ETA: One thing that Liz Jones is not, is thick. Whether she had the academic creds to get to Oxford or wherever I do not know, but you don't get yourself a 500,000 pound a year job in your 50s without having some serious nous. You don't get editorships of major glossies just by accident and hard work in the galleys either. These are jobs you aim for and work towards getting, using a combination of skill at whatever you do and networking, and sometimes backstabbing rivals to get there.
Liz Jones may have body dysmorphic disorder, dysthymia and anorexia, but there is no way in hell she's the sad little shadow in the corner of life, tossed hither and yon by circumstance, that she paints a picture of. She has some serious smarts. And if she wasn't so incredibly vicious towards other, real people, and so ready to rush in with "but I never did that I only saiid....." I'd say a lot of what she writes was tongue in cheek self-mockery.
But all of this crap with the elderly baker and her slagging off his ex is out of line. And phoning it in as well. I wish someone would pay me half a million a year to write a lot of whingeing. (Of course I would not be willing to sell out my family and friends to do it, which is probably the point.)
...but you don't get yourself a 500,000 pound a year job in your 50s without having some serious nous. You don't get editorships of major glossies just by accident and hard work in the galleys either.
Re: the current employ, given her truly dire writing skills - something we're all agreed on here, I think - I have to seriously consider the fact that to retain it, she either does know where the bodied are buried, does have the negatives or is shagging Paul Dacre. Possibly all three.
As for editing Marie Clare, that was fifteen years ago and she was sacked (her own words) two years - just 24 issues - later mainly because, despite what she may claim about the other mag heads stabbing her in the back, the circulation had declined by some 11%. That's the readers voting with their pockets.
I agree, she has an uncommon degree of native wit. She knows train-wreck journalism sells. That said, she's hurting innocent individuals and seems not to know when she's crossed the lines. Add to that the fact that, from highly reliable sources, she really is that vile in person and not just in print... that she's guilty of most major journalistic sins including plagiarism, poor research and recasting old articles to suit. Ms Jones, meet Mr Karma. Oh to be there that day.
I'm not sure what you'd call it, but LJ seems to have a need to "David Copperfield" her childhood and early life. How awful it was. How she had no pony. How she went to the London College of Printing and not Oxford.
At the time LJ went there, it was not so usual for people to go on to higher education. I was at a grammar school full of really bright kids and only a small proportion went on to further or higher education. It was normal then to go out to work at 16 or 18. So she was quite a high achiever by the standards of the 1970s. Comparing it to going to Oxford is daft, as most people do not go to Oxford.
From her piece on Dawn French this week, on which comments are currently not being accepted:
The pivotal moment in her life happened when, leaving for a party to try to get off with a boy, her father took her to one side, and told her she is beautiful, and loved. From that moment, she accepted her shape, embraced it, became confident, and happy in her own not inconsiderable skin.
So, a nurturing, encouraging parent created a child who became a fat teenager, and a fatter adult.
So is she saying that because her parent loved her just as she was, this created a fat (and therefore inferior, worthless person who should not be bounding happily onto the stage) adult?
From her piece on Dawn French this week, on which comments are currently not being accepted:
So is she saying that because her parent loved her just as she was, this created a fat (and therefore inferior, worthless person who should not be bounding happily onto the stage) adult?
I have to say that I suspect the suicide of her Father was considerably more 'pivotal'... but, as usual, Jonesey's research is nonexistent. Hag.
Re: the current employ, given her truly dire writing skills - something we're all agreed on here, I think - I have to seriously consider the fact that to retain it, she either does know where the bodied are buried, does have the negatives or is shagging Paul Dacre. Possibly all three.
While it's a lot of money for, what, the Dreary and an occasional opinion piece? I think the reason she is paid and kept in employ is that the DM knows confessional trainwreck stuff grips readers, no matter how awful it is, and often because it's so awful - look at us - and, crucially, LJ is happy to sell every single person in her life for that buttery soft money. She would of course justify it by saying that SHE is the true victim of her confessional ways and oh haven't we noticed how she mocks her vienetta bottom etc.
I would probably be a pretty good and engaging columnist. But only if I were to write about friends and family and other stuff that is simply not acceptable for me to write about - I'd have nobody in six months.
