The Daily Mailhas launched what they’re calling “woke watch” and asked followers on Twitter (er… sorry X) to report egregious wokeness to a specially created email address.
A reporter for the paper has asked followers to report “shocking examples of wokeism” in order for the paper to write about them on their online platform.
The examples include,
“Has your school gone pronoun mad” and “Worried you’ve lost your freedom of speech at your university?”
The Daily Mail and Mailonline have run a slew of anti-woke stories, which attract hundreds of comments and no doubt thousands of readers.
Just typing “Pronoun” into the Mailonline’s search, reveals there are 876 articles that include mentions of pronouns. The latest takes a swipe at Leeds University’s latest 12-page trans inclusion policy.
🚨 We’re on the hunt for shocking examples of wokeism as part of The Mail’s new ‘Woke Watch’.
Has your school gone pronouns mad?
Worried you’ve lost your freedom of speech at your university?
That “harsher” sentence actually equates to SIX months (note the capital letters). Which a tiny proportion of those who commit an actual offence will actually receive. And remember six months, will never, in reality, be six months – more like three.
The new sentencing policy is set against the news that hate crimes reports against trans people have risen by 37 per cent to 2333 reports while crimes reported against lesbian, gay and bisexual people has risen by 25 per cent to 14,500 reported crimes.
The Daily Mail decided to frame the news with a title that read,”Now trans and gay hate crime will mean SIX months in jail after judges are ordered to crack down with harsher sentence” and then used domestic burglaries as a benchmark to drive a point that the sentences are longer – for crimes against the person rather than property. Surely that’s what it should be?
Well within hours of the piece, written by Steve Doughty for The Daily Mail, there were numerous remarks in the infamous comment section of the website, most of which were decrying the news.
“mac.attack” hailing from New Zealand, seemed concerned that a misconstrued joke could end up with us all on a slippery slope. God knows where, but we praise the liberal use of lube.
A shocking article has unearthed how a national newspaper wrote about the discovery of a now-debunked “gay gene”.
“Abortion Hope” reads the headline of a Daily Mail article after scientists in America thought they had made a definitive link between homosexuality and genetics.
‘Abortion hope’! Here’s how a national newspaper wrote about ‘gay genes’ in 1993. The article repulsed me so much I cut it out and have kept it to this date. It reminds me to be proud about who I am! #LGBT#LoveIsLove 🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈 pic.twitter.com/UZaQG9dVUp
The article appeared in a July 1993 edition of the Daily Mail and so disgusted Communications Director Antony Tiernan, that he cut out the article to keep to remind him to be proud of who he is. Writing on Twitter he said, “The article repulsed me so much I cut it out and have kept it to this date. It reminds me to be proud about who I am!”
In the article, journalist Jason Lewis wrote, “isolation of the genes means it could soon be possible to predict whether a baby will be gay and give the mother the option of an abortion”.
The National AIDS Trust just had to school one Mail Online columnist over a story published in which he peddled “misinformation, myths and stigma” over PrEP usage.
(C) marcbruxel Depositphotos
In the article, Mail Online columnist Ross Clark, reveals that after a recent visit to his GP for a suspected hernia, the doctor was unable to refer him to have an operation or to a specialist due the fact that he wasn’t in pain and didn’t have any heavy lifting in his job, the GP told him he “wasn’t bad enough to qualify for funding under new NHS guidelines”.
He wrote, “There is the £22 million a year being spent on transgender surgery, at a cost of £20,000 per patient. There is £730 million a year being spent pumping drug addicts full of Methadone — a heroin substitute which is supposed to help wean people off that drug, but which is itself addictive.
“The NHS has started, too, to prescribe PrEP — a drug which cuts the risk of HIV transmission in gay men who have sex without a condom.
“It is prescribing the drug —which costs £400 a month for a single patient — in spite of warnings that it will be encouraging risky behaviour, and it could increase other infections such as syphilis and gonorrhea [sic], against which PrEP offers no protection.”
“Not One Thing accurate”
Well, the Twitter team at National AIDS Trust had to put him right – and point out exactly why his article is so wrong.
