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Daily Mail Article o' the Day: A Headsick and Rage Spin-Off

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Regrettable Juvenilia

10:18 / 10.12.07

Which is more than can be said for this thread: if it's not even limited to the Daily Mail anymore, can we please lock it, put all the posts about newspaper articles and opinion pieces that piss us off in the Urgh Fuck Anger! thread, or even better in the Switchboard where there is an expectation that the issue at hand can be discussed critically, and try to resolve the situation where we have half a dozen dedicated and popular threads dedicated to complaining, that sit on the front page of the Conversation making us look like a bunch of grumpy depressed old gits?

*

16:00 / 31.03.08

So, let's take a straw poll: Should I call back the Daily Mail reporter who wants to talk to me about trans stuff? Please check no or no and return this survey to the circular bin.

16:40 / 31.03.08

Well, if you haven't already completely made up your mind, did ze dole out the "we're going to run an article anyway" threat? The article's going to be utterly horrible, obviously, but if it *is* something they're going to write anyway it may be marginally less horrible with an entity-quote in it.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

18:00 / 31.03.08

Was there a context for this? Is it anything to do with the Thomas Beatie Affair? I would tend towards no, that other than some involvement in the Stephen Lawrence situation the Mail has done nothing good for this country and poisons all it touches. Look at me, for example! I used to be happy, I used to have dreams...

*

18:04 / 31.03.08

She hasn't said anything one way or the other, just left messages at my WORK (grouch grouch, but I guess it's reassuring that she can't find another way to contact me) asking me to call her back.

I'm not keen to talk to her, because I know what it's about, and I know she's going to ask a question that I cannot, in good conscience, answer. And any other quotes of mine will just be twisted in such a way as to reflect badly on me, trans people, and particular trans people whom she will want me to talk about. In addition, I don't want to be associated with any wacky Daily Mail gossip column, which might make it look like I support them or consider them credible.

But if you really think you can build a strong case for me returning this person's call, feel free to try.

*

18:05 / 31.03.08

I'm pretty sure it's about Beatie, yeah. Just because of timing.

18:32 / 31.03.08

That Daily Mail is weird. Really, really weird.

Mon Oncle Ignatius

19:05 / 31.03.08

other than some involvement in the Stephen Lawrence situation the Mail has done nothing good for this country

To be fair to the Daily Mail, which is not something I find myself doing very often, they were also vocal in their criticism of the police officers who laughed and joked while Christopher Alder died in a pool of his own blood and vomit with his trousers round his ankles on the floor of a police station in Hull a few years back. It's more than likely that it was because he was an ex-paratrooper than because he was black, but they were strangely supportive of the prosecution of the officers in that particular case.

Even the normally right-of-genghis Allison Pearson said: Four police officers stand by and let a black ex-paratrooper choke to death on his own blood and vomit on the floor of a Hull police station. The coppers keep up a laconic commentary on the man's state — "He's right as rain, he was doing his dying swan act" — while laughing and apparently making monkey noises.

A report by the Independent Police Complaints Commission describes this as "unwitting racism" against Christopher Alder. No, gentlemen. Unwitting is leaving the door ajar so the cat escapes. This was letting a man die while they had a joke and a chat.

The four officers were cleared of manslaughter and misconduct in 2002 regarding the death of Mr Alder. Of course they were. When was the last time that the police force inquired into itself and found itself guilty?

It is a very weird paper indeed.

19:16 / 31.03.08

It's more than likely that it was because he was an ex-paratrooper than because he was black

Nick Davies, in Flat Earth News, reckons that's exactly the way the Mail works - certain types of black people are okay and are treated well by the Mail; that's why they were so keen to praise Johnson Beharry when he got his VC. But he has stories about reporters travelling hundreds of miles to cover stories of people being murdered, then being rung en route by the Mail editorial office and told to turn back because they'd just found out the victims were black and therefore not important.

Anna de Logardiere

19:32 / 31.03.08

The Daily Mail. If it was me I would contact the columnist and tell her that you're very sorry, you're just calling to let her know that you won't be giving an interview because you feel that paper takes a negative stance towards minorities and I would then thank her for considering you. Before she can say anything else put the phone down.

Why would I call in your position? Partly because it's a polite thing to do, partly because you have the opportunity to tell someone who works there that the Mail is a sack of shit in a really, really polite way. Basically there's no way I could resist that.

21:06 / 31.03.08

I totally second Natalia on that

05:59 / 01.04.08

Just...no and no, id.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

11:56 / 01.04.08

I wouldn't bother phoning them. Either they don't care about their job or they don't care about the people they are talking to. Either way they are unlikely to suffer a crisis of conscience and go tell Dacre to stick his job up his arse.

All Acting Regiment

13:28 / 01.04.08

It might seem like a lost chance to get something out there but it's not worth spoiling it by putting it through that disgusting channel.

14:25 / 01.04.08

I wouldn't bother phoning them. Either they don't care about their job or they don't care about the people they are talking to.

Yeah, but it would feel good to say it to them, wouldn't it? Even if they don't care.

If you do phone, tho, be sure to hang up on them before they can get any quotable sentence out of you. You don't need me to tell you that.

10:56 / 04.04.08

Not really a case of headsick or rage, infact, a moment of unintentional lolage. In a story about how the extent of children texting has cost them their ability to spell, we have the following gem in the comments section:

Stop blaming texting and start blaming there poor education.

- Richard, Berkhamsted

...education much better in your day was it, Dick?

All Acting Regiment

14:11 / 04.04.08

Yes, it must be text-messaging, and not underfunded schools or private schools getting the monopoly on teachers and students or over-grown class sizes or distractions such as the Mail itself from quality reading, that is to blame for their spelling mistakes.

16:44 / 04.04.08

Well, it's not just texting, obviously - you're forgetting the effects of immigrants, Maggie and 'social networking sites like Mybook, Bespace and Facebo.'

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