Honorary degrees for Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie. WTF?

[editor]

One for the "I never knew that" Dept. - Alan Bennett snubbed an honorary degree from Oxford Uni due to Murdoch links - see here

'Nuff respect:

The playwright Alan Bennett has turned down an honorary degree from the University of Oxford because of its links with Rupert Murdoch.
Media magnate Rupert Murdoch funds a Chair of Language and Communication at the university, a connection which prompted Mr Bennett to refuse to accept the award.

Writing in the London Review of Books, Mr Bennett says "I'm aware of the arguments about bad money being put to good uses, but I still think that Murdoch is not a name with which Oxford should have associated itself."

In making the decision to reject the offer, Mr Bennett says that he might be "sneered at as showing off", but he writes that it is important to make public the reasons for his refusal.

"Murdoch is a bully and should be stood up to publicy and so, however puny the gesture, it needs to be in the open," Mr Bennett writes.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/255738.stm (Jan 1999)

 

[MikeMcc]

Don't know about the rest of it and don't really care about the honoury degree business. Both Radcliffe and Maconie are both keen hill walkers and do a fair bit of campaigning on countryside issues.