Why I love the Daily Mail, as distilled into one story.

Mr Fry's twitter now has a reply condemning the Daily Mail from celebrated liberal right-thinker... Chris Moyles?!
http://twitter.com/CHRISDJMOYLES/status/4916617692

aka, game recognise game

Jan Moir responds - makes things worse.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/oct/16/jan-moir-stephen-gately-response

"In what is clearly a heavily orchestrated internet campaign I think it is mischievous in the extreme to suggest that my article has homophobic and bigoted undertones."

Undertones? No.

Also I just wanted to say that civil marriages can be problematic because people in them can DIE. Of being gay.

It's good to save articles like this to compare and contrast with the Daily Mail's upcoming "Evil Sick Bigots Who Celebrate the Death of Our Greatest Ever Prime Minister" piece.

Looking forward to a full scale "everyone's picking on me" whine in tomorrows Mail.

Fiver says it's "J'Accuse the Gay Mafia"

There'll be agendas and possibly even political correctness. Bonus marks if cancer and/or health and safety make appearances.

first time i've seen this:

http://www.qwghlm.co.uk/toys/dailymail/

IS THE HUMAN RIGHTS ACT CHEATING MIDDLE BRITAIN?

ARE ASYLUM SEEKERS GIVING HOUSE PRICES CANCER?

COULD THE BBC SCROUNGE OFF YOUR DAUGHTERS?

ARE GYPSIES GIVING YOUR PENSION DIABETES?

HAVE GYPSIES KILLED YOU?

^^^ yuo can tell these are made up because they actually make some kind of sense, unlike real DM articles...

COULD ASYLUM SEEKERS GIVE COMMON SENSE AND DECENCY DIABETES?

COULD THE UNEMPLOYED HAVE SEX WITH DRIVERS?

HAVE THE POLES STOLEN FROM CLIFF RICHARD?

WILL RIP-OFF BRITAIN GIVE MIDDLE BRITAIN DIABETES?

So, if there's nothing homophobic about this, it's gonna be a bummer to turn up at work on Monday morning and find half of the under 30s we work with dead, innit?

WILL CHAVS INFECT THE CHURCH WITH AIDS?

ARE GAYS TURNING YOUR MORTGAGE GAY?

COULD YOUR LOCAL COUNCIL RUIN HARD WORKING FAMILIES?

was my best one!

IS THE HOUSE PRICE CRASH HAVING SEX WITH COMMON SENSE AND DECENCY?

I love the comments in the JavaScript that generates the headlines:

new Noun("russell brand",3,1),     // FIXME: Delete when latest moral panic is over

haha the funniest results from this are ones that end in 'swans"

WILL JACQUI SMITH HAVE SEX WITH YOU?

FFS I hope not...

(Went w/ the Grauniad instead. Dustin Hoffman can wait.)

http://www.theonion.com/content/opinion/if_god_had_wanted_me_to_be

HAS RUSSELL BRAND IMPREGNATED BRITAIN'S SWANS?

I believe the answer is 'probably'.

COULD ALISTAIR DARLING INFECT PENSIONERS WITH AIDS?

COULD THE GERMANS MAKE YOUR DAUGHTERS IMPOTENT?

COULD LESBIANS STEAL THE IDENTITY OF YOUR PETS?

HAVE HOODIES TURNED THE QUEEN GAY?

HAVE THE POLES DESTROYED CLIFF RICHARD?

That one can't be pinned on the Poles.

Depends what you mean by poles.

lol...poles

polls

Okay, assuming for a moment you've never seen a Daily Mail headline generator before - can't we talk about the succesful internet campaign that has resulted in a bunch of advertisers pulling their money? Or that the cops are apparently looking into it under hatred laws? Or that at the very least this might be the end of her career (hopefully)?

i think the #dailymail debate is covered in as much depth as is necessary on twitter. not that this wasn't a repulsive article, but you have to be pretty wet behind the ears to think this is the daily mail going "too far" for the first time.

but yes, "successful internet campaign". finally notice is taken of white males aged 18-45. i'd hate to be the next guy stephen fry retweets criticism of on a friday afternoon.

ARE THE UNIONS DEFRAUDING BRITAIN'S SWANS?

Umm, I don't think it will be the end of the paper. She should get fired though.

i still find richard littlejohn way way way more offensive than jan moir could ever hope to be, and his particular brand of homophobia much worse and more insidious. wish people would go after him on a similar scale.

I don't think cops apparently looking into this under hatred laws is something to be pleased about at all:
(1) the article might be stupid, but it shouldn't be a crime; and
(2) I'd quite like the police to just do their job, rather than responding to orchestrated pressure. It's not a good thing just because for once the mob is on 'our' side.

If the police go after Moir, do they also get to go after anyone printing supportive comments on the Mail website? The whole article, starting with the incredibly WTF statement that healthy 33-year-old men don't just climb into their beds and don't wake up, and then suggesting that only gay men commit suicide over the break-up of their relationships (if indeed Kevin McGee's suicide was anything whatsoever, even tangentially-related, to do with his sexuality) is screamingly wrong and offensive to everyone with depression, undetected heart conditions or teh gayness, but what's worse is that it seems to be speaking for a number of people and not just for her trying to sell papers.

And, yes, The Mob should go after Littlejohn next. Am surprised he's still in a job after than "prostitutes deserve to get murdered" piece.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8314577.stm

The Press Complaints Commission says it will ask the Daily Mail to respond to complaints about a column it ran on the death of Boyzone singer Stephen Gately.

The PCC said it had received more than 21,000 complaints since its publication on 16 October - the most ever made about a single newspaper article.

enjoying the irony of this being a classic DM style witch hunt, tbh. except totally and utterly deserved.

Marks & Spencer asked the newspaper to move an advertisement which appeared alongside the online version of the article, stating that it "does not tolerate any form of discrimination".

I always love when an organ like the Daily Mail prints an article no more offensive than usual and is suddenly buried in outrage.