Top rating radio 3AW's Neil Mitchell calls me a ratbag

It was scarcely fifteen minutes after I had put up my comment on Neil Mitchell and Prince Charles that he suddenly started on about the 'ratbag' commenting about him on a website and that ratbag had gone too far. He was generous enough to quote some of my comments, among which was: 'Sanctimony, bigotry and hypocrisy are the special virtues of the media. And they are top-shelf in the studios of 3AW.' In respect of this comment, there is nobody of my acquaintance who would disagree - though perhaps not expressing it so forcefully.

But it was my question about sexual impropriety that seemed to sting him most. If I understood correctly, there was a veiled warning that I had gone too far.

Well, am I to quiver and quake about that? Actually, I did quiver and quake a little, but it was not out of fear. My typing hand did shake out of awe at the thought that the great Neil Mitchell was sufficiently moved to make a comment about me through his multi-million dollar microphone.

That awesome moment has passed. My reaction to Neil Mitchell's calling me a ratbag is that as long as he shows himself biased and ignorant about Christianity, as long as he slanders and mocks the royal family unfairly I will continue to respond. Of course, with his media power there is a chance he may be able to shut me up, but that will simply prove what I assert. Indeed, even in his brief angry comment he goes some way to demonstrate the sort of hypocrisy I accuse him of.

With regard to the question about sexual impropriety, it is interesting that he should be stung by such a mild verbal formulation. Remember that the question follows from his lambasting of Prince Charles for sexual impropriety - baseless or otherwise. I am a contemporary of Neil Mitchell's (a few years younger)*. We were youths in the sixties and seventies. Putting aside any suggestion of criminal behaviour, in those years one would have observed some pretty shabby behaviour among young men.

If Mitchell is going to pronounce judgment on others, then it is legitimate to inquire about his past behaviour. It is legitimate to ask him whether he is prepared to have his private failings recorded and aired in the way he rushes to air about those of Prince Charles and the royal family.

Perhaps there is some comforting reassurance to offer 3AW's radio star, who obviously can't take what he deals out to others. I don't really have the time to listen every day to 3AW. My main concern is to get on with the writing of the second book of my trilogy. Actually, on this subject I recommend that Mitchell read The Castle of Heavenly Bliss. He may learn a lot about how orthodox Catholics think and act.

*11 August 2009: I have discovered in the meantime that I am actually a few year older then Mitchell.