Monday, February 06, 2012

Daily Mail Tits & Bums Ten Questions For Paul Dacre


10 questions for Daily Mail boss Paul Dacre

The editor's appearance before the Leveson inquiry is the perfect time to ask about Mail Online.
by Steven Baxter
06 February 2012

The timing couldn't be better. Just as Paul Dacre prepares to appear before the Leveson inquiry, his newspaper appears to be vindicated over its calls for Fred "The Shred" Goodwin. Coming so soon after Dacre's slightly odd appearance on his own website, proclaiming the value of his publication's campaign in the Stephen Lawrence case, it's a time to celebrate the Daily Mail, isn't it? While it will be easy to point to the inflated role of the press in general -- and the Mail in particular -- in the Stephen Lawrence case, there's not as much to shout about when it comes to Mail Online.

Sure, it's the No 1 news website in the world; which would be a real bauble worth having if most of the traffic came there to look at news. But get beneath the bold headlines and political comment and you'll see a bewilderingly high number of stories about obscure (to British readers, anyway) American celebrities on holiday, wearing bikinis or being "poured into" (a favourite phrase, this, of Mail Online's) swimwear or little black dresses. As The Media Blog pointed out last week, you have to ask whether this recipe for success is really something to shout about.

Maybe it is. Maybe Paul Dacre is delighted to have the Mail brand associated with softcore masturbators seeking out cheesecake images of women in lingerie and bikinis -- though I doubt that would be the first thing he would bring up when asked about the relative success of Mail Online and what it means for the future of journalism. But as editor-in-chief of Associated Newspapers, and a highly remunerated editorial expert on the Daily Mail and General Trust board, he'd be hard pressed to claim it's nothing to do with him.

All that aside, there are other nagging issues about Mail Online: photos used without the takers' permission; articles that border on the tasteless and unethical which are only pulled after they've attracted thousands of visitors to add to Mail Online's growing statistics; hundreds of stories about young children who happen to have famous parents; trashy articles speculating on the weight gain (or loss) of (mainly female) celebrities. How does that kind of activity sit with the Mail brand?

So here are 10 questions for Paul Dacre ahead of his appearance before Leveson about Mail Online and whether its standards live up to those of his flagship printed edition.

Oh woe is me.

1) Do you think it is appropriate to embed a 7 minute video of an alleged rape in a story about an alleged rape in Brazil's Big Brother? The footage was available to view for several hours.

2) Do you think it is acceptable to use photographs from Facebook/Twitter/Flicker/blogs without the permission of the copyright holder, even when that person has explicitly denied permission?

If not, why does it keep happening? Would the rules be different for photographs sourced for the print edition of the Mail?

3) Do you think it is appropriate to run stories about children where the reason for their newsworthiness is their family connection to a public figure, for example 572 stories about Suri Cruise, including the agenda-setting "The tiring life of Suri Cruise: Katie Holmes' daughter snuggles up in her favourite pink 'blankie'"?

4) More New Statesman


Newton's third law of motion.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

"In an astonishing outburst she told her mother: 'If I weighed another two stone, had a bigger bosom and looked more maternal, people would be more sympathetic.'"

"The GP told relatives she has been portrayed as a bad parent because she is slim and does not look traditionally maternal."

"traditionally maternal"?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/
article-487881/Kate-McCann-Im-
persecuted-looks.html#ixzz1lbsboLd7

Anonymous said...

3) Do you think it is appropriate to run stories about children where the reason for their newsworthiness is their family connection to a public figure, for example 572 stories about Suri Cruise, including the agenda-setting "The tiring life of Suri Cruise: Katie Holmes' daughter snuggles up in her favourite pink 'blankie'"?
-----------------------------------

Tom Cruise: "She was just born that way. I don't know what to say." http://yhoo.it/upesI7

Himself said...

I'm Paul Dacre squirm and lie his arse off.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/feb/06/leveson-inquiry-sue-akers-paul-dacre-live?CMP=twt_fd

They are just on a short break at the moment.

Anonymous said...

Felling a tad libidinous, I think I shall go and have a wank in the #DailyMail 's sidebar bit.ly/YJ8kmZ

Anonymous said...

http://bit.ly/1061LKY

By DAVID ROSE

Reasoned debate and careful evaluation of the facts do not belong in Twitterland. In their place are hatred, hyperbole, and demonstrably baseless personal attacks.
-----------------------------------

http://bit.ly/f78zd8

By DAVID ROSE

I confronted the sweaty, corpulent figure in an ill-fitting jacket twice last Friday: the first time at 10am, as he sat slurping coffee and cakes at the Kalahary cafe in Portimao with his colleague, Chief Inspector Guillermino Encarnacao; the second just before 3pm, when the two men made their way from a restaurant to a waiting black Mercedes, in which they were driven 400 yards to meet officials at the courthouse.

The reaction was the same both times: "No speak! No speak!" was all Amaral would say, making a swatting motion as though batting away an insect.

Himself said...

Thanks Chuck.

Enid is upside down in a big box.

Poor old Enid.

Anonymous said...

http://bit.ly/08cKQ05

From Enid with love.

Anonymous said...

http://abuselaw.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/are-we-lawyers-really-ambulance-chasing.html

Himself said...

Thanks Chuck, I left him a comment.

Anonymous said...

http://bit.ly/Vo03QM

Himself said...

Ah so! thank you.

Anonymous said...

http://twitter.com/TeddyShepherd/status/277739509439938560

She means your link doesn't work, she gives you the working link.

Himself said...

Thanks Chuck, still buggering about trying to get rid of this worm, but with little success so far.

At least the flashing ads seem to have gone. I think.

Himself said...

Typical example is where I say above: "to get rid of this worm" the "rid" is a link for an iphone.

It is for me anyway, I guess you don't see that.

Anonymous said...

"News of the world"

RIP Journalism 1605-2012

https://twitter.com/JoshuaWithers/status/280940128325730304

Himself said...

LOL

I watched a few minutes of Brand recently in a related clip or other.

What an absolute shit for brains wanker, fucking diabolical.

Pray pardon my French.

Anonymous said...

Brand and another shit for brains wanker. Pray pardon the link, just a confirmation.

http://www.russellbrand.tv/2012/07/russell-on-piers-morgan/

Himself said...

You think I'm going to open the link?

Not on your life.

Anonymous said...


http://bit.ly/1c2Rjee

http://bit.ly/15fQlYm

Himself said...

As with a lot of peeps these days, I had never heard of her.

A few of the reblogged links.

http://dyke-recovery.tumblr.com/

http://blessedwithafuckingcurse.tumblr.com/post/56104715181

http://blessedwithafuckingcurse.tumblr.com/

http://amandapalmerphotos.tumblr.com/

There is a Daily Mail song below, but terrible audio.

http://amandapalmer.tumblr.com/

http://kickedthe-hornetsnest.tumblr.com/

It's a funny old, and diverse word lass.