Rowling's twitter battle has unfortunate consequences

I had an interesting "interaction" with J.K. Rowling the other day on Twitter.

I was sitting on a bus, waiting for it to get underway for my trip home from work, and I decided to access my Twitter account on my cell.

To my surprise, the usually calm author was in the middle of a heated Twitter battle with some British politician who had, apparently, accused Jo of being (or of supporting) a misogynist. Apparently, the politician found a tweet in which Rowling had thanked someone of questionable opinions for his contribution to her charity. The politician had extrapolated from that one tweet Rowling's alleged support for the person's views.

Now, anyone who knows even the slightest bit about the beloved author will know that she is one of the last people in the world who could ever be accused of misogyny or similar offensive beliefs. Rowling may not come across as a "rabid feminist" but she is unfailingly supportive of equity and diversity in her books and her public appearances.

I have to admit, I was surprised that she was as heated in her response to the accusations and wondered if she worried anyone might actually believe them.

I acknowledge that public figures often feel they must defend their reputations when such accusations are made and, when they choose to do so, I don't tend to hold it against them.

But what surprised me about the situation was that Rowling's defense of herself was so heated and so public.

As the Twitter battle continued, "watched" by millions, both parties started incorporating links to highly offensive posts made by the man in question.

That really surprised me.

As a result, I "replied' to the latest Tweet and to the two combatants, reminding them that, by sharing the person's offensive posts as part of their argument, they were providing the person and his horrible statements a much wider audience than they deserved.

I was pleased to see that Rowling's next Tweet was the suggestion that they take their argument "off-line". Now, I have no evidence whatsoever that Rowling was actually responding to my own Tweet in making that suggestion but I was pleased with her decision.

It's too bad that the argument re-emerged on Twitter a short while later and eventually made it into the newspapers.

It can't be easy to be a public figure like J.K. Rowling is, and to become a target for those seeking to build themselves up by attempting to bring down such a widely admired public figure like her, and it can't be easy to know that every thing you say, whether in a public appearance or online, will be scrutinized and judged by people all over the world, but I do wish that this particular battle had not been carried on in such a public manner.

I was appalled at the sentiments that were expressed in the "links" that were included as part of the battle and saddened that, unwittingly I'm sure, one of my favourite authors had played a small part in giving them a wider audience as she strove to defend herself from vicious and baseless allegations made against her.