Friday 1 November 2013

Tweet, and be damned?


Oh,  good grief! 

As a teenager, I made it my weekly mission to tune in, of a Saturday afternoon, to Paul Gambaccini's American chart show on BBC Radio 1. Paul G counting down the latest hits stateside [as DJs would say back then] was an unmissable part of my youth, back in the early-to-mid '80s.


He strongly denies the allegations.

The Twittersphere has been abuzz today, putting two and two together, after the story broke. The clue given - on which they fed so frenziedly - was that the BBC DJ in question was aged 64. The Twittersphere speculated on that basis, and made five. 

I won't tell you who the Twittersphere wrongly thought it was, but some vile things have been posted about him today. Hopefully, his lawyers will be logging onto the internet as we speak.

The BBC is keen to harness the power of Twitter. So, here's another warning for them - and for everyone else, following Sally Bercow and Alan Davies's mistweets - that Twitter can a malignant force, a magnified version of Chinese Whispers.

'Innocent faces' all round?

Social media is, by and large, a wonderful thing. But, as I type, I'm reading comments on my favourite blogs gloating over Paul Gambaccini's arrest.

Guys, please don't forget - innocent until proven guilty. Innocent until proven guilty. It's the British way. It's the decent way. Never forget it.

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