Walcott v. Padel: Media Coverage of the Oxford Poetry Professer Saga

By now most of our readers will have come across one or another story about the controversy surrounding this year’s election of the Oxford professor of poetry. One of the top picks for the prestigious award, Derek Walcott, withdrew his name from the running after Oxford academics were bombarded with e-mails about Walcott’s alleged sexual harassment of students. Walcott had been favored to win the award, but after he stepped out of the running, the honor was given to Ruth Padel, the first woman to ever receive it. Within a matter of days, though, news outlets were reporting that Padel herself had been involved in the campaign to spread the word about the allegations against Walcott; though she disavowed involvement in the campaign to notify Oxford academics, Padel admitted that she had tipped off two journalists to the matter over e-mail. She has since resigned as Oxford professor of poetry.

Most of the media coverage has focused on Padel’s actions, and on whether the two e-mails she sent to journalists notifying them of accusations against Walcott constituted reason for her to step down from the position. Reading articles in The New York Times, The Telegraph, The Guardian, and the Times Online, what sticks out to me is a question unasked by any of the major news outlets covering this story: should the allegations against Walcott have factored into the committee’s decision-making process, and, if so, was there reason for Padel to suspect that without her action the committee might not take those charges into account?
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