Interesting column in the @MailOnline arguing that less ‘deserving’ patients are the cause of the NHS’s financial trouble. @Rossjournoclark – we hope you’ll be interested to learn that not *one* thing you said about #PrEP was accurate. pic.twitter.com/rcDs0pJAmr
— National AIDS Trust (@NAT_AIDS_Trust) July 12, 2018
“Trying to create a Twitter storm”
The columnist Ross Clark then accused the National AIDS Trust of trying to start a “Twitter Storm” saying, “You are trying to create a Twitter storm based on something I haven’t written, knowing that most who retweet won’t actually bother to read the piece”.
You have written several statements about PrEP which are factually shaky at best. Apologies if you’d prefer this went unnoticed but as an HIV charity we’re keen that PrEP is represented as the cost-saving success story it is, not the reason people can’t get a hernia op.
— National AIDS Trust (@NAT_AIDS_Trust) July 12, 2018
Losing Advertisers
Recently the MailOnline lost a number of high-profile advertisers when companies started to pull out of contracts with the publication after a successful awareness campaign by pressure group, Stop Funding Hate. Eventually, the newspaper removed advertising from many of its columnists including Richard Littlejohn.
Ooo the sass coming from the Terrence Higgins Trust’s Twitter feed, the UK’s leading HIV charity, was palpable and we love it. In the tweet, they slam the Mail Online for fuelling misinformation, myths and stigma surrounding the use of PrEP.
There’s no place in the media for articles filled with misinformation, myths and stigma-fuelling.@RossJournoClark, we’d love to have a cuppa to explain how your @MailOnline PrEP piece does this, and how you can report more accurately and responsibly next time.
So far the journalist who worked on a story nor the publication itself has replied to have a cuppa with THT.
In the article, Mail Online columnist Ross Clark, reveals that after a recent visit to his GP for a suspected hernia, she was unable to refer him to have an operation or to a specialist due the fact that he wasn’t in pain and didn’t have any heavy lifting in his job, the GP told him he “wasn’t bad enough to qualify for funding under new NHS guidelines”.
However, later on in the article, he draws comparisons between what the NHS could pay for and what they couldn’t. PrEP and transgender surgery was, it seems, central to his argument.
He wrote, “There is the £22 million a year being spent on transgender surgery, at a cost of £20,000 per patient. There is £730 million a year being spent pumping drug addicts full of Methadone — a heroin substitute which is supposed to help wean people off that drug, but which is itself addictive.
“The NHS has started, too, to prescribe PrEP — a drug which cuts the risk of HIV transmission in gay men who have sex without a condom.
“It is prescribing the drug —which costs £400 a month for a single patient — in spite of warnings that it will be encouraging risky behaviour, and it could increase other infections such as syphilis and gonorrhea [sic], against which PrEP offers no protection.”
“Cost-effective”
Speaking to THEGAYUK.com Liam Beattie, PrEP policy lead at Terrence Higgins Trust, said, “There’s no place in the media for articles filled with misinformation, myths and stigma-fuelling. Ross Clark’s piece on PrEP is highly inaccurate and we would love him to come in to Terrence Higgins Trust to find out more about the realities of PrEP. Because there’s nothing controversial about PrEP – it’s highly effective at preventing HIV, cost effective and will ultimately stop many, many people from becoming HIV positive.
“Currently PrEP is available in England via a 10,000 place trial but we want to see a national PrEP programme in England to ensure it’s made available to all who need it”’
There’s been no evidence to suggest that users on PrEP are being any more “risky” than those who currently aren’t on PrEP.
Losing Advertisers
Recently the MailOnline lost a number of high-profile advertisers when companies started to pull out of contracts with the publication after a successful awareness campaign by pressure group, Stop Funding Hate. Eventually, the newspaper removed advertising from many of its columnists including Richard Littlejohn.
The MailOnline has seemingly removed advertising from some of its most controversial columnists.
The DailyMail/MailOnline, it seems, has taken steps to remove advertising from around content created by some of its writers, including Richard Littlejohn, Katie Hopkins, Peter Hitchens and Jan Moir.
The Daily Mail was heavily criticised last week after it published a column by Richard Littlejohn which criticised Tom Daley and husband Dustin Lance Black for their baby announcement, the fallout from which included at least two advertisers pulling their spend from the title and several others looking into why their brands was being featured next to the content.
