but Giles is a twt

*at worst she has the sense to keep any questionable opinions to herself

I don't like him and find him obnoxious and a twat. Laughing at a young woman's death is horrendous. That holiday article seems weird and yuck.

Nepotism in general seems to be getting more 'in your face'; in part because celebrity attracts attention. Hence average-looking children of slebs, having careers as models. I hate the trend of celebrities grooming their kids from childhood to be on TV; Jamie Oliver springs to mind, but loads of them do it.

He deleted another tweet earlier in the week, where he showed a photo of a group of men wanted by the police for violence at Wembley, and made a link between their behaviour and the fact they were all overweight. Unsurprisingly this didn’t go down too well with non-violent overweight Twitter users.