Truly a repugnant diary but there is little doubt that she and Dscrace are the perfect partnership. I still can't believe that the MoS actually check the contents of the diary, so poorly written, repetitive content and now frankly litigious. As others have said they obviously don't care as long as people are reading it and like us, 'talking' about it. Welcome by the way to Dominodarling. You obviously know Dscrace's ex very well. I think we all wonder why those she vilifies in her columns seldom strike back, the 'I don't name, names...' arguement is pathetic as her victims are always easily identifiable as I'm sure Dscrace's ex is aware. I hope she takes action, even if it's only to get custody of the poor cat whose existence in the cellar with god knows how many other 'rescued' animals must be purgatory, Liz will be like a jealous wicked stepmother with the poor creature.
Yes, I totally agree Seabird and I really hope someone sues- if nothing else it would cut her expenditure on buttery soft stuff and alloy wheels. More importantly, I suppose, it would make her think twice before targeting the next victim(s)>:(
I think others have gone down the litigious path before ... more knowledgeable DSpies will probably know chapter and verse on this. IF we believe it, her 'Rock Star' (if he actually exists) got his 'learned friend' to write telling her to stop wittering on about him, reproducing his text messages etc. ... but who knows if that's true or not, especially as Jones herself told us about it?
I'd actually be surprised if the Fail's legal team didn't cast a beady eye over her copy before it appears. It probably just scrapes through this side of libellous. But bear in mind the Wail Group is filthy rich (and never was 'filthy' a more apt adjective in this context) and probably the odd 'settling out of court' is neither here nor there so far as the Fail's concerned.
So she gets away with being vile and pursuing horribly spiteful vendettas again people who have never done her any harm at all, but have just had the misfortune to have been connected with her current squeeze - and hasn't Scrace shown himself up!. I can't begin to imagine the distress Jones has caused his ex wife, children, old girlfriends - and she'd have us believe he goes along with this - viz: the horrible text he's supposed to have sent to his ex girlfriend, described in Sunday's Dreary.
I wouldn't even call Jones hard hearted - she has no heart at all.
I think others have gone down the litigious path before ... more knowledgeable DSpies will probably know chapter and verse on this. IF we believe it, her 'Rock Star' (if he actually exists) got his 'learned friend' to write telling her to stop wittering on about him, reproducing his text messages etc. ... but who knows if that's true or not, especially as Jones herself told us about it?
I'd actually be surprised if the Fail's legal team didn't cast a beady eye over her copy before it appears. It probably just scrapes through this side of libellous. But bear in mind the Wail Group is filthy rich (and never was 'filthy' a more apt adjective in this context) and probably the odd 'settling out of court' is neither here nor there so far as the Fail's concerned.
So she gets away with being vile and pursuing horribly spiteful vendettas again people who have never done her any harm at all, but have just had the misfortune to have been connected with her current squeeze - and hasn't Scrace shown himself up!. I can't begin to imagine the distress Jones has caused his ex wife, children, old girlfriends - and she'd have us believe he goes along with this - viz: the horrible text he's supposed to have sent to his ex girlfriend, described in Sunday's Dreary.
I wouldn't even call Jones hard hearted - she has no heart at all.
I vaguely remember LJ saying, with not a little pride, something about being sued (it's on record who sued) as if defamation/libel/falsehood within her writing was something of which she was proud. Which says a lot.
The virtriol she drips, like a seeping viper, on people from whom she has received perceived slights is bad enough. The jealousy, inverted snobbery and just plain nastiness which oozes about people who have achieved things she could never achieve is vile and is not remotely clever. The articles, when sent off on a "mission" (God help us), are always nothing other than turning everything and anything into a parallel with her terrible, ghastly, unloved, unfulfilled life. The moneylessness (which is not a word, but I'm In LJ World now...I didn't go to university) and then not so much drip-feeding as great bombs of Names Of Things I Own.
But, in all of this, the most reprehensible element of what is loosely described as her Diary is the lack of conscience and loyalty to anybody who might carry a scintilla of love for her, and how her outpourings of private exchanges (which read so badly as to be the product of Jackie magazine-meets Barbara Cartland-meets Georgette Heyer) are anything other than a word count challenge.
I doubt very much that she would have made it through the Oxbridge entry system, so why on earth bleat about it now?
Rantification over. I could have said a lot more. But sometimes 'tis better to shut up!!
I have to admit that I'm actually at breaking point now. Don't know what to do.
Do Not Feed The Troll.
Ever.
She's playing for reaction to ensure her survival, every word justifies her actions in her head and her bank balance.
If she goes really nuts, it may be worth going the legal route, but until then, follow her sister's example and never flicker.
