Dacre speaks!

[claig]

Great article full of great points. Too many to list, but this is just a sample.

"our crime is more heinous than that.

It is that the Mail constantly dares to stand up to the liberal-Left consensus that dominates so many areas of British life, and instead represents the views of the ordinary people who are our readers and who don’t have a voice in today’s political landscape — and are too often ignored by today’s ruling elite.

The metropolitan classes, of course, despise our readers with their dreams (mostly unfulfilled) of a decent education and health service they can trust, their belief in the family, patriotism, self-reliance, and their over-riding suspicion of the State and the People Who Know Best."

...

"No other newspaper campaigns as vigorously as the Mail and I am proud of the ability of the paper’s 400 journalists (the BBC has 8,000) to continually set the national agenda on a whole host of issues.

I am proud that for years, while most of Fleet Street were in thrall to it, the Mail was the only paper to stand up to the malign propaganda machine of Tony Blair and his appalling henchman, Campbell."

.....

"The BBC is controlled, through the licence fee, by the politicians. ITV has to answer to Ofcom, a Government quango.

Newspapers are the only mass media left in Britain free from the control of the State."

www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2455256/PAUL-DACRE-Editor-Mail-answers-papers-critics.html

Every newspaper is guilty of getting stuff wrong.
Condemning an entire paper on that basis is akin to dismissing the entire NHS because a nurse was horrid to you once.

I don't buy the DM but I read it online every day and will continue to enjoy doing so.

I dislike New Labour and I dislike the Mail. I wouldn't stop either from existing, but I do object to being expected to believe either of them have my best interests at heart.

Dacre's got a point, but to my mind he overstates his case. And he's got a serious case of victim mentality that grates more and more.

Claig's your fixation and identification with the Daily HateMail is pathological and downright weird.

Why do you so strongly identify with that shit newspaper? Do you wake up every morning and rush to the newsagent, just to get your hands on it?

ttosca, there's nothing weird about liking the Mail which is why it is Britain's second highest selling paper and the world's leading online news site.

I like the Mail because I am middle class and because the Mail stands up for the middle classes and ordinary people against an out-of-touch metropolitan elite that dismisses our concerns.

I am for the Mail because it is for the people and not for the progressive elite.

It was against the Liverpool Care Pathway, it is against the shocking things that went on in our hospitals, it is for lower taxes and for economic growth, it is for high standards in education, it is for tougher sentencing of criminals and better law and order, it is for a free press and free expression, it is against bureaucratic bin fines for not closing bin lids, it questions the catastrophic climate change comedians and is against windfarms all over the countryside etc etc

The Mail is the people's paper, bought by millions and is Britain's second highest selling paper. It is for the people and that is why I am for the Mail.

And I am for Dacre since as he says the Mail opposes the cosy consensus of the metropolitan elite which ignores and looks down on millions of ordinary people and because the Mail is "their most vocal critic".

I think politics is important because it affects all our lives and health and prosperity and life chances. You probably think the same too. But I differ from you in that you support the far left and I support the Mail.

This is what Dacre said and it is spot on

'I am proud that for years, while most of Fleet Street were in thrall to it, the Mail was the only paper to stand up to the malign propaganda machine of Tony Blair and his appalling henchman, Campbell."

In Tony Blair's tenure, there was a funding scandal that came to light. It was an open goal against the New Labour gang. So I bought the papers that morning to see if any of them would place the ball in the open net.

The Independent and the Guardian did not have it on their front page. The Sun, of course, did not have it on its front page as Murdoch was fully backing Blair and Blair was also backing Murdoch.

So I thought, the Telegraph might have it on its front page as it was an open goal. Nothing at all on its front page.

There was only one paper that had it splashed all across its front page and over the second and third pages too. It was the people's paper, "their most vocal critic" - the Daily Mail.

Dacre deserves a knighthood for the services that he has done to the people and the country, when he eventually leaves his job.

And I am with Dacre in opposing any form of state regulation of our centuries old free press.

The reason is that a free press is of vital importance to each and every one of us and I don't want "their most vocal critic" to be constrained or silenced in any way in standing up for the people and for what it believes is right for the country.

Weird

That's all you ever do, insult people and call them scum and spread nastiness and bile. That's why you on the fringes of popular support on the far extremes of politics - an outlier, far removed from the paper of the mainstream - the Daily Mail.

You actually hate people and have even posted how you wish some people to have painful deaths. When it comes to weird, no one is in your league.

claig-

You obviously have some sort of fixation with the Hate Mail, for some reason. I don't think you can be helped on-line. You'll need to see professional help for that.

You should be aware, though, that just because someone uses populist language doesn't mean that they have the best interests of the population at heart. Fascism is based on right-wing populism, and the government of Nazi Germany played many of the same tricks with the public that the Hate Mail plays in the UK: sowing division, xenophobia, scapegoating, complaining about the 'elite' who don't understand Mr and Mrs. common-person.

It is therefore not surprising that the Hate Mail supported the fascists in Germany and has recently supported fascist movements in France.

Populism is precisely appealing to the public 'in group', whilst simultaneously demonising anyone in the 'out group'. In the case of the Hate Mail, the 'in group' are the conservative, white, middle-aged, middle-class, heterosexual people who live in the suburbs. This is 'The People', according to he Hate Mail.

Anyone outside of this group is fair game for hatred, bile, and demonisation.

