to urge ALL MNers to organise a mass boycott of the Daily Mail due to their involvement in this death?

[MardyBra]

This is the story I'm talking about:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/in_the_news/1713675-Transsexual-teacher-commits-suicide?msgid=37991582#37991582

I'll hold my hand up. I've occasionally bought it in the past, usually when I want something light to read with my lunch. I'm not proud of this (to the extent of hiding it at the bottom of the recycling pile) and I vehemently disagree with the politics. However, I can't always be arsed to read a broadsheet and I've always skimmed over stories which I see as scaremongering and prejudiced.

However this story has brought it home to me how an article which may elicit a passing glance from the casual reader, could actually be causing a living hell for the subject.

Personally I think that Littlejohn and the DM are just as (if not more) culpable in the death of Lucy Meadows as the Australian DJs were in the prank call leading to the suicide of the nurse Jacinta Saldanha. In fact, the DJs' intention was merely to play a harmless joke, whereas the DM and other media were deliberately trying to destroy the reputation and career of a professional teacher based merely on their prejudices against transexuals.

Shamefully, this story is hardly being reported in the media and had it not been for the above thread on MN I would certainly not have been aware of it.

Now, I know that a lot of MNers already avoid the DM, but this is an appeal to the mainstream, less activist MNers, who are less inclined to boycott goods to join me and stop buying this paper. Now.

The boycott of The Sun by Liverpudlians after their venomous reporting of the Hillsborough disaster has had a lasting impact on sales of the paper there. Why shouldn't be harness the power of MN and wreak revenge on the DM for Lucy's death in the same way?

[Paintingrainbowskies]

Thank you for raising awareness to this, I've just deleted the DM app from my ipad. Ashamed to say I would never ever buy it but didn't think twice about the app because its free. I liked the celeb trashy stories but you are absolutely correct that I give a cursory glance to the odd story and it could be something that could ruin a life.

Thanks

[TheBigJessie]

201,570. Should go up shortly- I, and all my friends, are liberal hippies!

[TiggyD]

A great article in the Guardian. click here

Petition now up to 200,000.

[TiggyD]

The sumofus petition is currently on 160,000 signatures.

The editor of the mail, Paul Dacre, can be contacted at -

[email protected]

[NicholasTeakozy]

Thank you for that link Kim, it was beautifully furious.

I've signed the petition too Roisin

[teatrolley]

This is so horribly sad. How was this in any way news? It's something personal that people around her were aware of, just as they might be aware that another teacher is pregnant or another caught their wife cheating with another man. It's nothing that belongs in a newspaper or warrants someone being followed around by journalists and photographers.

People have little sympathy for the famous who are stalked by the media, even when it obviously crosses boundaries eg topless photos of Kate Middleton taken with a long lens on a private estate were apparently fair game according to many posters on here because she took her top off with the nearest strangers over half a mile away. They forget that if this happens to the wealthy and powerful with solicitors and private security, what chance do the general public have?

This is the reality of what the media can do to ordinary people. The landlord of a murder victim was plastered all over the papers with insinuations that he was somehow involved and the settlement money they had to pay him won't undo the damage. Now a woman who was just living her life, a teacher, has been targeted with the worst consequences.

[DeepRedBetty]

Done Roisin

Anyone any ideas on how I can wean DM off the DM?

[Roisin]

Please consider signing this petition about it

[MardyBra]

"Gullible or hate filled"

Or there's a third option of apathy. People who don't necessary agree with it but read it for the gossip, pics and general interest stories.

[LandofTute]

Gullible or as hate filled as the newspaper i suppose.

[LandofTute]

I never buy the vile newspaper and this will make me more determined not to open links to articles that people post from the Mail. Why people imagine it is a good site to get news from is beyond me. They must be very gullible.

[Leithlurker]

I was very fortunate to meet and work with some very young LGBT people a while back, they came and took part in a community event and brought the whole thing to life. The danger of articles like LittleJohns published in hate filled papers like the mail is that many people will se the effect on this woman and will either consider themselves to be freaks and "wrong", or they will hide, evade, and deny their true selves leading damaged and unhappy lives. As you say Kim if a choice existed no one would choose to be different, no one makes the choice to live a life that is made more difficult by who they are or what they feel themselves to be. Bastards like those that publish, write for, and read, hate filled chip wrappers would like everyone to be the same, thank fuck were not and thank fuck we have people like Kim and those lgbt youngsters I spoke of.

[morethanpotatoprints]

I don't read it but will sign petition. Which is the guardian link, is it in the OP, don't want to open Daily Fail link.

[Leithlurker]

bump

[Leithlurker]

Jamdonut, her crime like the crimes of benefit claimants, single mothers, immigrants, lgbt, et al, is to dare to offend the sensitivities of the worste elements of white middle class people who feel they have the entitlement to look down on other people as they have "worked for everything they have", "played by the rules" have "normal sex", and that since they are the squeezed middle always the ones being chased by the politicle parties for their votes, they are given this moral sense of rage by being pandered too. Of course a newspaper in fact every news paper wants to speak for them. Thats where the money and the power is. People like benefit claimants,lgbt, and the mentally ill who kill themselves as a result of being scapegoated by the press are just sad statistics

[jamdonut]

More than anything, i can't understand their motives....what did they want to happen?
Did they want her sacked? What would that achieve? If she was a good teacher before, there was no reason to think she wouldn't still be a good teacher.

Did they want a general public uprising against all transgenders? (? Don't know the correct term,sorry if I've offended)

Did they want her to "lose it" and do something awful so that they could say "told you so!"

What? What could it possibly be? She had committed no crime.

[jamdonut]

I admit to reading it in the past. That was in backlash to my parents and grandparents reading The Sun and The Daily Mirror (and their Sunday versions) somewhat slavishly.

But in the end I couldn't stand it any more. Out of choice I read the Independent, but to be honest, I hardly ever read that now. I pick up the news on-line mostly. I don't think I'm missing anything, because I'm not interested in Big Brother, I'm a Celebrity,Strictly,BGT. (I like X factor, but I'm not interested in their stories.)or Coronation Street or Eastenders, which is what most papers seem to be full of.

I've only just picked up on the story of Lucy Meadows. I think it is atrocious what the press think they can do in pursuit of "stories".

[Stinkyminkymoo]

I thought about what would happen should the Heather council house woman commit suicide after the press hounding she got. It really made me wonder why the Aussie DJ's got such a hard time over a prank, and yet this woman was constantly harassed with there being no consequences.

I didn't know about Lucy and I feel very sad that someone who just wants to feel like the person they are can't just because a paper has got their teeth into a story and can't let go. Vile, just vile.

[mrsjay]

I never buy it dont read it online and i hate that people link to it on here, I know you are linking to prove a point

[LtEveDallas]

Actually Holly and Navada there is someone on this thread who did know Lucy Meadows and does believe that the DM was responsible for her death. I'm happy to take her word for it and even happier to call for the sacking of the prick that is Littlejohn.

[navada]

Agree hollyberrbush: Was a suicide note left blaming the DM article? - does anyone know for sure why this person took their own life? From what I understand suicides are rarely triggered by just one thing.

[HollyBerryBush]

I read it because I like it.

And until the investigation and inquest are complete, I doubt it does anyone any good to attribute cause and blame and have a total kneejerk reaction to someone they've never met.