Thread about Harrop

[BlueTouchPaper]

Just sent a message to thread 3 and the pages ran out. Took me ages to write so started new thread. Happy to be overwritten

Mind you, it's a sad state of affairs when you feel vindicated by the bloody Daily Mail. Still though

I was just mulling this DM issue over.

I've only comparatively recently (last year or so) been made aware of the ludicrous situation of what perfectly reasonable statements I can and can't make nowadays. Often by people younger and cleverer (!) than me. I was also encouraged by some trending threads to inform myself. Having informed myself as much as I've been able, I'm thoroughly shocked how easily some people, clever people, people I admire, have eaten up and swallowed a fantasy. An ideology that leaves science behind a drawn curtain. That some articles I've read, describe Professor Robert Winston as a "TV doctor who needs to catch up with new research"!!!!! And then to find that people who have never heard of him agree!

It's heart sinking stuff when I see how far this ideology has inveigled itself into being considered absolute truth, enough to enchant a whole generation.

I'm mid 60s. So are most of my friends, and they know nothing about any of this. I've made it my business to apprise them. I think the DM are better placed than me to inform people.

So back to the beginning. Having been on MN for a couple of years, I've picked up that everybody hates the Daily Mail. Has this opinion changed?

YABU - no it hasn't.
YANBU - yes it has.

I suppose more than any other news source, the DM reports just about everything. From serious issues to sleb twaddle and MN threads! It's obviously up to readers to be discerning, and to maybe do a second level of fact checking on stories picked up from browsing the DM. But that applies to news from any source. Where there's a different slant, have a think about why, and who has what agenda.

The Mail did the right thing re Stephen Lawrence because Paul Dacre had met Stephen Lawrence's father, I think had employed him as a housepainter? So in a sea of racist bile he suddenly pursued one story because of a personal connection. It almost made it worse for me - that the reporting skill, legal expertise and heft of a national paper could be used for good, it was a choice not to do that.

The Mail publishes anti gender stories because they are excellent click bait for sexists and distract attention from government crap while giving Tory voters a reason not to vote Labour or Lib Dem. They'll publish the same about feminists and indeed have done.

Ooh that was my quote!

In answer to So back to the beginning. Having been on MN for a couple of years, I've picked up that everybody hates the Daily Mail. Has this opinion changed?

I have been here a very long time and I feel MN definitely used to be a lot more left leaning than it is these days (which is most likely just because it's a much much bigger site these days and the population as a whole is more right wing than it used to be)

Personally I feel that yes, the Daily Mail used to be generally and rightly derided on here as an awful right wing misogynistic rag. But the older I get and the more the TRA narrative takes over the world, I'll acknowledge any common ground with an organisation or person standing against this - without having to agree with all their views. This also applies to people not just companies. A lot of people who hold GC views also hold other views I don't agree with.

For the rest of it, I can't really say it better than the excellent post from @Bellendejour at 18.42.

Oh dear! How sad!

One link led to another and suddenly I found myself on the Daily Mail website's "Trending" Page for Jimmy Savile - and who do I see in Pride of Place? 💉💊☠🚩

I guess this is what comes of repeatedly comparing a much-loved woman author to the most prolific (or just best known?) UK paedophile and necrophiliac, then having all those quotes picked up by pesky internet algorithms?

web.archive.org/web/20220622033843/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/jimmy-savile/index.html

What a shame! 😭

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10268121/Troll-GP-humiliated-determined-suspended-offensive-tweets.html

I agree with @andyoldlabour and you also get some decent debates on GB News. I've seen Alastair Stewart chair some really good ones with a range of views, nuance and the possibility of some of the participants changing their opinions after what they hear from others. I like Andrew Doyle's show very much too.

My reading has moved to the journals you mention too - it is more like old-school ex-change of opinion than virtue signaling sermons and catechisms that you get on the Beeb and Guardian. The Daily Mail is ok, it is not a hate filled rag, but a mix of too much daft celebrity stuff (with all the rubbish that goes with it) alongside some proper, decent journalism (lead by the MoS) and a devil may care attitude to being cancelled - which at the moment is just what is needed.

Is Harrop practising again now?

Harrop was suspended for a month and that has long since passed, Christina, so we can only imagine he's been back in the saddle for some months now. Let's hope he keeps his opinions to himself after his experience, we really don't need to know them.