She's so toxic she'll poison herself. Poor Lizard
I have to admit that I'm actually at breaking point now. Don't know what to do.
For a start I'd save copies of the Drearies, every relevant email/text message, etc. I suspect treating her with dignified and silent contempt will drive her insane - if there's one thing Lizard needs, it's attention and/or a reaction to her 'words'. So there will be worse to come, as she desperately tries to get you to snap. But in the meantime, just remember - she really is a sociopath. You're not dealing with a properly functioning human being here. She's going to say stuff that's probably a lot worse than anything she's said so far. Then she'll try to backtrack on it. You'll probably have to wait until she says more stuff that makes it obvious to more people that it is in fact you that she's talking about. Then get a lawyer and take her to the cleaners! But in the meantime, don't let the bastard grind you down.
Dscrace is an old man with no money and, by a stroke of 'luck' has opened a Pandora's Box of delights. However, to enjoy them, he has had to sell his soul to the Devil and his friends and family down the river. What he doesn't realise is that, when his last vestige of his former life is burning in the grate and Jonesey realises she owns him body & soul, she'll drop him like a hot potato and cut him off without so much as a backward glance. She is a sociopath with no empathy whatsoever.
Dscrace is an old man with no money and, by a stroke of 'luck' has opened a Pandora's Box of delights. However, to enjoy them, he has had to sell his soul to the Devil and his friends and family down the river. What he doesn't realise is that, when his last vestige of his former life is burning in the grate and Jonesey realises she owns him body & soul, she'll drop him like a hot potato and cut him off without so much as a backward glance. She is a sociopath with no empathy whatsoever.
And once he's been used up and cast aside, he's going to need the love and support of his friends and.... oh, wait. I think I spot a flaw in his plan.
... and don't forget the Press Complaints Commission. See: http://www.pcc.org.uk/ And the idea that the poor ex girlfriend might put her side of the story is tempting - were I her, I'd definitely go to a proper newspaper, such as The Sunday Times or The Telegraph, rather than another low rag like the Wail.
But I agree with posters who suggest a dignified silence. Already there's building outrage over her latest Dreary. She will eventually go too far ... she just can't bear the thought that her withered old paramour once had a life with truly loving, kind people.
Like a brutally destructive army, she has to trample and destroy - everyone from that period of his life must be sneered at, belittled and hopefully collapse in a weeping, hopeless heap, so that Jones can crow and jeer in triumph because she's 'won'. And what a 'prize' she's 'won'. Scrace! Was anyone so craven and pathetic that he obediently jumps when Jones barks at him, sends hateful, hurtful messages to ex lovers at her instruction, makes awful statements implying he never loved the mother of his children. What a 'man'!
And the best of it is, he's not making her happy, is he. It's not just a matter of him having exes, children, etc. It's simply that he's a real person and real people are not fantasies. Someone you had a crush on 30 years ago, met again several years ago and had no interest in, then reconnected and expurgated evidence of the interim meeting, is still going to wind you up, even if they're perfect, which DScrace is patently not.
And lord knows Liz has very high standards of perfection.
... and don't forget the Press Complaints Commission. See: http://www.pcc.org.uk/ And the idea that the poor ex girlfriend might put her side of the story is tempting - were I her, I'd definitely go to a proper newspaper, such as The Sunday Times or The Telegraph, rather than another low rag like the Wail.
Best of all WOULD be the Wail actually. And they'd love her so much they'd give her column space where she could write further about her life with no mentions of LJ, while LJ fumed and stewed and yelled louder.
Except that such an option would be way too ghastly to bear. Dignified silence is indeed the grandest option.
Oh .. Didn't realise Dacre was Chairman. Oops. I'd hoped the PCC had improved, since my brush with them back in 1999 - victim of a malicious, greedy, lying ex (now deceased - good, serves him bloody well right). I got nowhere with PCC, since I wasn't famous, rich or a politician, but hey ho, one moves on and in any case, no-one I knew ever read the Sunday red-top involved.
