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Mail: a truly despicable article ("nothing 'natural' about Stephen Gately's death")

Did you see this guy's post on the FB group?

I'm a lecturer in English Language who's been tracking the Daily Mail and its homophobia for several years. In a book I published called Public Discourses of Gay Men I looked at over a thousand articles about homosexuality that the Mail has published and found some common themes. These are the 10 "rules" of writing about homosexuality that you have to abide by if you write for the Daily Mail.

1) Gay relationships don't last
2) Gay is not a proper identity, it's just filthy sex
3) Being gay will lead to crime and violence
4) Being gay is something to be ashamed about
5) Beware - many gay people hide their gayness for some reason - making them liars and morally dubious
6) Despite (5) many gay people are "obvious" and/or "shameless" so they won't shut up about being gay - and we don't want to know!
7) Gay people are promiscuous
8) Gay people are everywhere - they are many and they are strong
9) They want to infect your children with their ways
10) They are strident, loud and militant. They will never stop demanding "rights" they don't deserve.

Moir's article follows the Daily Mail's "rules" on how to write about homosexuality, almost to the letter. Remember, it's not just Moir, it's the whole newspaper. This has been going on for years and they won't stop until they are stopped.



Has Dacre gone to ground then?
 
Did you see this guy's post on the FB group?





Has Dacre gone to ground then?

I read that.

I've skimmed the thread again but missed what I was looking for.
Did I gather that Dacre is actually IN the Press Complaints Commission??
 
Apparently Thursday night was the Press Awards when everyone is out on the lash. So the article wouldn't have gone through the usual scrutiny. Seems even the subs were there (Posh Spice = decorous?!)
 
Trashy - the PCC isn't flying. Everyone is getting 'you are a third party, nothing we can do' form reply.

Perhaps change the complaint copy to something to send the advertisers instead?

Something to do today, like. Keep it moving.
 
FWIW, Brookers op-ed and the story about Moir's article getting record complaints are both in the Top 5 most viewed in the last 24 hours...Brooker's piece most viewed in last 7 days...
 
Today's media coverage

Links in full so they can be copied to the Facebook group, passed about, blogged, tweeted, etc

PR Week - 48 hours to save your reputation? If you're lucky, you'll get 4 http://community.prweek.com/blogs/d...utation-if-you-are-lucky-you-ll-get-four.aspx

The First Post: http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/54877,people,news,mail-columnist-throws-a-shadow-over-gately-funeral

See also: http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/54874...morning-stephen-gately-jenson-button-x-factor

The Media Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2009/oct/19/power-of-social-networks

IT Pro http://www.itpro.co.uk/blogs/daveyw/2009/10/18/twitter-finds-its-voice-and-roars/

Independent Matthew Norman Media Diary http://www.independent.co.uk/news/m...an-moir-im-nearly-lost-for-words-1805097.html

BBC What The papers say http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/8313809.stm

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown in the Independent http://www.independent.co.uk/opinio...til-the-invective-is-against-you-1805247.html

The Times; ( not very sympathetic and calls us 'a nation of Victor Meldrews')
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article6880002.ece

And of course, today's Mail's own take on the matter , with reader comments

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1221360/Stephen-Gately-debate-dominates-internet.html

Reverse ferret from Mail columnist Janet street Porter

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/a...ay-killed-man-week--wasnt-Stephen-Gately.html

Reverse ferreting started with the sister paper on Sunday (who have, it must be said, a different editorial staff) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/a...ge-libel-lawyers--new-virtual-conscience.html
 
I have been looking at the PCC site and am now wondering if I cocked up by changing the complaint letter because the one that's on the page only talks about the personal things and doesn't mention point 12 in the code which is

Discrimination

i) The press must avoid prejudicial or pejorative reference to an individual's race, colour, religion, gender, sexual orientation or to any physical or mental illness or disability.

ii) Details of an individual's race, colour, religion, sexual orientation, physical or mental illness or disability must be avoided unless genuinely relevant to the story.

Surely the article breaches 12 i). Or am I clutching at straws????

BK - will post the links
 
Trashy - the PCC isn't flying. Everyone is getting 'you are a third party, nothing we can do' form reply.

Perhaps change the complaint copy to something to send the advertisers instead?

Something to do today, like. Keep it moving.

On the discrimination against gay people, part 12 of the code, surely that doesn't have to be the Gately mourners?

Oh, just saw trashy's post.


