leyton.org

I despise the Daily Mail. It’s a horrifically biased newspaper, with a particular agenda to push (and push it it does relentlessly) that I very rarely find I have any sympathy with. It seems to relish winding up and massaging the prejudices of the people of Middle England (and Middle Scotland) who buy the paper. I believe it’s incredibly important to challenge everything that we have presented to us as fact, or as some irrevocable ‘right’, and there seems scant evidence this particular newspaper does that. I worry that the readership doesn’t either.

One of my favourite quotes, that succinctly captures my approach here, is from Mark Twain: “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect.”.

Back to the Mail. They’ve been doing what they, sadly, do well, and that’s misrepresent somebody. Now I’ve been interviewed for a (technical) publication on at least one occasion, and found that the words attributed to me didn’t quite match my recollection (or typical usage), and it left me with a bit of a sour taste, although I was still quite chuffed. The experience, no doubt, of sub-editors tweaking words and selecting, then condensing, my statements to make it ‘flow’ better.

But that’s one thing. Wholesale misrepresentation is another, and this seems to be something the Mail excels with. I’m angry, but not ultimately surprised (via Gordon), to read about a particularly awful piece of journalism from this excuse for a ‘news’ paper that has portrayed a fellow blogger in a particularly inaccurate way.

So, read her response, then please: Stop. Buying. This. “News” Paper.