Virginia Fallon – Ranting.

The Dominion Post publishes an occasional column written by Virginia Fallon. The same column appears in a number of other Stuff newspapers and on the Stuff website. Her column of yesterday (24^th June) covered the subject of Aotearoa and carried on as an ageist rant directed squarely at Winston Peters. And believe it or not, aimed equally as squarely at oldies in general, to the point of comparing them to dogs suffering canine senility!

There are two points to this post.

The first is to deal with Virginia Fallon’s insults.

           Quoting Virginia Fallon:

Also, most families have a Winston of their own: an older relative who stubbornly refuses to adapt, so spends their latter years stumbling about in a world they no longer understand. But a bit like the family dog who goes senile and lunges incontinently at the children, we keep them about because, in spite of their increasingly unacceptable behaviour, we know they can’t help it. They’re scared and confused, but eventually we’ll be able to consign them to history and hope the younger generation will only remember their more admirable traits.

Her barbs directed at the oldies must be regarded as being deeply insulting to senility and dementia sufferers and to their carers. There is one remark at least which I interpret as a subliminal reference to euthanasia. To me the remarks are worthy of an apology from her editorial masters.

Some parts of her Peters commentary even if it is a rant might be seen as average political comment. But, as the quote above ties in, I regard the quote as being disrespectful to Peters.

The second point of this post is for interest sake mainly and refers to the letters policies of the Stuff newspapers. Then in some ways back to the Virginia Fallon issue.

I manage occasionally to do some Press Reader browsing via the local library. The Dominion Post and The Press (25^th June) carry identical letters from three separate correspondents. I won’t name the writers here. If they read this they will recognise themselves. Two were from Christchurch and one from Dunedin. Two letters are critical of Virginia Fallon and the other makes an obscure point (dating from 1988) regarding Aotearoa.

The Dominion Post letters policy asks for exclusive letters. By way of contrast The Press does not mention exclusivity. I suppose it all means The Dominion Post does not appreciate letter writers trying their luck by offering letters here there and wherever. Also The Dominion Post is seeking to limit writers to one letter per month. Another question might be did the writers contribute to both publications, or do The Dominion Post and Press share letters with each other?