Daily Wail Witch Hunt

Daily Wail Witch Hunt

If only. For years, this cesspit of bile and vilification has smeared its nastiness across the nation. The fact that it has such a relatively high readership is a cause for despair. It is a source of amazement that it claims women constitute over half of its readership. Quite astonishing when the vitriol and sexism on its notorious ‘sidebar of shame’ in the online edition is taken into account. Bitchy and catty, it is sarcastic about C-List celebs and wannabees with their ‘wardrobe malfunctions’ and ‘nipple mishaps.’ Gleefully prurient and condemnatory at the same time. 

It is a shorthand tool in judging a new acquaintance. Most readers when challenged make some sort of excuse about ‘liking its sports pages’ or ‘its good for tv coverage’ etc. 

It bullies its staff, its victims, and like Murdoch, has a malign influence on our politicians. It damages decent public discourse.

The way it has handled the hatchet job on Ed Miliband has been revelatory. It has shown a less sure touch. The number of Tory grandees publicly disputing the Wail’s ‘angle’ has been quite heartening. Ralph Miliband was clearly a character and a man of substance. 

“In the 1980s, I took some of my students to a history workshop conference in Oxford. We heard lectures from Ralph Miliband, among others. He analysed and rejoiced in the great British radical tradition, from the Lollards and Levellers, Thomas Paine, Wilberforce and the anti-slavery movement, Shaftesbury and, yes, the trades unions. He talked also of the remarkable British tolerance and readiness to receive immigrants and refugees, like himself. Of course, he was an immigrant, a socialist and a gifted intellectual – all the things despised by the Daily Mail.

I loathe the Mail and its politics because it expresses everything that is foul about the rightwing in this country. That does not mean I am the less patriotic. Quite the reverse. It is because I love my country that I find the Mail unpatriotic, nasty, intolerant and everything that demeans Britain.
Colin Pickthall
Ulverston, Cumbria   Guardian letters page 3/10/13

Following further revelations about two Sunday Wail journalists attempting to dig up some dirt by inveigling themselves into a private memorial for a Miliband family member, the Sunday Wail editor quickly apologised. No such apology for the original smear article from the Wail or its editor. 

Where’s Dacre?

The editor of the Wail is Paul Dacre. He is accused by Alastair Campbell of being a bully (a bit rich that from Campbell) and a coward. He has sent out minions this week to face the media storm. Of Dacre there is nothing to be seen, yet he is the highest paid editor on Fleet Street, getting nearly £2million a year. Campbell has launched an online petition challenging Dacre to a public debate. 

How about this for a character reference?

“Dacre is, all those who have had the misfortune to work for him assure me, just about as loathsome, self-regarding, morally putrid, vengeful and disgusting a man as it possible to be." International Business Times  

Question Time

Wail professional cynic, Quentin Letts, had a sense of humour bypass on last night’s Question Time. He had to sit and listen to his paper being slammed by Mehdi Hassan of the Huffington Post. For anyone who has ever shuddered at the Wail’s values, it is well worth a look. 

There are many clips online. Here is one:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JIvARoGbS4