"The Daily Mail" is a vile newspaper and so is its Sunday sister paper - "The Mail On Sunday". They both peddle venomous right wing bullshit in the disguise of old-fashioned middle-of-the-road English morality. Both newspapers are mostly owned by Jonathan Harmsworth, 4th Viscount Rothermere, a great-grandson of one of the paper's original co-founders. He is as Conservative as they come and a powerful advocate for the disgraced former prime minister - Mr B.Johnson .
North American visitors and bloggers from elsewhere in the world may never have heard of "The Grand National". It is this country's premier horse-racing steeplechase - imbued with history and run each spring at the Aintree circuit near Liverpool.
It appears that "The Daily Mail" have uncovered a plot in which animal rights activists are planning to disrupt the famous race. But why refer to them as a "vegan mob"? This is so wrong at many levels.
My son, Ian is a committed vegan but like most other vegans in this kingdom he is not an animal rights activist. There is no way he would have any truck with protests involving direct action on behalf of animal rights.
He is just a guy who enjoys a vegan diet and through his recipe books, products and events seeks to promote plant-based diets. He does not belong to any kind of "vegan mob". It is as if "The Daily Mail" have deliberately and maliciously taken the term and weaponised it.
I can well imagine that some of the angry people who are allegedly plotting to disrupt The Grand National are in fact vegetarians and some may be pescatarians. Some may even be omnivores like the rest of us. So why use the term "vegan"? I guess that a headline like, "Omnivore Mob Plots To Sabotage The Grand National" would not have the same toxic effect upon readers of an extremely vindictive right wing newspaper.
When the paper considers other newsworthy issues such as climate change, pollution, The Ukraine War, drug trafficking and mass shootings, do the reporters immediately consider the diet preferences of those involved? I think not.
The headline discredits and disrespects thousands of decent, law-abiding citizens who have simply cut meat, eggs and dairy products from their diets for a range of reasons. I plan to assist in a clever plot to bring down "The Daily Mail" newspaper . Will the associated headline read, "Fair-Minded Carnivore Mob Plots To Sabotage This Newspaper"?
I hereby vow on behalf of my son and thousands of other committed vegans never to read "The Daily Mail" or "The Mail On Sunday" ever again.
I would be surprised if vegans etc ever read The Daily Mail. I am also surprised the paper is not owned by Murdoch. There can be worse than Murdoch then, almost.
ReplyDeleteMurdoch is not the only right wing megalomaniac in the newspaper industry.
DeleteI was wondering why you were reading it.
ReplyDeleteEvery night I check out the next day's headlines for every national newspaper in England.
DeleteSad that many news stories today seem to have to be sensationalized and there's no limit as to how things will be sensationalized. Throw in a few lies! You mean you'll just quit buying the paper? Hammer them with something else.
ReplyDeleteI have very rarely bought "The Daily Mail". Now not only will I never buy it again. I will never read it again.
DeleteOh dear! How awfully typical. I think I have mentioned this before: My 89-year-old mother-in-law gets her Daily Mail delivered through the door every morning… and there are several topics I always carefully avoid when talking to her.
ReplyDeleteThe Ludwigsburg paper is not right-wing or conservative, but they have a tendency for catchy headlines that are contributing to people having certain ideas about specific areas of town, regardless of what those areas are really like. For instance, the train station is a hotspot of criminal activity in the minds of many a good Ludwigsburger, when in fact no more unpleasant or dangerous things happen there than elsewhere in town.
People like things to be simple, and few make an effort to question what they read.
It's too late to change your mother-in-law's news sources. Actually I think it is great that a woman of that age still buys and reads a newspaper!
DeleteShe is actually quite abreast with current affairs - only that her opinions are very Daily-Mail-ish.
DeleteSome women prefer "The Daily Male"!
DeleteI get "Daily Mail" news items popping up on my home screen when I first turn on each day, but I never click on them and read them.
