Mary Beard bomb threat

[Epictetus]

According to the BBC, a bomb threat has been tweeted to Mary Beard.

I'll be honest here: I don't get it. Why in the world would a historian be threatened? What could a classicist possibly do that would deserve death threats? I know in the world of academia things can get rather nasty, but Beard is basically a popularising historian, or a historian for the masses. I wouldn't consider her controversial in the least. Am I missing something?

[Nathan Ross]

She's a prominent woman and she's on TV a lot.

Bomb threats and other more unpleasant stuff have been sent to several women in the UK over the last few weeks. Apparently a concerted campaign by a selection of throwbacks to stop women having a public role in society, or something. The police are involved, and a few of the initial perpetrators have already been arrested - this seems to have inspired others to do the same, but hopefully it won't last long.

[Vindex]

Mary Beard was subjected to TWEET abuse after her Caligula programme. It was aired on Ch4 News in the UK (on Tue 30 Jul) which then prompted a debate about TWEET as a whole.

The young man who sent the original TWEET was then besieged by older people who knew him and reported him to his mother (unbelievable, I know) He then TWEETED an apology and appeared ridiculous. Who can say if this incident is retaliation for that? Either way, it is pathetic.

Tweets are invidious and there should be far tighter control on content. It gives any crank the oxygen of publicity in a nano second and to me it is a step beyond what is acceptable in this ridiculous world of every thing now, immediate response and "celebrity" culture (whatever that is...other than an oxymoron).

If the owners of TWEET cannot control the content more effectively it should be banned.

[Nathan Ross]

If the owners of TWEET cannot control the content more effectively it should be banned.

Apparently they're promising to do more, in response to recent stuff:

http://metro.co.uk/2013/08/03/twitter-is...s-3909851/

Whether or not that amounts to a hill of beans I don't know. But I'm one of those people baffled by the appeal of Twitter anyway - what the point of it is I really don't know.

Thanks for the story about the Caligula program though - I hadn't heard about that. Very silly!

[Jona Lendering]

According to the BBC, a bomb threat has been tweeted to Mary Beard.

I'll be honest here: I don't get it. Why in the world would a historian be threatened?

When a historian says something unpleasant. Nationalists do not like it when a historian kills foundation legends. Religious fundamentalists have similar ideas. Threatening people is pretty common on the internet. At Livius.org, I have received one death threat from Greece, one from the FYROM, one from Israel, two from Iranian nationalists in exile. One of the latter was sufficiently serious to inform the police. I also found swastikas painted on my door once, which has also been reported.

I was surprised to see that Mary Beard was threatened, because she merely attacks the ideology that Greece and Rome were somehow important to us. That this causes irritation, is nothing new. Classicists feel threatened by historians who point out that a statement about the importance of Greece and Rome needs to be proved according to the normal rules of historical analysis. But so far, people with a classical education have been friendly and respectful.

[Dan D'Silva]

[At Livius.org, I have received one death threat from Greece, one from the FYROM, one from Israel, two from Iranian nationalists in exile.

In the journalism biz, we like to say you're doing your job right when every side is angry at you.

[Epictetus]

People are bizarre. Stay safe, Jona!

[Jona Lendering]

In the journalism biz, we like to say you're doing your job right when every side is angry at you.

Exactly. As George Orwell once said: “Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations.” That's a bit exaggerated, of course, but a good journalist or a true scholar should not cover things up.

[jkaler48]

to tweet or not to tweet that is the question. Whether it is better to suffer the slings and arrows of tweeter twits or not. NOT!

[Flavivs Aetivs]

Well Twitter is protected by Free Speech laws. You can say whatever you want, you have a right too, but you just have to suffer the consequences of what you say.

I hope they do catch the guy who sent her the threat though. The police have been using Social media more and more to catch criminals.

[john m roberts]

Caligula -Still causing trouble after 2,000 years. I'm sure he'd be pleased.

[M. Caecilius]

What on earth did she say about Caligula?

It's sad to see something like this happening, for whatever reason - whether this stems from misconception of history as nationalistic propaganda, from misogyny, or from anything else. I hope these threats are idle, but these days, it seems sending people what the news terms 'suspicious letters' is becoming rather popular.

[Nathan Ross]

What on earth did she say about Caligula?.

I don't think it had anything to with what she said about any aspect of history. As with the other attacks on prominent women recently, it's just pure misogyny.

[Dan D'Silva]

Well Twitter is protected by Free Speech laws. You can say whatever you want, you have a right too, but you just have to suffer the consequences of what you say.

I believe Twitter would legally be a private venue (under U.S. law at least, not sure how these things work in the UK) so free speech law protects the owners, but they can set restrictions, delete posts and ban users as they like, same as an Internet forum. If it were my venue, I wouldn't allow people to send serious-seeming threats. And judging by the article, Mr. Wang seems to be of like mind.

[richsc]

I am reminded that Simon James got death threats from the new age celtic types when he pointed out that "Celt" is an 18th century invention.