Ousted Whiskey Critic sets up “War on Woke” group
Ousted Whiskey Critic sets up “War on Woke” group
The former journalist and go to whiskey critic Jim Murray received unprecedented backlash last year for the sexist language featured in his 2021 Whisky Bible. Now, he has set up a group for people who have been “cancelled”. The group is called “War on Woke”. WOW.
The majority of the whiskey industry dropped their association with Whisky Bible last year after these complaints surfaced. These included Irish Distillers, Celtic Whiskey Shop, Diageo, and Dingle Distillery.
As an example the 2017 edition of “Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible,” he compared a Scotch to “a 40-year-old woman who has kept her figure and looks, and now only satin stands in the way between you and so much beauty and experience … and believe me: she’s spicy.”
Murray believes last years accusations were “cynical attempts to destroy his reputation and success as a drinks writer.”
In a Daily Mail article Murray categorises the response he received as ” bullying — horrible, unfiltered bullying”. Though very little was said about Murray himself. Most of the backlash focused on the sexist language used and how this was disrespectful.
The article casts Becky Paskin, founder of Sctochwhisky.com who along with Forbes’ Felipe Schrieberg led the discussion about Murray’s sexist remarks, as the villain. Predictably, the Daily Mail’s readers have sent a torrent of hate-fueled abuse to Paskin”
Paskin has not commented on this publicly but Schrieberg came to her defence in a series of 9 tweets. He characterised this most recent wave of response as “disgusting”. Schrieberg finished his series of tweets commenting on these recent developments by asking the industry to rally and continue the quest for diversity and respect in the whiskey community.
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