Andy Kershaw

[Tom Roche]

I have a friend who works at the Kansas City Star who manages a US 
TV/Media website called tvbarn. Every now and then I write him 
back-channel to say hey, what did you think about, say comment number 
26 by so-and-so concerting that recent article you posted. And he 
always messages back to simply say: "Never read any comments. They 
will give you cancer." And he has a point, 'cos here in the US the 
comments section of any news article - and especially political 
pieces -  can be woefully embarrassing displays of uncivil 
cluelessness.

But I have to say, I read all the comments to Kershaw's 
blame-everyone-but-me essay in the Independent. Sadly, sometimes 
someone like Kershaw has some valid points to make, but then proceeds 
to verbally pound the reader into submission making said valid 
points. He didn't step back and take a deep breath and look at the 
article as a whole, big-picture. He tried to say he is now a changed 
man, a now-harmless puppy, yet he went on and on bitterly stirring 
new conspiracy theories.

A number of the commenters pick up on this. And others just look at 
his point-by-point (by point by point by point by point) arguments 
and rally to his side.

He claims to be a changed man, but he doth protest waaaaay too much 
in my view. Peel himself told me Kershaw was an amazingly good DJ 
with a shockingly serious temper.

He has only been out of jail a little over a year, but has a lifetime 
of issues to make right. I wish Andy well. Reading his Independent 
piece, one can see he is on the way to making serious changes in his 
life.

But he has inadvertently revealed he still has quite a distance to go.


tom in atlanta