Half of me wants Scrace's ex to leap into print and really REALLY enrage Jones, with stories of how in love they were etc. etc., while the other half of me suggests, as others here do, the dignified silence route. Probably the latter course IS best, since there's nothing more annoying to a troll like Jones than someone refusing to rise to the bait. So she'll write more and more vile stuff and force Scrace to say/text increasingly hurtful things ... and eventually, she'll go too far and even the ethics and integrity-free Wail group will have to put a stop to it and sling her out on her withered leathery arse.
amikolaichek I'm sorry you too have been the victim of harrassment despite being in the business yourself. In Dominodarling's case It is unbelievable that someone can use a weekly column as a vehicle to attack an innocent person purely because they once had a relationship with her current boyfriend. Liz writes about NOTHING else but Dscrace and the people in his life, the Diary is now purely for her to harrass people with no right of reply. Surely this must be severely breaking a code of conduct? How convenient that the most vilified daily newspaper has it's boss heading the PCC. Dominodarling, if you are who we think you are then unfortunately your posts are probably being read by Liz and Dscrace too (how could they not know about this thread?) and therefore we will probably be reading about them in the Diary in a few weeks. Please be careful.
Comments
Maybe you've been rumbled...!
ETA: One thing that Liz Jones is not, is thick. Whether she had the academic creds to get to Oxford or wherever I do not know, but you don't get yourself a 500,000 pound a year job in your 50s without having some serious nous. You don't get editorships of major glossies just by accident and hard work in the galleys either. These are jobs you aim for and work towards getting, using a combination of skill at whatever you do and networking, and sometimes backstabbing rivals to get there.
Liz Jones may have body dysmorphic disorder, dysthymia and anorexia, but there is no way in hell she's the sad little shadow in the corner of life, tossed hither and yon by circumstance, that she paints a picture of. She has some serious smarts. And if she wasn't so incredibly vicious towards other, real people, and so ready to rush in with "but I never did that I only saiid....." I'd say a lot of what she writes was tongue in cheek self-mockery.
But all of this crap with the elderly baker and her slagging off his ex is out of line. And phoning it in as well. I wish someone would pay me half a million a year to write a lot of whingeing. (Of course I would not be willing to sell out my family and friends to do it, which is probably the point.)
Re: the current employ, given her truly dire writing skills - something we're all agreed on here, I think - I have to seriously consider the fact that to retain it, she either does know where the bodied are buried, does have the negatives or is shagging Paul Dacre. Possibly all three.
As for editing Marie Clare, that was fifteen years ago and she was sacked (her own words) two years - just 24 issues - later mainly because, despite what she may claim about the other mag heads stabbing her in the back, the circulation had declined by some 11%. That's the readers voting with their pockets.
I agree, she has an uncommon degree of native wit. She knows train-wreck journalism sells. That said, she's hurting innocent individuals and seems not to know when she's crossed the lines. Add to that the fact that, from highly reliable sources, she really is that vile in person and not just in print... that she's guilty of most major journalistic sins including plagiarism, poor research and recasting old articles to suit. Ms Jones, meet Mr Karma. Oh to be there that day.
LCP, or the London College of Communication as it is now known, is one of the top institutions in the country in its field. I know, because I worked there. Here's a list of alumni - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_College_of_Communication#Alumni
At the time LJ went there, it was not so usual for people to go on to higher education. I was at a grammar school full of really bright kids and only a small proportion went on to further or higher education. It was normal then to go out to work at 16 or 18. So she was quite a high achiever by the standards of the 1970s. Comparing it to going to Oxford is daft, as most people do not go to Oxford.
So is she saying that because her parent loved her just as she was, this created a fat (and therefore inferior, worthless person who should not be bounding happily onto the stage) adult?
I have to say that I suspect the suicide of her Father was considerably more 'pivotal'... but, as usual, Jonesey's research is nonexistent. Hag.
While it's a lot of money for, what, the Dreary and an occasional opinion piece? I think the reason she is paid and kept in employ is that the DM knows confessional trainwreck stuff grips readers, no matter how awful it is, and often because it's so awful - look at us - and, crucially, LJ is happy to sell every single person in her life for that buttery soft money. She would of course justify it by saying that SHE is the true victim of her confessional ways and oh haven't we noticed how she mocks her vienetta bottom etc.
I would probably be a pretty good and engaging columnist. But only if I were to write about friends and family and other stuff that is simply not acceptable for me to write about - I'd have nobody in six months.
I'd actually be surprised if the Fail's legal team didn't cast a beady eye over her copy before it appears. It probably just scrapes through this side of libellous. But bear in mind the Wail Group is filthy rich (and never was 'filthy' a more apt adjective in this context) and probably the odd 'settling out of court' is neither here nor there so far as the Fail's concerned.
So she gets away with being vile and pursuing horribly spiteful vendettas again people who have never done her any harm at all, but have just had the misfortune to have been connected with her current squeeze - and hasn't Scrace shown himself up!. I can't begin to imagine the distress Jones has caused his ex wife, children, old girlfriends - and she'd have us believe he goes along with this - viz: the horrible text he's supposed to have sent to his ex girlfriend, described in Sunday's Dreary.