The paper, released a statement to say that the article was not homophobic in content and that those who “bullied” advertisers into boycotting the paper were “politically motivated internet trolls” according to the Press Gazette.
A spokesperson for the Daily Mail said: “Had any of the political zealots who attacked Richard Littlejohn’s column actually read it they would know that he explicitly supports civil partnerships and the fostering of children by gay couples – hardly evidence of homophobia.
“Nor is it homophobic to ask whether it is right to deny a child the love of its own mother.
“It is very sad that any advertiser should give way to bullying by a tiny group of politically motivated internet trolls in their attempts to censor newspapers with which they disagree.
Removing Ads from select commentators
Not all columnists have had adverts removed, a quick review of the MailOnline website showed that content written by Piers Morgan, Liz Jones and Janet Street-Porter still had ad placements running next to the content.
Speaking to THEGAYUK.com a spokesperson for StopFundingHate, said,
“Our campaign has never been about individual columnists or journalists. For #StopFundingHate, what matters is that we find a way to change the underlying business model which makes divisive, discriminatory and inflammatory media profitable.
“Given the role that advertisers play in funding the media, consumer power is the key here. If even the Daily Mail now recognises that mainstream brands do not want to be associated with divisive stories such as last week’s piece targeting Tom Daley, then this shows that using our voices as consumers to challenge media hostility really can make a difference”.
THEGAYUK.com reached out to the Daily Mail to confirm that it had removed advertising from some of its articles.
The Daily Mail has defended an article they published by Richard Littlejohn following on from an outcry from the public concerning what many described as the transphobic and homophobic tone of the column. The article was entitled, ‘Please don’t pretend two dads is the new normal’ in which he criticises the parents to be Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black for announcing that they are expectant fathers.
The paper, released a statement to say that the article was not homophobic in content and that those who “bullied” advertisers into boycotting the paper “politically motivated internet trolls” according to the Press Gazette.
A spokesperson for the Daily Mail said: “Had any of the political zealots who attacked Richard Littlejohn’s column actually read it they would know that he explicitly supports civil partnerships and the fostering of children by gay couples – hardly evidence of homophobia.
“Nor is it homophobic to ask whether it is right to deny a child the love of its own mother.
“It is very sad that any advertiser should give way to bullying by a tiny group of politically motivated internet trolls in their attempts to censor newspapers with which they disagree.”
Advertisers pull their adverts
At least two advertisers pulled advertising from the title, joining a host of other businesses that have said they will no longer advertise with the company. The first was Southbank Centre and then followed by Center Parcs
Quorn Foods UK says it was never their intention to have their product placed near to a disgusting Richard Littlejohn article.
Quorn Foods UK has said that it has asked its advertising agency to remove ads featured next to the Daily Mail‘s Richard Littlejohn article which criticised Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black’s baby news, but stopped short of saying that it had entered an advertising boycott of the publisher.
Honda is apparently “investigating” their ad placements and the BBC said their ad was an “unfortunate ad placement”.
Taking to Twitter the meat substitute company said, “It was never our intention for our advert to appear next to content of that nature. We have regular reviews of media placements with our advertising agency. In this particular instance the advert has been removed at our request”
“Just a very unfortunate ad placement”
The BBC brand CBEEBIES, which had an advertisement placement featured on what looked to be a Facebook Instant articles version of the article, also made a statement to say, “Of course these are not the values held by CBeebies magazine, this is just a very unfortunate ad placement which we will remove as soon as possible. We apologise for offence caused”.
Honda said that they were “investigating” the issue with their advertising team.
At last review, the advert space on the online version of the article appears to have been removed altogether.
Quorn giant made the announcement after Stop Funding Hate questioned them over Twitter, asking, “Hi @QuornFoods did you know your ads are funding articles like this in the Daily Mail today? #startspreadinglove”
Here’s a list of businesses which have publicly pulled their advertising spend from the Daily Mail or Mail Online
In 2016 Legoannounced that it would no longer advertise saying that they were “not planning any future promotional activity with the newspaper”. It was one of the first large brands to pull away from the right-wing press.