I don't expect you to change your obsession, but I do hope you can learn a little bit more about politics and right-wing populism so you're not taken in by bullshit rhetoric from reactionary multi-millionaires talking about 'the people'.

You actually hate people and have even posted how you wish some people to have painful deaths.

What? You mean the people, like IDS, who through their policies and actions have resulted in the deaths of thousands of people in the UK? That's not weird, that's called wanting justice.

Claig, Dacre is of course against any form of censorship because he wants to be free to continue with his propaganda both against the people he considers "other" and against the state itself. He is no friend to the conservatives because they are not dismantling the welfare state at the rate at which he thinks they should. He is a free market monkey who wants a small state and a virtually non-existent welfare state. When his paper reports upon alleged failings in the NHS it is because we are being primed for the day when we smile as we wave it goodbye, not because he has a soft spot for little old ladies.

This is what Dacre said and again it is spot on, and the reason that I am a Mail reader is because i believe in justice and I am against spin and spinners and deceit and lies and I am glad that there are some people in this country like Dacre, whether he is a tyrant in the office or not, that actually have principles and campaign for justice just as he did over the Stephen Lawrence affair and in many other cases.

The following is only a short list of the good that the Mail has done and long may it and all our other great papers like the Guardian and Independent and Telegraph continue to campaign for justice and oppose what they believe is wrong.

"Well, I’m proud that the Mail stands up for those readers. I am proud that our Dignity For The Elderly Campaign has for years stood up for Britain’s most neglected community.

Proud that we have fought for justice for Stephen Lawrence, Gary McKinnon and the relatives of the victims of the Omagh bombing, for those who have seen loved ones suffer because of MRSA and the Liverpool Care Pathway.

I am proud we have led great popular campaigns for the NSPCC and the Alzheimer’s Society, on the dangers of paedophilia and the agonies of dementia. And I’m proud of our war against round-the-clock drinking, casinos, plastic bags, internet pornography and secret courts.

No other newspaper campaigns as vigorously as the Mail and I am proud of the ability of the paper’s 400 journalists (the BBC has 8,000) to continually set the national agenda on a whole host of issues."

MiniTheMinx, Dacre has been the Mail's editor for over twenty years. I don't think he does it for what he can get out of it. He is well-paid, of course, but for the service that he does to the people and the country in holding the political class to account, he is grossly underpaid.

He cannot be bought and sold by Blair or Cameron or anyone else because the Mail is probably Britain's most profitable newspaper and its website is the world's number one news website, and the Mail does not need to bargain with politicians about TV licensing rights or anything else.

I believe that Dacre has principles and stands up for them come what may. I believe that there is such a thing as public service and service to the nation and to the people and that some people have principles and work for twenty years in a position where the "metropolitan classes" continually throw bile at them, because they actually care about the country and the people, and I think that Dacre is one of them.

We need a free press and we need our press to be profitable so that great journalists can earn great money writing great articles that stand up for us - the ordinary people.

Poor old Diane Abbott was sacked, she thinks, because she did not keep to the script and follow the line to the detail required. We know that parties and spinners have scripts and spin and prepare campaigns etc.

But all their plans and spin can be derailed in an instant when their spinners open their daily copy of a paper like the Daily Mail or any of our other great papers. The Daily Mail has enormous power because of its large readership, and one headline on the Liverpool Care Pathway can set the entire political agenda and throw all the parties' spin and presentation plans out of the window.

That is why the press is so imporatnat and that is why whichever paper's views we tend to agree with, we should all keep buying our papers and keep them in business so that they can set the political agenda that we the people want and not the one that the party spinners want.

lol! How many copies of the Hate Mail do you buy every morning, claig?

I don't buy any copies of the Hate Mail, but I do buy one copy of the Daily Mail.

I would also strongly recommend it to you, you might learn something.

kim147, I think it probably is mainly older ABC1 in the South East who buy a copy of the paper. But don't forget that lots of the population never buy a paper at all. However, if their views were surveyed, my guess is that they would be a lot closer to the views of the Mail than the Guardian, which is why I believe that the Mail is the mainstream opinion.

I think that is probably borne out by the fact that the Mail's website is the number one news website in the world, so even if people never buy a paper or don't buy the Mail, they often still look at the Mail's website and my guess is that the Mail's website access is from all segments of society not just older ABC1 in the South East.

claig I have not read all your posts this evening but the Mail did not stand up to New Labour. They supported Blair in many things, including getting him elected and re-elected the first time. At least the comment pieces of the time were supportive. (I was a teen in a mail reading family, so i might be wrong) lThey were also, iirc, quite pro at least one of the wars. I don't have the time right now to go back and research it but the Mail were shoulder to shoulder with the US with whatever they wanted post 9/11.

They liked blair, at least for a while. They really did. There was a euphoria in 1997 when he was elected that they picked up on and rode on the wave. I remember it. They were always mean to his wife, but that's the Mail. (i'm surprised how nice they are to SamCam actually) But there was definitely a time when they supported new labour. Maybe I am wrong, it was a long time ago.

I also remember the Guardian distrusting New Labour at the time (I read it only on Mondays back then for the media section so I might be wrong).

Would love for someone to confirm or deny my hazy late 90s memories...

Reasons why the DM site is popular: www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/04/02/120402fa_fact_collins

For those who haven't already seen it.