1 min read
There's a truly appalling piece of journalism in the Obsever today. One of its writers, Elizabeth Day, has interviewed Denise Fergus, the mother of James Bulger, who was murdered 15 years ago and would have been 18 last month.
The interview itself is fine. What makes the piece repellent, however, is the bleeding heart handwringing in which it is wrapped up. Take this quote from James' mother:
The thing that rubs salt in the wound for me is knowing the two who killed him are walking around thinking they got away with murder. I can never forgive Thompson and Venables for the horrendous, calculated, cold-blooded murder of James. They were 10 years of age but much, much older in their minds. They knew full well what they were doing, yet they've never shown a single shred of remorse. It's followed immediately by this, from the reporter, Ms Day: At the time, none of us was sure what to make of those two young boys, the static grins of their school photographs imprinted so forcefully on our consciousness. In the aftermath of the trial in November 1993, the Daily Star carried pictures of Venables and Thompson underneath the headline 'How do you feel now you little bastards?' alongside the unconsciously ironic masthead slogan, 'The newspaper that cares'. It seemed to sum up society's own discomfort: the conflicted paradox between feeling sympathy for children caught up in something they did not necessarily understand and the primal rage provoked by the murder of a toddler entirely unequipped to defend himself.
Is she kidding? None of us was sure what to make of them? I was pretty sure what to make of them - I still am - and so is almost everyone I know. A paradox? Sympathy for the murderers?
No, she clearly isn't kidding: It seemed easier to say that Thompson and Venables were 'born evil', to absolve us of collective responsibility, to paint them as examples of a monstrous otherness whose actions were beyond rational explanation. Here it is, you see. It was our fault. We all bear collective responsibility for such crimes and do anything we can to wriggle out of it.
I've rarely read a more disgusting piece of journalism. Ms Day has taken a supposedly thoughtful piece reflecting on a despicable crime by two despicable boys and used it as a vehicle in which to foist her almost caricature bleeding heart liberal views onto the rest of us.