I wouldn't even call Jones hard hearted - she has no heart at all.
I vaguely remember LJ saying, with not a little pride, something about being sued (it's on record who sued) as if defamation/libel/falsehood within her writing was something of which she was proud. Which says a lot.
The virtriol she drips, like a seeping viper, on people from whom she has received perceived slights is bad enough. The jealousy, inverted snobbery and just plain nastiness which oozes about people who have achieved things she could never achieve is vile and is not remotely clever. The articles, when sent off on a "mission" (God help us), are always nothing other than turning everything and anything into a parallel with her terrible, ghastly, unloved, unfulfilled life. The moneylessness (which is not a word, but I'm In LJ World now...I didn't go to university) and then not so much drip-feeding as great bombs of Names Of Things I Own.
But, in all of this, the most reprehensible element of what is loosely described as her Diary is the lack of conscience and loyalty to anybody who might carry a scintilla of love for her, and how her outpourings of private exchanges (which read so badly as to be the product of Jackie magazine-meets Barbara Cartland-meets Georgette Heyer) are anything other than a word count challenge.
I doubt very much that she would have made it through the Oxbridge entry system, so why on earth bleat about it now?
Rantification over. I could have said a lot more. But sometimes 'tis better to shut up!!
Call up India Knight and offer to do a tell all version of life with the Baker Boy before Lizard hooked up with him?
Do Not Feed The Troll.
Ever.
She's playing for reaction to ensure her survival, every word justifies her actions in her head and her bank balance.
If she goes really nuts, it may be worth going the legal route, but until then, follow her sister's example and never flicker.
She's so toxic she'll poison herself. Poor Lizard
For a start I'd save copies of the Drearies, every relevant email/text message, etc. I suspect treating her with dignified and silent contempt will drive her insane - if there's one thing Lizard needs, it's attention and/or a reaction to her 'words'. So there will be worse to come, as she desperately tries to get you to snap. But in the meantime, just remember - she really is a sociopath. You're not dealing with a properly functioning human being here. She's going to say stuff that's probably a lot worse than anything she's said so far. Then she'll try to backtrack on it. You'll probably have to wait until she says more stuff that makes it obvious to more people that it is in fact you that she's talking about. Then get a lawyer and take her to the cleaners! But in the meantime, don't let the bastard grind you down.
And once he's been used up and cast aside, he's going to need the love and support of his friends and.... oh, wait. I think I spot a flaw in his plan.
http://www.pcc.org.uk/ And the idea that the poor ex girlfriend might put her side of the story is tempting - were I her, I'd definitely go to a proper newspaper, such as The Sunday Times or The Telegraph, rather than another low rag like the Wail.
But I agree with posters who suggest a dignified silence. Already there's building outrage over her latest Dreary. She will eventually go too far ... she just can't bear the thought that her withered old paramour once had a life with truly loving, kind people.
Like a brutally destructive army, she has to trample and destroy - everyone from that period of his life must be sneered at, belittled and hopefully collapse in a weeping, hopeless heap, so that Jones can crow and jeer in triumph because she's 'won'. And what a 'prize' she's 'won'. Scrace! Was anyone so craven and pathetic that he obediently jumps when Jones barks at him, sends hateful, hurtful messages to ex lovers at her instruction, makes awful statements implying he never loved the mother of his children. What a 'man'!
Yes, definitely a real 'prize', Jones.
http://www.pcc.org.uk/about/whoswho/committee.html
And lord knows Liz has very high standards of perfection.
Best of all WOULD be the Wail actually. And they'd love her so much they'd give her column space where she could write further about her life with no mentions of LJ, while LJ fumed and stewed and yelled louder.
Except that such an option would be way too ghastly to bear. Dignified silence is indeed the grandest option.
Oh ..
Half of me wants Scrace's ex to leap into print and really REALLY enrage Jones, with stories of how in love they were etc. etc., while the other half of me suggests, as others here do, the dignified silence route. Probably the latter course IS best, since there's nothing more annoying to a troll like Jones than someone refusing to rise to the bait. So she'll write more and more vile stuff and force Scrace to say/text increasingly hurtful things ... and eventually, she'll go too far and even the ethics and integrity-free Wail group will have to put a stop to it and sling her out on her withered leathery arse.
Here's hoping ...