Disgusted with the Daily Mail

I don't think I have ever been more disgusted with The Daily Mail. Yesterday, three people, including a child, lost their lives due to bombs exploding during the Boston Marathon. Today, above their main news headline about this tragic event they are running a moving banner that reads "Breaking News...Attack on The White House" It is part of an advert for the film Olympus Has Fallen. If you happen to focus on that moving banner as I did when I first opened the Daily Mail website it looks very much like another awful tragedy has occurred.

I really think this sort of mindless, insensitive and aggressive marketing is totally unacceptable. Factor in the ridiculous articles by self promoting female journalists in their Femail section willing to sell their souls and their families for cash, the bigoted writing of the likes of Richard Littlejohn and Jan Moir and the general twisted reporting and homage to celebrity culture The Daily Mail isn't worth reading anymore. In fact, I'm not sure why I've been reading it anyway - perhaps because when I do I actually spend more time reading the comments which at least provide an interesting look into British public opinion. That's about it though. I can't see much else of value.

Anyway, enough is enough. I've deleted The Daily Mail from my bookmarks. There genuinely is a market for a lightweight, easy to read online and print newspaper with balanced and responsible reporting.

Unfortunately, it isn't The Daily Mail.

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Music Monday; Oh No, Not Another Boy Band!

Yes, yes alright I do like boy bands! Now I've had to endure a little rib tickling from some quarters about my fondness for such groups but I think it's perfectly healthy for a woman of my advanced years to be looking at young men. You know - it keeps the mind active! I mean I've got to fight off the dementia somehow haven't I?

One of my favourites Boy bands of recent years is Boyzone. I played one of Ronan Keating's solo songs a while back but with the sudden death of band member Stephen Gately, aged just 33, I feel in the mood to play one the group's songs. So here we go;




That was great! Stephen had a lovely voice and I regularly enjoy listening to him and his fellow bandmates on their Greatest Hits CD. Now by all accounts Stephen was a very pleasant man so last week when I picked up the Daily Mail, as I do about once a week, I was deeply shocked to read THIS ARTICLE written by their columnist Jan Moir. Frankly, I cannot remember the last time I have read such a rude, crass and downright offensive article. I was not the only one who felt like this because I have since read that The Press Complaints Commission website was so deluged by thousands of complaints it actually crashed. In addition some advertisers have either complained or withdrawn their adverts. And rightly so. It was an abhorrent, insensitive and factually incorrect article with unpleasant overtones. Heaven knows what poor Stephen's friends and relatives must have felt on the eve of his funeral.

Now the least offensive remark that Jan Moir said was;

"A founder member of Ireland's first boy band, he was the group's co-lead singer, even though he could barely carry a tune in a Louis Vuitton trunk. He was the Posh Spice of Boyzone, a popular but largely decorus addition."

Well I beg to differ; I think he sang pretty well. In fact let's hear Stephen sing on his own;




Fantastic!

And as for the rest of Jan Moir's article.... Let's just say I will be voting with my feet and my wallet.