Just want to make my voice heard: I won't be buying the Mail again

PAUL usually blogs about online journalism while Becky blogs about cakey buns.

This week, their excellent blogs were closely connected for the first and possibly last time as they both took time to ponder the appalling story of how a journalist ripped into a popular young performer  on the day before his funeral.

How 'organised' was the Jan Moir campaign? asked Paul.

I don't think there is much I can add to the acres of newsprint and online comment that has followed this extraordinary episode, but I did want to say, loud and clear as I have in comments on both Paul and Becky's blogs, that my complaint to the PCC was not part of an orchestrated campaign.

I also wanted to say, quite simply that I won't be buying the Mail again and nor will I be pitching it. (Not that I did anyway any time recently, thanks to the overcommissioning...)

I wasn’t aware of a Facebook group aiming to shame Jan Moir and do not follow Stephen Fry or Derren Brown on Twitter.

I was struck most of all by a lack of common human decency in the article before my mind registered the homophobic undertones.

It quite upset me and I tweeted that I was upset by the vile article, I felt that Twitter helped give me a voice in this regard and a few people responded to or retweeted my view on it.

I then checked a link for the PCC website as supplied in another tweet that was sent my way from someone I didn’t follow.

I complained and retweeted the link. This was in no way orchestrated or planned on my part, rather a spontaneous expression of my disgust that such a lack of decency and compassion should be shown.

Some may consider it cheesy that when I think about this chain of events, I was thinking about Stephen Gately’s mum and as I am a mum too, it really did upset me to think she would have to be made aware of such a vile article.

I couldn’t get my head round the fact that the piece had gone from writer to sub to page and bearing in mind the findings of the coroner, that no-one had questioned the taste, decency or accuracy of stating there was ‘nothing natural about the death’.

I was also stunned that JM wrote he couldn’t hold a tune. Like others who have commented elsewhere, I don’t possess a single BoyZone track but I had heard him sing and my untrained ear agreed with Andrew Lloyd Webber.

It was this level of petty bile and the timing of it which also upset me. My parents are long-time Mail readers and I have bought it to read on train journeys or at the weekend.

I will be talking to my mum and dad and asking them to stop buying it too.

I think it’s short-sighted and arrogant to respond to such a wave of condemnation by saying this was an ‘orchestrated campaign’ and feel somewhat baffled that anyone working in the media should seek to portray this as some sort of spat between a more liberal ‘twitterati’ and a right wing newspaper.

There were plenty of parents, of all political persuasions who felt at a very basic level that the unfeeling nature of the piece should be spoken out about.

I hope an apology, at least, is forthcoming.

I complained because I am a mum and a human being, not because I became aware that high-profile people on Twitter were suggesting this was a good idea.

Comments

[Chie Elliott]

Lovely blog, Linda. A refreshing voice from a mother speaking on behalf of another.
Kudos to you. :)

[Victoria]

HEAR HEAR!

[Kath@Parklover]

Completely agree with you. It's offensive to try and downplay the strength of peoples revulsion for this article by suggesting there was some kind of organised campaign. The article was horrible and incorrect on so many levels and people are quite capable of working that out for themselves, not because a famous person told them what to think! Although I say good for anyone who publicly denounced it, I thought Charlie Brooker's piece for The Guardian was excellent.

[Insomniac Mummy]

I think that the Daily Mail is insulting intelligent (ex)readers when it makes cries of an orchestrated campaign.

We're not drones following a leader blindly. We're individuals, each with a voice. Just because many voices agree doesn't mean there was some sort of force behind it. Just because you agree with a mass opinion doesn't mean you didn't draw the conclusion yourself.

Me thinks the Mail doth protest too much.

How they had the audacity to publish such a vile piece the day before a mother laid her son to rest I will never understand.

[Plan B]

I came on to your blog for the first time because lovely Tara@Stickyfingers recommended you to me as a fellow twin mum. Imagine my delight to see an anti-daily-mail rant!

Thank you for putting into words what so many of us, whether long-term Daily Mail haters or not, have been thinking. I first found out about the article when a friend of mine sent it to me because she was so horrified by it she had complained to the PCC. This was *before* it hit the media, and she's not the PCC writing to type.

