Ruth Padel: Still getting hammered by The Guardian

Days after the conclusion of the race for Professor of Poetry at Oxford University, during which The Guardian ran numerous articles by reporter Alison Flood calling discussion of candidate Derek Walcott‘s history of sexually harassing his students a “smear campaign” and quoting Oxford professors implying eventual winner Ruth Padel was behind it all (see the earlier MobyLives reports here, here, here and here), The Guardian has decided it can’t abide by the public refutation of their stance.

On its blog yesterday, the paper posted this audio tribute to Derek Walcott by Clive James. In the audio, James speaks of his great admiration for Walcott, offers a poem he’s written in honor of Walcott, and laments the “smear campaign” once more time. Meanwhile, in the unattributed text introducing the audio, The Guardian once again neglects to mention the severity of the charges against Walcott — such as that they went on for years, even to the point of legal action, and saw him drummed out of two universities in a row ….

Meanwhile, The Guardian‘s fascination with the poet who was disgraced in the US but apparently can’t be disgraced in the UK has not allowed for any similarly triumphant consideration of the person who actually won the race, the first woman to do so in 301 years, Ruth Padel. It’s a white space that speaks as loudly as any of the text around it.