Ian Hislop is disappointing

[RoyalCorgi]

Glinner's latest substack mentions that the new issue of Private Eye makes a dig at him for being "unhinged" on Twitter. Glinner then reveals that four years ago he emailed Ian Hislop asking him to cover the subject of SH, and politely explaining the issues. This is the reply Hislop sent:

Dear Graham,
Hello. Thanks for the messages and for alerting me to the activities of Hayden and Bergdorf. Despite my well known belief that Twitter drives everyone bonkers and my suspicion that the Trans/TERF debate is not quite as important as those involved in it believe, I do have people looking at the issues, the areas of impact in the real world, and I will pass on your information to them. “The oxygen of publicity” is always a possible side-effect of the “letting in of sunlight” but as I say I am grateful to you for the guidance. Hope that you are ok somewhere in the social media swamp.
Best,

I've always liked Private Eye and hoped that Hislop was privately gc, even if the subject didn't feature much in the mag. (Deputy editor Francis Wheen was very gc but has now retired.)

So that's a shame.

Here's Glinner's full post:

https://grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/ian-hislop-knew

He also made a patronising remark to Charlotte Church when she was still quite young. She was that week’s host, and in one of the sections where the panellists chat back and forth said ‘yes, I’d like to go to university’ and he replied ‘you need A levels for that’. Which was mean, an undeserved put down, and intended to make her look foolish and him look superior.

There was also one episode where, bizarrely, they compared Miley Cyrus unfavourably with Malala Yousafzai as a way of denigrating Miley Cyrus. Of course it would never have occurred to them to frame it as: which of these two sets of misogynists are the worst kind of misogynists - the ones making money out persuading young women that being sexually objectified by men is empowering for them or the ones preventing women accessing education? Oh no, it was look at this vulgar woman, isn’t she frightful, let’s all mock her and pat ourselves on the back about how superior we terribly clever and witty TV hacks are.

It think Glinner has made some really poor choices.

I say that as someone who has been hung out to dry at work for whistleblowing.

I don't think he's achieved much with the way he's gone about things other than destroy his own life.

I think Ian Hislop understands the issues very well but doesn't want to be drawn into this with Glinner and hung out to dry himself.

Sensible IMO.

I don't have anything against Glinner I just think it's an absolute shame that all this has taken such a personal toll on him. And to what end?

I remember him going on a Christmas break from Twitter in 2018 and thinking ok, great, time to step back.

But he didn't.

Most people reflect when a particular tack isn't working.

I like the column, but I hate the name.

I get the impression that he doesn't want to be associated with Glinner. Or anyone else for that matter. Because that's 'taking sides'. He's aloof and wants to appear above everyone so he can take the piss out of everyone.

But it also shows a fundamental disregard for the truth of truth and the wall of reality that ultimately is in this debate and the impact that authoritarian control has had over society. For Hislop to say that he thinks that it's only the people directly involved in the debate who actually think it's important is staggering given the lobbying and the institutional abuse of power through 'training' in creating a 1984 scenario on this, where anyone could easily fall foul. That's the things that's right up Hislops street.

And that's what I can't forgive Hislop for. I can understand why he might overlook the abuse of children at the Tavistock and the safety of women generally, but freedom of speech IS his bread and butter as is the principles of liberalism.

I doubt Hislop is bothered about any left/right angle. The PE mob all come across as soft Tories to me.

I miss Paul Foot.

You could fill the whole magazine every fortnight with examples of the lunacy of the gender ideology in academia, government, sport, publishing and healthcare. And that's just in the UK never mind Europe and the US. (Has their medical correspondent MD looked into puberty blockers?)

I'm surprised Hislop's nose for a story is absent in this case. But thankfully we have so many excellent writers and journalists shedding sunlight - Reduxx, Jesse Singal and Eliza Mondegreen are some of my favourite sources, never mind Janice Turner and all the journos of the Telegraph and the Mail who have picked up the baton in recent months.

Could Brian be GC by association?

Gia Milinovich has spoken out about transgender issues for years. She said she was gender dysphoric when she was a teenager and so was very conscious that she might have been offered puberty blockers/surgery if she were a young person today.

I don't know about Brian Cox but his copresenter on The Infinite Monkey Cage, Robin Ince, is definitely not GC.