ReplyDeleteGood! Don't be tempted.
DeleteNews, or at least the selling of news, is pathetic. The need to bring someone or something down is the main aim of such a newspaper. Veganism is in the sightlines at the moment. I don't believe in 'conspiracy theories' but I am beginning to wonder where all this disruptive behaviour is coming from up high. Come to think of it Jonathan Harmesworth probably farms cows and wants people to eat the poor creatures ;)
ReplyDeleteThat could be a factor. The aristocracy possess huge swathes of land and make a lot of money from tenant farmers.
DeleteI never read them anyway.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you do with them? Make party hats?
DeleteWe tend not to see the language and words used, and don't often deconstruct news reports. The Daily Mail shows how easy it is to be impartial.
ReplyDelete...or to imagine you are impartial.
DeleteWasn't quite what I mean to say - s/b DM shows how easy it is NOT to be impartial, and the BBC how difficult it is.
DeleteI'll join you in your boycott. (Not that I read them much anyway.) "Vegan" is one of those words, like "woke," meant to send a signal to the readers that we're talking about liberal (i.e. Communist) snowflakes. I always think the Daily Mail is a Murdoch paper -- because it behaves like one -- but thanks for reminding me that it's not.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny that you linked "vegan" with "woke" as the headline in today's "Daily Express" is, wait for it, "WOKE POLITICS PUTTING WOMEN AT RISK".
DeleteI don't read any newspapers as I feel they are all tarred with the same brush, to a greater or lesser extent. Never mind the truth, it's often too boring - speculation, sensationalism and lies are what the people want.
ReplyDeleteI read the BBC News online, and then decide how much can safely be considered true. If there's anything really important I should know about, then I'm sure to find out one way or another.
I thought you would be a lifelong subscriber to "The Morning Star" Carol!
DeleteNO, I gave that up when I found it didn't hold the vinegar when my fish and chips were wrapped in it.
DeleteHa-ha!
DeleteI haven't bought a newspaper for over twenty years. The Grand National is very cruel and they don't complain about the fences being way too high.
ReplyDeleteI agree it is cruel! Almost every year one or two horses are shot after falls.
DeleteWe have lost the integrity of journalism.
ReplyDeleteDid we ever have it Mr Penguin?
DeleteThat is par for the course for politics these days. When confronted with someone with a contrary opinion, it seems the majority of us fall back to name calling and painting with broad strokes of a brush, rather than respectful and peaceful exchange of opinions on a narrow subject.
ReplyDeleteDo you know the best way to take care of an animal right's activist? Just sic your dog on them.
Sick or stick? The most skilled playground name caller is your previous president but I can't remember his name. Is it Chump, Dump? Something like that.
DeleteSic is the word we use when you urge your dog to attack someone else. See:
Deletehttps://www.britannica.com/dictionary/sic
I hear the name calling going on from all sides, from Biden's broad use of MAGA to Trump's every single utterance.
"Mob" sounds far more dangerous than just "Vegans" and it's all about selling papers or getting clicks online.
ReplyDeleteI believe the collective noun for kangaroos is a "mob". I wonder if the vegans will be jumping around and storing babies in their front pockets?
DeleteHeadlines sell newspapers or, as in this case, cheap rags that don't even pretend to be newspapers. We have our share here in the US, too.
ReplyDeleteSo many "respectable" people buy "The Daily Mail" without tuning in to its insidiousness.
Delete"Vegan mob" is such a funny expression to use! It would be hard to take this newspaper seriously. It's like the people that believe Fox "News" over here. Ugh!
ReplyDeleteYou nailed it.
Delete"Vegan mob" almost makes me laugh but I also feel angry that vegans seem to always be categorized as crazy radicals. My older daughter was vegan for many years, now vegetarian. Vegan diets are anti-cancer according to doctors.
ReplyDeleteVeganism has entered the mainstream now and it's not just lentils and cabbage.
Delete