Peaches and scream
Posted on Mar 30 2007 | Tagged as: Media
Reviewing this book, Laurence Phelan wrote in the Independent on Sunday that, “A good columnist strives to spin significance from the trivia of daily existence.” It seems an accurate précis of a particular sort of columnist’s job. Peaches Geldof, deputising for Alexander Chancellor’s G2 column, has the trivia of daily existence (bitchy friends, dog the size of a sandwich, actual real boyfriend) down to a tee, but… so what?
In fairness to Miss Geldof1, her missive on “the perils of MySpace” isn’t badly written. But anything worth saying about the subject has more than likely already been said two years ago, and by more articulate, perceptive and downright credible social commentators than Peaches. (And if the Guardian absolutely had to run a piece on Murdoch’s latest enterprise, they could do worse than to look inside their own stable2 for someone who actually has something to say on the matter.)
Maureen Lipman’s egocentric, vacuous wittering every monday morning was bad enough, but at least she has a vaguely interesting life to write about — and had earned her place there, whereas one gets the impression that Peaches features simply because she’s the daughter of Bob Geldof3.
Speaking as someone who, at the time this drivel was published, was on work experience — working for free at 24 years old, having already forked out4 £5391 in tuition fees for my journalism diploma this year — this is a bit of a kick in the teeth, not to mention contrary to the meritocracy that the Guardian purports to believe in.
Yet I can see why they’ve done it: to try and appeal to a hip young readership, hence Peaches’ appearance on the paper’s masthead. But I do wonder if in trying to win new readers they haven’t considered than in so doing they might lose old ones.
ADDENDUM: Witness Gary on the same topic.
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1 If I must…
2 Naturally, I’m biased: Jim got me into this mess to start with
3 Or “self-righteousness embodied”, if you like
4 I haven’t, actually. The bank has