Well it's mostly women's free speech and / or employment that is being curtailed (with notable exceptions like Glinner where he's suffered real harms), so maybe that's why he's not interested?

Very notable how people like Frankie Boyle get away with things that are actually 'transphobic' whereas the measured and kind words of JKR have resulted in death threats.

'I don't know about Brian Cox but his copresenter on The Infinite Monkey Cage, Robin Ince, is definitely not GC.'

Gia is brilliant on women's concerns about the trans stuff. She has said that Robin Ince refuses to speak to her, she doesn't know why exactly. What a plum.

Brian has just been a fence sitter as far as I know

It's dated, I agree, but I think the original point was that the women columnists being parodied were themselves accusing other women of being slags. Some of the Lynda Lee-Potter stuff from the 80s was gob-smacking.

I very much doubt that Brian Cox is a fence sitter.

He's not stupid. He's a scientist. He's deliberately keeping out of it, which is frustrating but his prerogative.

Sadly he's not the only one making that choice.

I myself really really feel Glinner's frustration on this - he is out there taking all the risks and then gets supportive messages from pals who agree with him but won't say anything.....

A pal of mine really shut me down and cut me off when a group of us were talking about this recently. And when she had gone a couple of other people in the group said they had thought it was not fair because they agreed with me and had wanted to hear what I had to say. I realise no one wanted to make an atmosphere and have a row - but couldn't they have said something at the time?

My consolation is that I really do believe the wind is changing and the extent of the medical scandal will very soon become evident. I wonder what all the public figures who refused to comment will say? Andrew Neil is a bit of a fire runner. He can be a bit more reserved, a bit more dignified because Glinner has already made all the sacrifices.

Fence sitting? Re policies on...
Brexit? No.
Scurrilous Tories? No.
Green issues? No.
Covid skeptics? No.
Hate Speech? No.

Trans issues/women's rights/medicalisation of teens? Umm...

Sounds like a white person dismissing a race issue as petty and unimportant because it doesn't affect them personally

Or a rich person refusing to cover benefits cuts, etc

I think Hislop is lazy and not half as clever as he likes to think he is.

I remember watching HIGNFY live. Hislop was all charm and twinkle when the cameras were rolling but instantly grumpy and silent when they were turned off.

In contrast Paul Merton went out of his way to keep the studio audience entertained both before and after the cameras were rolling. (We had queued for hours in the pouring rain to be there, so Merton's kindness was highly appreciated).

As for Glinner making this public well he kept it hidden for a long bloody time hasn't he.

Just maybe he's getting fed up by people who could have helped turning a Blind Eye when it suited whilst he was being publicly hung, drawn and quartered.

But they haven't turned a blind eye, they've covered the issue more than most. The email clearly says that he's directed staff to focus on the real world implications, rather than the Twitter arguments.

Obviously I wish all newspaper editors had taken this more seriously a lot sooner but it's not a newspaper editor's job to 'help' his mates. I think his response is fine.

I suppose Brian Cox risks either upsetting his wife or upsetting his co-presenter Ince if he comes out with an opinion. Obviously if he's gc, he risks losing his media income and receiving a whole load of abuse too.

Re: Hislop. I agree with Fenlandia that Private Eye could have done so much good work on this. They could have had a real influence on the debate by highlighting all the absurdities and all the injustices. They have chosen not to.

And also Hislop is just the editor isn't he? He's not the owner so his power is still limited. I think that it iwas a very careful response. They have made a number of small digs at the people/ideology from time to time, but what is put forward to go in each publication is chosen by individual editors, and then I imagine Hislop only really gets involved if there's some sort of dispute about it and he has to be guided by overall owners' directions.

I am hoping that as more men begin to understand hiw badly it impacts women (and society as a whole) and that as the sex of PE's readership becomes more evenly distributed, this will become more prominent.

What we need ultimately, of course, is for men to take women more seriously overall. I said years ago on one of the FWR threads that we need MEN to examine and talk about the ideology, but that was back in the day of the Hampstead Women's Pond Protest. Men STILL don't really get it. DH did and does and is v indignant and will tell anyone what he thinks of it, but he's one bloke who doesn't go to the pub, doesn't tend to do anything much where he gets the opportunity regularly to talk to anyone else. He'd rather talk about music and that's what everyone wants to talk to him about.

