Don’t Read The Daily Mail
DM Reporter is launching the first annual ‘Don’t Read the Daily Mail’ Day tomorrow.
We are thusly forbade on September 24th from reading, linking, tweeting, updating, posting, critiquing, spoofing, complaining, borrowing, commenting or thinking about the Daily Mail. We’ll keep it out of the line of sight of those who have befriended or followed us. We’ll not start sentences “guess what they wrote today,” and we will not bite when Samantha Brick offers us an apple.
DM Reporter argues that the Daily Mail “doesn’t care if we love it or hate it, it only cares that we read it” – they don’t care who is clicking on a link or why, they only care that people are clicking.
Ignoring the Daily Mail for just one day a year sounds like an easily achievable goal (if you think it’s too easy, perhaps you’d like to pledge to ignore the Mail for a longer period of time) and if there’s a chance it might annoy the Daily Mail even a little bit I think it might be worth a try.
Anybody who would like to irritate the Daily Mail but does not wish to ignore it might like to consider other options. You could carry on as you are and continue to point out their factual inaccuracies or instances of their bigotry or hypocrisy (or point and laugh at them, or whatever it is you do). If you have a legitimate complaint about an article, you might like to try complaining to the paper (who will ignore you) or the PCC (who will likely fob you off). Or you could perhaps try something a bit different – like reverse incentives. Maybe you could find a cause that the Mail would hate, and donate to it every time it was criticised by the Mail? I’m sure there will be plenty of other possibilities that haven’t occurred to me too.
Daily Mail Science Correspondent on Vaccination
The Daily Mail have this week published an article on the HPV vaccine. Remarkably, it’s actually quite good. Certainly better than those written by Rachel Porter, Paul Sims, and the anonymous (and ubiquitous) Daily Mail Reporter. (See here, here, here, and here for my thoughts on those articles.) The journalist in question is Fiona MacRae. The article is about girls being denied the “life-saving cervical cancer jab” because of the religious objections of schools. As I say, it’s actually quite good. The only quibble I have is that it includes the following sentence: Read the rest of this entry »
Sue Reid on MMR in the Daily Mail
The Daily Mail recently published a new article on MMR and autism. I was unhappy with the piece and had a conversation by email with the journalist, in which I set out my concerns. Read the rest of this entry »
PCC Judgement On Daily Mail HPV Article
Back in November last year, I complained about a Daily Mail article on the HPV vaccine. Another individual also complained (about the Mail and other newspapers) and the PCC decided that theirs would be the main complaint, with mine being considered alongside it. It’s taken over three months, but the PCC have now made an adjudication. Read the rest of this entry »
Paul Dacre, Kitten Killer
This is what Paul Dacre might see if he were a kitten killer. Which, as far as I know, he isn’t.
Of course, Paul Dacre is not really a kitten killer. I’ve made that up. Newspapers such as Dacre’s Daily Mail though, and I’m not making this bit up, are allowed to print pretty much any headline they like. As long as they make clear at some point that the headline is untrue. Perhaps in, say, paragraph 19 of the article.
This is problematic. Not everyone will read the whole article. A few will read right to the end, some will look at the pictures and maybe read the first couple of paragraphs. But everyone will have been exposed to the headline.
The Poynter Institute found that online participants read an average of 77 percent of story text they chose to read; broadsheet participants read an average of 62 percent of stories they selected; and tabloid participants read an average of 57 percent. They also note that readers described as ‘scanners’ viewed headlines and other page display elements without reading much text. It’s clear that some people might be influenced by a headline without ever reading the attached article.
Daily Mail Health Articles
The Daily Mail is known to some as The People’s Medical Journal for its love of health stories. Particularly health stories that involve unlikely cures, or anecdotes about alleged side effects of vaccination. I took a look at some of the latest stories in the Mail’s Health section. Caution: this article contains links to the Daily Mail’s website. PDFs are available for those who do not wish to visit the Mail’s website. Read the rest of this entry »
PCC Upholds Daily Mail’s Right To Distort
Recently, I wrote about the zombie Daily Mail article on MMR. I made a complaint to the PCC about the article in question, and have now received notice of their decision. Read the rest of this entry »
Daily Mail On HPV Vaccine
The Daily Mail have published an article about the HPV vaccine. You won’t be surprised to learn that the tone of the article is scaremongering – with the very real benefits of the vaccine downplayed and a focus on the hypothetical risks. Read the rest of this entry »
Zombie Daily Mail Article On MMR
Here’s something that’s puzzling me: a Daily Mail article from several years ago is showing on a Google search for wakefield mmr daily mail as being just two hours old.
The Mainstream Media and the PCC
[Updated, 30th July] As the phone hacking storm raged, and the PCC Chair claimed that she was lied to by the News of the World over phone hacking, two newspapers might have thought they could breathe a sigh of relief. At least the scandalous goings on at the News of the World may have deflected some attention from the Sun and the Daily Mirror – who have been in the High Court facing charges of contempt of court. Read the rest of this entry »
Stuff And Nonsense 