As a discussion starter, there are two good takes on the whole thing from Pavlov’s Cat and Legal Eagle:

Still Life With Cat:

Catherine Deveny, in the course of ‘standing by her Logies tweets’ (and now that I’ve typed that out, excuse me while I go and have a hot bath) (razor blades optional but tempting), has said ‘I’m edgy, I push the envelope.’ Apparently this is the correct description of publicly humiliating an eleven-year-old child and making ‘jokes’ about a tragically early death. Because everyone knows that paedophilia and breast cancer are funny, right?

Skepticlawyer:

When I was studying medieval Celtic history, I read somewhere that the early Irish believed that writing something down was a kind of magic, and various stories feature inscriptions in ogham, which assist the writers to find people, mark things as owned by a particular person, and to send magical messages.

The early Irish were right: writing is magical.

Elsewhere: Sophie Cunningham, Jeremy Sear, Ben Pobjie and Jonathan Green.

But really, Devine’s column isn’t there to express a view shared by real people, but rather to disagree with a particular group. The column is aimed at cyclists, and those who are prepared to get angry on their behalf. Anyone who — like Devine — uses Twitter will have seen the outrage cranking up as soon as the column was posted. Along with the expressions of anger come links to the online version of the column, where metrics are collected and advertising hosted. In a fragmented media marketplace augmented by real-time social media, networked irritation drives traffic. Devine’s columns look more and more like linkbaiting, pure and simple.

I’ve rarely seen a better analysis of just why exactly all this ranting and raving is the lifeblood of a declining media than Wilson’s. But it does beg the question – what is it, precisely, about our culture that fosters the desire to be indignant? One wouldn’t want to credit the “trollumnist” with too much originality. The ground has to be prepared.