It’s funny – only this morning I was saying to someone that one of the good things about doing a blog is that it “toughens you up”. I used to worry about personal abuse. But my blog generates so many abusive e-mails and responses that I now barely register it.
However, I must admit that even I have been slightly shaken by the various calls for resignation, lamentations about falling FT standards etc etc, provoked by my Oprah post.
So in response – what can I say:
1) I think the sentence – “It sounds ridiculous. It probably is ridiculous” - is a fairly strong hint that I’m not putting my full weight behind this “bona fide rumour”. As, for that phrase, it was meant to be light-hearted – sorry, if it has outraged the various guardians of journalistic integrity and public morals who seem to be policing this blog.
2) So why report it, if you don’t take it seriously? Because the idea amused me – and it’s a bit of fun. Again, apologies if that concept is alien to the various outraged posters. This is not a news story in the FT – nor is it written like one. It’s a blog post.
3) So why not name the source of the rumour, as somebody or other demanded? Well, I would love to be more specific. But it was an off-the-record lunch, and there are rules with these things. But it wasn’t a McCain operative planting a damaging rumour. I actually have no idea about the voting preferences of the people I was speaking to – I would guess Obama.
Tomorrow, I will make recompense by writing a column of unremitting seriousness.
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