I'd go one further @porridgecake and say TRA ideology affects 100% of the population:

1. Everyone is expected to dance around hurty feelings for using wrong pronouns.
2. The wasting of police/court time on hurty feelings that take time/effort/funding from investigating real crime.
3. The complete waste of time/effort/funding that is (trans-heavy) work diversity training.
4. Trans women expecting to be part of the male hetero dating pool because anything else is transphobic.
5. etc etc

The difference is that it affects women and children more.

RE: Ian Hislop

I like Ian Hislop very much. I think he is an intelligent and principled man (and I must admit in a fantasy dinner, he's be there because I imagine he would be great, interesting company). However I reconciled myself some years ago that you can't expect other people to behave exactly as you would behave, even if they believe the same as you on a certain subject.

If he had come out as full on TWAW then I would be very sorely disappointed in him though. See also David Tennant, Graham Norton, Adam Hills.

In contrast Paul Merton went out of his way to keep the studio audience entertained both before and after the cameras were rolling.

He is a comedian, though. Hislop is a journalist. The contrast between Merton being a people person and Hislop being a grumpy git is part of their dynamic.

Meanwhile, in this article from a few years ago, Jo Brand appears to suggest lots of women hold GC views but are afraid to voice them. She cranes in a bit of “both-sides” stuff, no doubt to appease the TRAs. She also references that clip mentioned upthread where she explained misogyny to the all-male panel on HIGNFY.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/10/women-avoid-transgender-debate-fear-reaction-jo-brand-germaine-greer-feminism

Is Francis Wheen still deputy editor at the Eye? He was/is definitely of the opinion that TWA not W but I’ve a feeling he’s retired.

And also Hislop is just the editor isn't he?

Who is Lord Gnome these days? I know it used to be Peter Cook but those days are long gone.

but seriously, why should Brian Cox have any public position on trans issues when we know that he works in a university (he's still a prof at Manchester, right?). Why would you bring all that shit crashing down on you when you are already getting shit thrown at you on your Brexit stance, your stance on climate change, on covid etc etc? I bloody wouldn't.

especially since it seems his wife is already vocal on it.

and part of his life is spent with that little shit Robin Ince who thinks he's clever because he spends time with Cox - and does that ridiculous fucking "erm" when he thinks he's been very very clever, to give us a chance to admire him...

i may need a lie down (Ince has ruined the Monkey Cage for me. I can hardly bare to listen)

But I'm with PP. I really really don't understand why Glinner ran with this. I know that he and his wife had an awful awful time over the Irish abortion laws and a non-viable pregnancy. Why not have stuck to the Repeal the 8th and then moved on? What does he gain? (nothing, it is all losing and he can now never ever go back) I think he is wrong to come out with this old email, without having rechecked Hislop's/PE's stance on this given the latest shenanegins.

Here's the rub. I'm GC. A therapist, so always thinking about people issues and philosophical/ethical concerns. Reasonably liberal in my conversation in one to one situations with patients, fellow therapists, family (my GF's, I'm pretty much on my own my side).

Where I start to self censor, both formally and subliminally, is when I detect trans ally-ness from others, or where it's dead wrong to put someone on the spot unprepared, or with one or two members of my GF's family who I know would cast my opinions as potentially phobic, or in larger group gatherings, therapist training days, conferences, social meets with people I've never met and may never meet again.

I got burnt in a hobby meet where my thoughts on Brexit were construed as racism, right to my face like a brick launched at point blank range.

Of course when I do tentatively out my GCness, and the next person says "gosh, so am I, isn't it mad?!", its like you've made a friend for life.

But do I ever declare my stance to a room full of people at a conference that I don't know, let alone the world? No.

So, I'm Ian Hislop or Brian Cox. I'm likely GC in private on pure logic and science. And I have some close family, friends, colleagues who are GC. But my wider circle? The industry? The world?

Its a doddle being anti Tory/Brexit/vax deniers/Green naysayers in 2023.

Its impossible to be GC. Just look at the psychological terror perpetrated upon JKR and Glinner, the two most prominent GC media types. Look at the professional Hell wrought upon Kath Stock, Maya Forstater, Jo Cherry, Rosie Duffield. Look at the constant needling of the GC feminist authors.

Ian and Brian can see this. Just as I can only show my GC lapel badge to one person at a time, they won't ever show their true colours.