The Lord, The Lover And The Lie
3 05 2007And, bringing up the rear, scraping the bottom of the barrel - the Media. In this case the Daily Telegraph. The UK’s Daily Telegraph headlines are rather misleading, but who cares when it sells papers? I guess we can tell where they’re coming from:
Humiliation of BP Chief over gay affair
There has been much made over Lord Browne’s resignation. Most broadsheet headlines both in the UK and in Canada imply that he resigned because he had a gay lover or his “gay affair”. Why? because they know that as much as we claim to “tolerate” gay relationships, many really only pay lip service. Otherwise, why is it still fodder for selling papers? Think, if this was a woman would the headlines have been quite as enticing? I wonder.
In fact, what really nailed Lord Browne wasn’t the fact he had a gay boyfriend – a relationship that had lasted over four years, until the boyfriend (Gawd, he’s Canadian!) apparently began making moves tantamount to blackmail. They went to functions together so their relationship surely couldn’t really even have been that much of a secret.
It wasn’t the allegations of using company money to lavish on his lover (and boy, didn’t Jeff Chevalier live the life of Riley with Lord Browne!) – BP did its own investigations and found no evidence supporting misappropriation of company money. So it looks like Chevalier’s luxury lifestyle was from Lord Browne’s own pocket, as it should be.
It was the fact that he perjured himself in court.
If he hadn’t done that, it is highly unlikely he would have had to resign. Despite the Daily Telegraph and all the other bloody media insisting on telling us that Lord Browne’s private life is our business (having bought the story from boyfriend who carried out his threat to go to the press and sell his story) to boost circulation.
Lying to the court is very serious, so serious it carries a jail term. In the end it is such a pointless lie, probably driven more by panic but at the time where he met his boyfriend obviously mattered to him. And it was still a lie.
What a price to pay for a “little white lie.” A glittering career, of an unquestionable (but not infallible) business leader gone almost overnight. The fact that he lied put him in an untenable positions far as staying on at British Petroleum was concerned. Even though he had been going to step down in July anyway.
But he decided to resign, despite what he stood to lose. For which I applaud him. To me the most important thing anyone could lose is their integrity and their reputation. Many would have hung on. Like Wolfowicz, who actually did misuse the World Bank Funds by paying his girlfriend a stratospheric salary.
The Daily Telegraph, on its “moral” high horse, in defence of their taking a private life and making it public say that “by lying Lord Browne has made his private life public”. Right. Why not just say, hey, we’ve got a scoop and we know people are going to love reading about a person’s humiliation, so tough shit. We have a STORY! Thanks to your boyfriend.
- I asked myself some questions when I read the story.
- Would there have been this much attention on Lord Browne if the lover been a woman rather than a man?
- Is his private life or his sexuality anyone’s business? Is the sexuality and private life of any private citizen our business?
- Can gay men or women really come out and hope to have their career unaffected? (In the UK and Canada there are laws against discrimination based on a person’s sexual orientation).
What’s your view?
I think this is different from the political sex “scandal” brewing in Washington, yet at first I couldn’t work out why I thought that. I felt completely different about this issue than the Washington one. And then I realized the difference is one is to do with a relationship and a private citizen, the other with public servants – politicians – and the potential purchase of illegal services from a “Madam.”
But is it really any different?
Shame on the Daily Telegraph. Shame on the toe-rag lover, whose only success seems to be spotting an older sitting duck. A very rich sitting duck. And kissing and telling.
Why wasn’t he prosecuted for blackmail?
Lie over gay partner ends BP chief’s career
TimesOnline
Technorati Tags: Lord Browne, Jeff Chevalier, British Petroleum
private is private, public is public.
ok so he is gay, so what, that he lied is a different matter.
there seems to be a worrying trend in the news, to destroy people, for alternative lifestyles. the power of the press to create and destroy lives have gotten more subtle and not so subtle, ever since the fatty arbuckle case (he was found not guilty, but his career and life was ended just to sell papers) thats all the papers are there for, to make money to make sensational stories out of nothing.
stories like that sell.
the real story should be he lied under oath, not because he is gay
This is just typical media frenzy to drag down a good man and an even greater business man. I worked for BP and this guy was an inspiratioon to us all. I certainly don’t care if he is gay or how he met his partner; personally I don’t see what is so wrong about using an escort agency. Now to the matter of the white lie. Well, if you’re a highly respected public figure and you are aware that that society at large still lives in the dark ages when it comes to things like escort agencies etc, then I can completely understand why he felt he had to lie. Who wouldn’t have done the same in the that situation? The media clearly have nothing better to report on.
The media are also making a big deal out of the fact that he has lost out financially from BP. Well, this guy probably has the biggest pension pot in the history of UK companies and also has enough shares in BP to live a very, very comfortable life. If I were him, I’d turn my back on the establishments that have droppped him and just enjoy the rest of my retirement. Good luck Lord Brown, you’ve more than done you’re bit for the UK.
Mosh- hear, hear! I think a big part of the reason he resigned was so that BP wouldn’t have to face all the questions and innuendo that would undoubtedly follow. And I was thinking there may have been some kind of morals clause in his contract, who knows?
The media seems to love to bring down and humiliate people. The greater they are, the more accomplished they are (and the richer they are) the more the media wants to destroy their lives. All under the pretense of the “public’s right to know.” I don’t think anyone had a right to know about Lord Browne’s private life. It wasn’t relevant. And I wonder if some people aren’t secretly envious of Lord Browne’s fortune, conveniently ignoring how hard he must have worked to succeed. The Telegraph argued for months to be able to sell this story. Sickening. And yeah, I thought that, even if he stood to lose supposedly 15 million, it means he must have a whole lot more… that’s probably pocket money to him. I don’t think he’ll be wanting for much… like you I think he should just enjoy his retirement .
merc - completely agree. It would be so good if people just refused to buy the latest media headlines… but they buy more than ever because they want all the details of another’s misfortune. No wonder the press had a field day. They have everyone sussed on that one.