Greta Thunberg came to the UK today to conduct a ‘Climate Strike’ protest in Bristol. Many people were tweeting pictures of banners etc that they had prepared for the event. The Talk Radio broadcaster Julia Hartley-Brewer then retweeted the following:
As you can see Adam O’Brien tweeted a picture of the sign he said his son made saying “Pollute and I’ll punch you!”
Many people commented on Twitter that they felt it inappropriate that a Father would not alone condone violence by his son but broadcast it on social media. Likewise it is usually the case that if a child talks about violence a parent would suggest that is never the way to solve anything.
Some of the replies were as follows:
“Why doesn’t he just educate his child on violence. It never achieves anything, and shows your ignorance.”
“Adam seems to support his little boy punching people who don’t agree with him. Jolly good parenting, but then, it sounds like you’re too young to know. You belong to the me, me, me generation. Have you any idea how you’re going to apply your newly gained knowledge?”
“And to cap it all, he thinks it’s sweet.”
“The sad thing is he works at reading university as a lecturer and is in charge of young people.”
“Obviously the boy has learned that violence is the way to go from somewhere.”
“Because it’s important that children understand that violence is the best persuader.”
UNN then looked into this Twitter account and saw that it was tweeted by a University Lecturer who teaches young people in Reading:
Dr O’Brien is a Film lecturer at the University of Reading and his interests are stated on the Universities website as follows:
My research is mainly focused on the relationship between film aesthetics and the material environment. I practice a form of close analysis informed by ecocritical ideas and concerns, such as location, presence, materiality and scale. My first book, Transactions With the World (Berghahn, 2016), is an ecocritical study of New Hollywood cinema, and I have continued to work predominantly, though not exclusively, on American film.
Dr Adam O’Brien
In 2018, I published Film and the Natural Environment: Elements and Atmospheres (Wallflower/Columbia), an introduction to the study of environmental dynamics and subjects in narrative cinema. A number of my current and future research projects turn towards the subject of infrastructure, or ‘built ecology’, in film and beyond. I have acted as a peer reviewer for a number of leading journals and publishers, including Screen, [in]Transition and Oxford University Press.
We then emailed the University of Reading with the following:
Good Morning,
We notice that one of your employees twitter accounts has been retweeted by the broadcaster Julia Hartley-Brewer.
Mr O’brien advises on his twitter account that he is a lecturer at the University of Reading.
Some are saying that Mr O’Brien appears to be endorsing the use of violence by his son and we wondered if you had a comment on that?
The University of Reading then replied that they responded to this on Twitter where they criticised Julia Hartley-Brewer and others for what they said amounted to a “pile-on” that could caused people to send ‘abuse’ to Dr O’Brien.
We would urge people who feel the need to pile in on anyone on Twitter with their unasked for opinion, to remember that they are directing their hatred at a real person and a real family.
We then asked their PR team once again their opinion around the accusations of condoning violence. They replied with this:
Hi David
You’re not serious are you? Are we talking about the same tweet? The one with a picture drawn by a small child?
If we are… I think our statement is clear about our position on those comments.
The account that tweeted this out is now set at private.
UNN will be sending this article to the relevant Government Department as well as local MP’s asking whether or not they believe the tweet by Dr O’Brien was appropriate and likewise whether they are satisfied with the response of the University of Reading.
Lead Correspondent | David Clews is the Lead Correspondent for UNN, with over 20 years of political/campaigning experience and a wealth of social media and communication skills David gets to the heart of what is really important to the real people of the UK.
