Bono and Bob Geldof bring their bleeding hearts (and headline-writing skills) to the Globe
It’s not just unpaid interns taking over the jobs of journalists. The Globe hopes to boost readership by having Bono and Bob “Live Aid” Geldof guest-edit next week’s special Globe Africa issue. In an internal e-mail sent by Globe editor John Stackhouse yesterday, it was announced that next Monday’s issue will be “overseen” by Bono and Geldof to kick off two months of G8-G20 coverage. Just in case Bono’s “Save Africa” message wasn’t crammed down people’s throats enough in the form of worldwide concerts and (Red) products, all sections of the paper will have “a focus on Africa.” The e-mail continues:
Bono and Sir Bob are thrilled to be part of The Globe, as they consider us to be Canada’s best newspaper and the one Canadian media outlet that takes the world seriously and is taken seriously by the world. They will be in the newsroom this weekend, picking stories, photographs, helping design pages and writing headlines.
Well, with Torstar planning to buy out Canwest, there aren’t that many Canadian papers to choose from.
Anyway, we doubt Bono will literally be working on InDesign files and flipping through pages of the Canadian Press Stylebook (the e-mail says, “Our guests will only be here for a short time”), but judging by his disastrous past role as a guest columnist for the NY Times, the results should be unintentionally hilarious and eye roll inducing. Comments on the Globe‘s post asking readers to send questions in to the stars have already been disabled because “an overwhelming number of readers were making offensive statements about other commenters and/or the individual or individuals mentioned in the story.”
The newspaper’s staffers have been warned to show up only if they absolutely have to work over the weekend and that there will be additional security at the building. But considering how U2 stopped making good music years ago, we doubt Bono will be bombarded with autograph requests.
Africa: as seen through the eyes of two rich white guys.
• Bono and Bob Geldof to guest edit a special Globe Africa edition [Globe and Mail]
Question for you Karon. You slam these two guys endlessly, but what have you done to make the world a better place? they may be “two rich white guys” (no racism there eh) but at least they’ve been there and are trying to do something to help out.
by all means take the piss out of people that take themselves too seriously but make sure you have personal credibility to back it up.
do you have any?
Oh noes! Writer caught making fun of bono n bob! The horror!
Bono is an incredible hypocrite. He’s all about trying to convince governments to increase foreign aid to poor countries, and help those in need. Governments are able to do this using tax dollars. In Ireland, U2 as a corporation has moved their comopany offshore in order to avoid paying taxes. How much money is enough Bono? Asking people and governments to be unselfish, when your greed seems to have no bounds, is incredibly hypocritical.
I talked about this in a podcast here:
http://joshhollidayshow.com/?p=135
Ah, something to wrap Monday’s cleanups and vomit with, and to mail/deliver to the Front Street fernbar.
I don’t know about Karon, TorontoPotato, but what have I done to make the world a better place? Easily, I’ve done NONE of the pretentiously harmful things that Bono and Geldof have.
5 billion people and then some on this planet can honestly say to have done more for Africa than these poseurs.
Well all you bashers are fools here..because their point is now made..awareness. Who gives a shit what you think
Celebrity apologists make me sick.
http://www.makebonopaytax.com/
Ok, A) Was this really necessary? “But considering how U2 stopped making good music years ago…” cause it just makes you look mean
And B) Why is everyone commenting on this post so pissy? Honestly people, why ya gotta hate…
I don’t think it’s hate. It’s just calling out celebrity hypocricy on a large scale.
We shouldn’t expect to build up the weak by tearing down the strong. There’s nothing hypocritical about managing a corporation so it doesn’t need to pay more tax than it’s legally entitled to. We don’t know what % of Bono’s time and money he donates and we can’t look into his heart and see what his motives are. The real question is, “Do I donate enough?”