Put simply, it was hateful and hate-inducing vitriol, and it is quite right that it should be stopped.

[Linda]

Hi everyone, thank you for your supportive comments! It may be simplistic to some and I'm really not sure how many people will be interested in my post but I do think a blog is a great way of getting this stuff out there!
Thanks again.

[Keris]

Excellent post, Linda. The reason Jan Moir claimed it was an organised campaign and questioned whether people had even read the article was quite clear to me instantly: that's the Mail's MO. That's EXACTLY what they did with Ross/Brand/Sachs. Really we should feel sorry for Jan Moir and everyone else who let the piece reach the public. If that's the way they think, what kind of lives must they have?

[Cathy]

I absolutely agree with you. I complained to the PCC not because of any orchestrated campaign but because I was reviled by the piece and the insensitivity of the timing of its publication. I have never complained to the PCC before, may never do so again, but as a neutral reader that article and the response from Jan Moir upset me hugely.

[English Mum]

Hear hear Linda! Thanks very much for the link, but you said it so much better yourself - it's nothing to do with 'orchestrated campaigns', it's a genuine backlash from normal people who object to unkindness. Becky x

[Dan]

Yes I think she is mistaking the phrase "organized internet campaign" for the rather more accurate "public opinion"

Unfortunately I'd never buy the mail anyway, so my boycott will make no difference.

[Keren David]

I agree with everything you say. I thought it was despicable of Jan Moir to try and claim that it was only gay people who were upset by her article - she didn't even have the imagination to see how upsetting her words were to Stephen Gately's parents and indeed to anyone who has ever lost someone in shockingly unexpected circumstances.
I blogged about her clarification - and how far from a proper apology it was. I also made the point that the article was an affront to decency. Doesn't the Mail see that articles like this contribute to the culture of disrespect that it - correctly - complains about so often.
Hurray for twitter and blogs and Facebook for giving people a way to respond to this kind of nonsense. Now I'm off to read the rest of your blog!

[Sarah Cruickshank]

Well said Linda. My complaint to the PCC wasn't part of an organised campaign either, I was just disgusted that those vile rantings should have ever been printed, so I made a complaint. There was no need it, it didn't help anyone and so I objected.

[A Modern Mother]

That sounds just awful! I hate the Daily Mail!

[Liz (LivingwithKids)]

Like you, when I logged on on friday morning to read my newspapers online I couldn't believe what she'd written. My first thought was for his poor mother.

I then contacted Media Guardian - as I'm sure many others did - to tell them they should be doing something on the story.

Ultimately of course though Moir's words were vile the buck must stop with whichever Editor chose to run it - and the day before the funeral, of all days. Given the Mail also lost advertising as a result of the article I'm hoping they will, at some point, take the whole thing seriously.

Unfortunately as I understand it the PCC don't accept 3rd party injury complaints, but I believe the family are going to make an official complaint.

I met the lads years ago and I can only guess at the agony they must be feeling now. My heart goes out to them. x

[Linda]

Hi everyone - thank you so much for taking the time to comment here and to let me and anyone else reading, as if they didn't know that there was a groundswell of opinion. For some it has really shown up what a charade the PCC is.

[Rosie Scribble]

I agree with all the points you made and I won't be wasting my money on the Mail ever again. I found it vile and disturbing and in very poor taste. I hope an apology is forthcoming, it is not acceptable that such an offensive piece can be printed with zero consequences for the writer. Shocking in this day and age. I also wonder how on earth it got to the printing press in the first place without someone putting a stop to it.

[notSupermum]

I hate the Daily Mail, and have done so for years. They run daily stories of how women/mothers are the root of all evil, and single mothers are the spawn of the devil.

I also complained to the PCC, unprompted by anyone else, and probably received the same standard email response as you. I was furious about Jan Moir's article - not because I am a fan of Boyzone (can't stand 'em actually) but I am a fan of fairness and hate bigotry.

[clareybabble]

Well said!
There's an award for you at mine x