A cautionary tale for editors, bloggers and middle-class backpackers
19-year-old, middle-class, Skins-scriptwriting Max Gogarty decides to head to India for a bit of gap fun. He blogs about it on the Guardian website. The readers give him a hammering, while unearthing the fact that he appears to be the son of another Guardian contributor. Much hilarity ensues, for everyone but Max and his dad. Nathan Barley gets mentioned a lot. And the editor, who commissioned the piece thinking it would be a regular bit of whimsy that would connect with the backpacking masses, has a bad day at the office.
A sample comment:
Here’s an idea, Max.
Instead of setting off on yet another inane, identikit trip around Asia before you take up your place at Oxbridge (or wherever), why don’t you leave your family’s Highgate mansion FOR GOOD, cut yourself off from your father’s allowance, move into a council estate in Salford, STAY THERE, and then consider writing a blog about your experiences.
Why does our society only grant a voice to those with nothing to say?
P.S. Are you Paul Gogarty’s son?
(as spotted on Dan’s blog)
I’ve been reading the fallout and the response today.
The Nathan Barley stuff made me laugh, yeah?
Comment by Sinead | February 15, 2008 at 2:24 pmThe funniest thing is the comment from MCBuffalo right at the bottom.
I laugh every time I see it.
Let him have the blog.
Comment by cw | February 15, 2008 at 2:26 pmThis is great. Good on the Guardian readers for giving this little git a well-deserved hammering.
To digress slightly - isn’t Skins the worst thing ever?
Comment by Neill | February 15, 2008 at 2:54 pmSuper spot Shane. My favourite comment:
“How is a nineteen year old, white, public school boy with a penchant for stubble going to get a head in life unless he has a weblog about his already-paid-for round-the-world trip?”
I think this experience will tell ‘young Max’ infinitely more about his place in the world than any amount of backpacking could.
Comment by Sean | February 15, 2008 at 2:58 pmChortle.
Which reminds me, any chance Sasso can get a blog going?
Comment by markg | February 15, 2008 at 3:05 pmAnd they’ve closed the comments now. Funny stuff.
Comment by Twenty Major | February 15, 2008 at 3:09 pm“Here in Copenhagen immigrant rioters have been setting fires to cars, the Mohamed cartoons have been republished, the government is pissing on everyone’s legal rights.
Yet that’s nothing compared to how appalled I am by this blog. ”
Haha!
Comment by Green Ink | February 15, 2008 at 3:41 pmTwenty, I can’t read your blog with that annoying banner ad down the middle of the page.
Comment by Ninja | February 15, 2008 at 3:42 pmIs Skins “this life” for those that don’t have one yet?
Comment by Dan Sullivan | February 15, 2008 at 3:43 pmI find this sort of funny but more in terms of the speed at which an internet “news story” spreads.
I was going to post it yesterday and then I thought “no I don’t have to just because it exists and will soon be global knowledge”
It is funny though. At first I was like “god how hateable that guy is” but by the end I felt sorry for him.
Comment by Ronan | February 15, 2008 at 3:46 pm“Rickshaw for Max Gogarty!”
Simply the funniest blog post of my youthful experience.
Comment by Steve K | February 15, 2008 at 4:35 pmThe best quote has to be from the London Independents Oliver Duff,”Max Gogarty has been added to Wikipedia,alongside Kim Jong-il,Basher al-Assad and George W.Bush,beneath the entry Nepotism”.
Comment by Jeff | February 15, 2008 at 4:41 pmNinja - what banner?
Comment by Twenty Major | February 15, 2008 at 5:08 pmNearly 500 comments?
I like the penultimate sentence. The poor child.
Hi there,
I’m the Producer on Skins and as such, have had the great fortune to work with Max. A friend informed me earlier today that he was getting a bit of stick on here and I feel the balance needs redressing. Max is a special guy, and has been co-writing the scripts for some time now. We realised pretty early on that he had quite a talent for writing, and as such have had no fear in putting him into a position of responsibility at such a young age. Having spoken to him about his travel plans, he is extraordinarily excited about exploring both India and himself, and given that he has an incredible talent for turning thoughts into written work, I imagine it will be a fantastic blog to follow.
He has an explorative sense of being, and an inquisitive mind, and forgetting his rather shoddy choice of jeans, I have no doubt he will have a good time, and share that with you all appropriately.
His dad worked very hard for him to get into journalism, and all this inverted snobbery seems pretty unfair consequently.
Anyway, enjoy the blog.
Simon.
Comment by europhile | February 16, 2008 at 2:19 pmAnother example of failed people attacking someone who gets something they think they deserved. Why is it these people think the world owes them something and it should be delivered to them on a plate? The Internet is full of these people who have become professionals at leaving whining comments all over the net, the only place where their socially stunted personalities are accepted. I feel sorry for Max though I’m sure he’ll not be caring much in a few weeks.
Comment by Damien Mulley | February 18, 2008 at 12:31 pmI guess this is why the zeitgeist-capturing female airheads that write for the Sunday Independent don’t have blogs.
Comment by David Bowie | February 18, 2008 at 12:53 pmI think the idea that the people commenting are “failed people” is unduly harsh especially when you consider that comments come from those who are reading the post. Are all those who read blogs “failed people”? or only the ones who comment and engage. Or should comments just be a form of sycophantic cheerleading in the hope of being rewarded in due course by badges a la readers’ letters in Tracy or 2000AD?
I think those commenting in these instance might well be people who think that a professional news organisation using someone who it appears got the gig through a family connection was not keeping with the world view of the Guardian which attempts to seek for people to be judged on their own merits and not on inherited wealth or position. They might simply have viewed it as hypocrisy and not at all been of the view that they personally deserved the chance that young Max was given.
Comment by Dan Sullivan | February 19, 2008 at 3:23 pmI’m feeling sorry for this Gogarty chap. On paper he’s very easy to dislike, but the pricks taking cheap shots are even more so.
Comment by Niall | February 23, 2008 at 3:15 pmThe whole thing was hilarious, if the guy is going to put up a blog then people are well within their rights to have a pop if they dont like what they read, they’re not ’socially stunted personalities’, they’re engaging in debate, in a highly humorous manner.
Also I reckong the majority of the comments are a ell of a lot more entertaining than anything Max was ever going to write.
Lets hope the irish times follows suit and send some young Irishman to find his feet in big bad Australia, because no-one has ever done that before
Comment by thomasmcd | February 28, 2008 at 3:56 pmThomasmcd, I entirely agree. “Live in public, die in public”
Comment by Anonymoose | March 3, 2008 at 1:51 pm