Do we like Bono?
Our score: 7 out of 10. A long public record of standing up for aid and equality, held back by an admitted failure to protect staff at the charity he co-founded.
Bono is the face of U2, the Dublin band that has spent 50 years being enormous and earnest in equal measure. This year they've been busier politically than they have in ages. In February they surprise-dropped the Days of Ash EP, with six songs of what Bono called defiance and dismay.
The EP opens with American Obituary, written for Renee Good, who CBS reports was killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. Bono called it “a song of fury” and a song of grief, not just for her but for the death of an America. That's a rock star using the megaphone on behalf of an immigrant-heavy community under pressure, which is exactly what the harm test likes to see.
On the harm check, nothing nasty turned up in his own words or acts. In 2015 U2 dedicated Pride to Ireland's gay marriage vote at a Phoenix show, and he reportedly told the crowd the country now had “true equality”. No slide into conspiracy theories, no campaigning against anyone's rights, and no pattern of working with people who do. That's a short list on LGBTQ+ issues, but it points one way.
The stain is on the nice side of the ledger. In March 2018 the Daily Mail reported allegations of bullying and misconduct at the Johannesburg office of ONE, the anti-poverty group he co-founded. ONE's own investigation reportedly found “unprofessional conduct” and “bullying and belittling of staff”. The former executive director at the centre of it denied the claims. Bono said “We are all deeply sorry” and accepted some responsibility for head office failing those staff.
So is he a saint? No. A frontman who lectures presidents is going to cop some eye-rolls, and the ONE saga shows an apology is not the same as having kept watch. But the record shows decades of him using a huge platform for people with far less of one, and nothing that crosses a line.