I was thinking that DAYS ago though... :mad:
 
Pete from Wrexham said:
I have to agree with Jan. His so called marriage seemed to allow for taking home waifs and strays for drug taking and other unseemely acts. When will the gay community realise that marriage is a unity of two people in the eyes of God. They want the right to marriage but do not take it seriously. Jan should not have to apologise. This mans actions were dubious. Smoking weed, threesomes with strangers. It is not the act of a normal individual and his death is still unexplained.

- pete, wrexham, 19/10/2009 07:15

She's got at least one fan then. When oh when will these gays learn? :(
 
On the discrimination against gay people, part 12 of the code, surely that doesn't have to be the Gately mourners?

Oh, just saw trashy's post.


I was thinking that DAYS ago though... :mad:

I know. I think I fucked up - someone posted that draft letter which I thought sounded good but it doesn't mention part 12. I'm going to ask the fb group if anyone has drafted their own letter which mentioned part 12 and didn't get the stock response. Is there some way I can email the group??
 
I noticed that the link on facebook to the original headlined pic jpeg is no longer working I spoke to my webspace support and apparently they found he bandwidth to be excessive as it had had over 32,000 views and over 5 gig of data a day apparently so it now shows up as bandwidth exceeded .


I uploaded it to here instead same image same quality but this also only allows 300 meg an hour (thats about 600 views) so may be ok to use my photobucket link instead , I think its good if the original headline is still linked but the catcha.co.uk one aint gonna work at moment unless I can sort it with them , can someone change it to...

http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/1463/dmail.jpg


or maybe someone else could host it for a while - to keep it active - cheers

Ive pmed St3lla but only just had the email from my webspace providers :)
 
Interesting that the PCC gets some attention now, I was reading about the documentary starsuckers on the Guardian last week, and there is a secretly recorded journalist talking about how the PCC is run by newspaper editors and they just give you a slap on the wrist. These comments are on the video on the guardian website.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/oct/15/starsuckers-celebrity-cosmetic-surgery-hoax

Yes, because it needed someone to secretly record that the PCC does nothing save hand out slapped wrists to the newspapers. No one ever knew that knowledge before this.
 
http://www.libdemvoice.org/jan-moir...t-you-should-say-in-your-complaint-16560.html

has a good steer on how to handle it.

The PCC is crap, which is why the sheer numbers of complainers - and its unsatisfactory response, because it isn't set up to deal with this sort of thing - is going to become the next part of the story. It's just unfit for purpose in this day and age. So peopel should keep complaining, even though they get crap responses, because the volume and speed and size of the aggrieved complainers highlights the flaws of the PCC and will ultinately hasten its demise.

The PCC isn't up to the job - breaking it and flattening it with huge numbers of complaints proves it.
 
I know. I think I fucked up - someone posted that draft letter which I thought sounded good but it doesn't mention part 12. I'm going to ask the fb group if anyone has drafted their own letter which mentioned part 12 and didn't get the stock response. Is there some way I can email the group??

I didn't know about the letter and sent my own badly crafted one including reference to section 12, and which did get the stock response. However I did send it on the form they set up especially so it would have done.

I can reply to them pointing out that 12 is a broader issue not just affecting the mourners.
 
I can email the group Trashy. Compose soemthing brilliant and I'll get on it.

Hope soemone else is posting BK's links above around the blogs and news sites as I am owrking at work and still have a cold
 
I uploaded it to here instead same image same quality but this also only allows 300 meg an hour (thats about 600 views) so may be ok to use my photobucket link instead , I think its good if the original headline is still linked but the catcha.co.uk one aint gonna work at moment unless I can sort it with them , can someone change it to...

http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/1463/dmail.jpg


or maybe someone else could host it for a while - to keep it active - cheers

Can urb host it? ;) Or is that a 'bit close to home' praps?
 
Can urb host it? ;) Or is that a 'bit close to home' praps?


clapham boy did offer earlier in thread if mine got overloaded might be an option it would be better than relying on the photobucket link as if it exceeds 300meg an hour (approx 600 views with this) they have to be contacted each time to get it opened again and theres no way of monitoring it views which were definitely over a 1000 an hour over weekend probably through the link being spread , probably slowed down now but who knows it was still going quite high on my stats till 9am ;)


:eek: :D

If needed, I've got unlimited disc space and bandwidth available to host the JPEG of the article for linking from facebook etc.

Just PM if required.

Ive sent a PM
 
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