On Matt Doran’s apology to Adele and the bizarre deification of celebrity
Matt Doran’s self-flagellating apology to Adele and her fans makes for horribly queasy viewing
Yesterday, Australian broadcaster Matt Doran delivered a two and a half minute on-air apology to Adele, having admitted that he had missed the email containing the streaming link to her new album 30 while flying from Sydney to London for the interview, and had not listened to the album prior to talking to her for Sunrise TV. As a result the interview footage had been withheld and will not be broadcast.
Fellow journalists, Adele stans and nameless Twitter trolls have piled onto him over the last week in ‘‘a torrent of abuse and mockery from around the world”, which Doran says prompted his apology.
Listening to the now viral address, in which Doran says the missed email was “the most important email I have ever missed in my life” and quoted the Adele lyric “forgiveness is easiest in secret”, I couldn’t believe the ‘sin’ at hand: a journalist not adequately preparing for an interview with a musician. Is cancel culture getting this desperate already? Have we all forgotten that Adele – or any celebrity for that matter – is not God?
Of course, Doran should have been more diligent and enquired as to whether he would receive music. He should in fact have badgered the label for it. He should, in the lead up to such an important meeting, check his emails more carefully. Undoubtedly his interview would have been better had he examined and considered the themes and lyrics on her album.
But what actual harm has been caused here? Adele could have felt disrespected or frustrated – granted. But Doran has said she did not walk out of the interview as it was previously reported, but gave him nine extra minutes on top of the allotted 20, suggesting she wasn’t upset. According to Doran, the interview was a success, covering the dark side of fame, her depression, whether the singer is ever mesmerised by her own voice and how Easy on Me was written. I’d be amazed if Doran were found to be lying, when Adele could expose him – and send his career up in smoke – with a simple tweet.
I understand Doran should be disciplined by his employer and that Sunrise TV needs to apologise to its viewers for no longer broadcasting the interview (although honestly there seems no reason why it shouldn’t). But surely this apology to viewers is the broadcaster’s responsibility, not Doran’s. And did it need to happen on air, and with such drama? To see Doran self-flagellate on national television for his ‘terrible’ mistake, to say he ‘deserves’ this ‘savaging’, to ask for ‘forgiveness’ as if had committed an unspeakable crime, and to prostrate himself at the altar of Adele and her fans seems utterly absurd.
I can see how sometimes this kind of story might come off as misogynistic: a male music critic not bothering to engage with a woman’s work, her affairs of the heart not ‘serious’ enough for adequate preparation. But I don’t think this is the issue here, and besides a woman journalist caught in the same gaffe as Doran would have received twice as much ‘abuse and mockery’. Her incompetence would have become gendered. Her apology even more self-flagellating.
I am also aware of how important Adele is to her fans, how much her music speaks to people, and how Australian viewers would have enjoyed the interview. But they have the album. They have countless other Adele interviews about the album. Do the majority of Adele’s no doubt sensible fans actually care? One less interview with Adele about her experience of divorce is not going to cause anyone to drop dead. I very much doubt Doran’s missing interview is going to affect the success of Adele’s album promo, or cause a dent in her sales and wallet.
But for Doran it’s a different story. I would hazard a guess that his mental health has taken a severe hit; so has his career. I don’t know how you get over a public shaming on this level. As Jon Ronson exhibits powerfully in his book So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, I rather think you can’t.
When reading about Doran this week, I was reminded of when Vogue journalist Abby Aguirre revealed she hadn’t written a set of questions before her Rihanna interview because it had been planned so last minute. The story made headlines and went viral on social media. Journalists and RiRi fans were up in arms, both camps jealous of her access to one of the world’s most adored stars, enraged that she clearly wasn’t aware of her privilege. Writers took to Twitter to boast about their own meticulous preparation for interviews. But as any editor can tell you for a fact, just because a writer has done their research doesn’t mean they know how to interview – or write, for that matter. The resulting Rihanna interview was excellent, Rihanna herself unscathed, there was no problem. In fact, Rihanna defended Aguirre’s ‘incredible’ article and described her as ‘badass’ for being able to interview her so well at such short notice – those ripping into Aguirre doing so of their own misinformed accord.
The Doran story can be perturbing to journalists because every time we read something like it we think, could that have been me? I am constantly terrified of finding myself at the centre of this kind of drama. I’m confident I would never have missed an Adele stream (if anything I’m an over-preparer, to my own disadvantage), but who knows. Mistakes happen, and journalism is a stressful and unpredictable profession.
Can every journalist reading this say hand on heart they haven’t conducted an interview with a musician without listening to their music? That they haven’t gone into an interview without preparing? Sometimes, unavoidable situations arise, and sometimes preparation counts for nothing. I once had a well known star unfairly accuse me of not watching their film before the interview. The PR company sent me a bullish email, although I was then able to point to them my completed viewing link. The issue, clearly, was the star hadn’t liked my questions, and they wanted to try and kill the piece.
What is also striking about Doran’s apology is the clear deification of celebrity. Adele is just another human being, but anyone watching this clip would think she were some cosmic tyrant about to send Sunrise TV up in a puff of smoke. What could have been a meaningful and private apology from Doran to Adele, and a swift and corporate apology from Sunrise to its viewers, has become a bizarre and public spectacle that feels completely overblown. I’d be interested to see what Adele makes of all this, but if she’s anything as lovely and reasonable as she seems, I hope Doran’s apology would make her shudder.
Ps: with permission I’ve added below an email I got from one of my subscribers, Cat Woods, who lives in Australia and has a different and very interesting perspective on the drama.
“As an Australian, my perspective on this is that you're right, his employer could have apologised but they would have expected Matt to do his job and do some background, surely, too. Pulling the interview altogether was unnecessary. But, as context, the majority of culture and music journalists (and journalists period) in this country are men. Male editors, male hosts, men on radio, TV, covering arts in the newspapers. There's even been a recent report on this that has analysed Australian media thoroughly for the past few years and indicates there is a significant imbalance of more men reporting and more male “experts” called upon for comment in stories. In that light, the fact that one of the many, many men tasked with interviewing one of the biggest music stars of 2021 couldn't even be bothered listening to her album before interviewing her just seems lazy. If he didn't care for her music, why couldn't he have handballed the interview to a reporter who wanted the story more? There's something to be said for a bit of objectivity and nobody likes a reporter to fawn over their subject - it's embarrassing and frustrating - but surely he had a moment on a long, long flight to at least skim the songs. I suspect this is really just a bit of media propaganda from Channel 7, which is known for pulling stupid stunts like this. Perhaps they figured they wouldn't get much mileage out of the actual interview considering their competition was Oprah Winfrey, so they decided to make a big spectacle of it instead. This way, yet again, the conversation in Australia is all about the man involved and the status quo remains!”
Thanks for reading Pass The Aux! Let me know what you think by tweeting me @eleanorhalls1 or emailing me eleanorahalls@gmail.com. Subscribe for more analysis of celebrity and the media, personal essays, and interviews with some of my favourite journalists, sharing tips on everything from money to failure.
While you’re here, I’d love it if you checked out my new podcast episode of Straight Up, in which my co-host Kathleen and I discuss the strengths and weaknesses of Emrata’s new book My Body, whether anybody actually speaks like in a Sally Rooney novel, and why Netflix’s Maid was so gripping.