The Body Shop ended their advertising contracts saying to Buzzfeed, “We have always supported human rights – it is part of our ‘enrich not exploit commitment’ – and when an editorial stance seems to go against that Commitment, we consider seriously whether we will support it.”
In September Online fashion store JOYsaid that they would end an online advertising agreement with DM and the Daily Express, saying, “It was recently brought to our attention by @StopFundingHate that our ads were appearing next to transphobic and racist articles… JOY is a brand that pride themselves on diversity and inclusion, and we would never want to associate ourselves with these viewpoints. From now on we will be monitoring our ad placements much more closely…”
Phone Co-Op, Triodos Bank, ETA Services, The Ethical Shop, Thread, Bellroy, Ethical Superstore, Vision Express, Abel And Cole, Riverford, Farmdrop, Ocado, Ecotricity, Good Energy, Green Energy UK, Bulb Energy, Said Business School, Derby University,
Following on from the Southbank Centre’s announcement that they won’t be advertising in the Daily Mail, Center Parcs says it will not advertise in the paper either.
In a crushing blow to the Daily Mail, the Southbank Centre in London and Center Parcs have both said they will no longer place advertising in the outlet.
“Southbank Centre reaches out to audiences through wide-ranging online and offline media titles, across the political spectrum.
“We monitor the environment in which our advertising appears, to ensure the values of a publication are compatible with our own. We have no future plans to advertise within the Daily Mail”.
Center Parcs wrote,
We take where we advertise very seriously and have a number of steps to prevent our advertising from appearing alongside inappropriate content. We felt this placement was completely unacceptable and therefore ceased advertising with the Daily Mail with immediate effect.
Some of the UK’s biggest brands are under pressure to stop advertising in the Daily Mail and Mail Online.
Brands such as Jet2, Calvin Klein, Quorn and Natwest have all had their brands advertised next to or under the content on the web version of the newspaper
THEGAYUK.com reached out to the brands concerned for comment.
How much has Richard Littlejohn cost the Daily Mail?
StopFundingHate a UK pressure group whose campaign focuses on changing the media via its advertisers have called upon Quorn, Natwest, Visa and VisitNorway to answer on whether they were happy that their brands were effectively funding the content on the MailOnline.
Speaking to THEGAYUK.com StopFundingHate said, “Many customers of Jet2 and Calvin Klein will be deeply disappointed to see them funding this divisive and disheartening article. Yet again we see that the Daily Mail is increasingly out of touch with the views of mainstream British society. A recent YouGov poll found that 58% of people believe that “companies should withdraw their advertising if it is placed next to content they think is racist, sexist, homophobic or xenophobic”
“Brands can easily prevent their ads from appearing on the Daily Mail website by updating their Google Adsense settings or speaking to their media agency”.
“Southbank Centre reaches out to audiences through wide-ranging online and offline media titles, across the political spectrum.
“We monitor the environment in which our advertising appears, to ensure the values of a publication are compatible with our own. We have no future plans to advertise within the Daily Mail”.
Some of the UK’s biggest brands are under pressure to stop advertising in the Daily Mail and Mail Online.
Brands such as Jet2, Calvin Klein, Quorn and Natwest have all had their brands advertised next to or under the content on the web version of the newspaper
THEGAYUK.com reached out to the brands concerned for comment.
How much has Richard Littlejohn cost the Daily Mail?
StopFundingHatea UK pressure group whose campaign focuses on changing the media via its advertisers have called upon Quorn, Natwest, Visa and VisitNorway to answer on whether they were happy that their brands were effectively funding the content on the MailOnline.
Speaking to THEGAYUK.com StopFundingHate said, “Many customers of Jet2 and Calvin Klein will be deeply disappointed to see them funding this divisive and disheartening article. Yet again we see that the Daily Mail is increasingly out of touch with the views of mainstream British society. A recent YouGov poll found that 58% of people believe that “companies should withdraw their advertising if it is placed next to content they think is racist, sexist, homophobic or xenophobic”
“Brands can easily prevent their ads from appearing on the Daily Mail website by updating their Google Adsense settings or speaking to their media agency”.
