Until today I'd not come across Judith White, a 'former executive director of the Art Gallery Society of New South Wales'. So I had no view about her one way or the other. But on the basis of what I've now read of hers, I'm inclined to think she lacks either (a) a brain, or (b) any moral sense. White is of the view that the arrest of Roman Polanski is part of a general assault on 'the concept of artistic freedom'. 'Eh?' you might say. Or even 'Eh?' Artistic freedom includes the freedom to rape a minor and get away with it? The more sober-minded will know that that cannot be the case.
What has Ms White to say in defence of her bizarre notion? (1) That his victim doesn't want Polanski prosecuted. So what? Since when was the administration of the law in a law-governed society left up to the whims of private individuals? And beyond this, nothing but: (2) that Polanski was working on the film of Robert Harris's The Ghost, which centres on a 'Blair-like former British Prime Minister', this just when the presidency of the European Union was to be decided and the Chilcot inquiry was beginning; (3) that the move against Polanski coincided with a 'mounting right-wing campaign against President Obama and his supporters in the intelligentsia and the film world'; and (4) many artistic folk have spoken up in support of the film director.
That's it - irrelevance, conspiracy theory and support for Polanski from 'the great and the good' is all White needs to induce her to sully the idea of artistic freedom. (Via.)