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Tag: Richard Littlejohn

All the latest breaking news on Richard Littlejohn. Browse THEGAYUK’s complete collection of news, articles and commentary on Richard Littlejohn.

  • Daily Mail: Richard Littlejohn’s article not homophobic

    “He supports civil partnerships…”

    So that’s alright then.

    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, which had digital advertising running next to the article have pulled their digital ads as well.

    For a more complete list of those who have effectively boycotted an advert spend in the Daily Mail / Mail Online click here.

  • Quorn says it removed advert from MailOnline

    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”.

    ALSO READ: Brands are under pressure to drop Mail Online advertising after shocking Richard Littlejohn column

    ALSO READ: Southbank will no longer advertise with Daily Mail following on from Richard Littlejohn column

    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 did you know your ads are funding articles like this in the Daily Mail today? ”

    Companies react

    Both the Southbank Centre and Center Parcs made commitments today not to advertise in the Mail’s outlets after their adverts appeared in the print edition of the Daily Mail. They are part of a growing number of companies which have stated they won’t advertise with outlets like the Daily Mail, the Sun or the Daily Express.

  • Center Parcs will no longer advertise in the Daily Mail

    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.

    The announcement follows on from a Richard Littlejohn column concerning the baby announcement by Tom Daley and Dustin Lance-Black.

    In a statement on Twitter, the Southbank wrote,

    “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?

    The Daily Mail was urged to fire Richard Littlejohn by over 200,000 people in 2013 after a piece he wrote “monstered” transgender school teacher, Lucy Meadows, who sadly committed suicide shortly after her transition.

    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 will no longer advertise with Daily Mail following on from Richard Littlejohn column

    “We have no future plans to advertise within the Daily Mail”.

    In a crushing blow to the Daily Mail, the Southbank Centre in London, has said that it will no longer place advertising in the outlet. The announcement follows on from a Richard Littlejohn column concerning the baby announcement by Tom Daley and Dustin Lance-Black.

    In a statement on Twitter, the Southbank wrote,

    “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?

    The Daily Mail was urged to fire Richard Littlejohn by over 200,000 people in 2013 after a piece he wrote “monstered” transgender school teacher, Lucy Meadows, who sadly committed suicide shortly after her transition.

    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”. 

  • Brands are under pressure to drop Mail Online advertising after shocking Richard Littlejohn column

    Some of the UK’s biggest brands are under pressure to stop advertising in the Daily Mail and Mail Online after one of its columnists wrote a scathing piece about Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black’s baby announcement.

    “Pass the sick bag…”

    Richard Littlejohn has written a column entitled, ‘Please don’t pretend two dads is the new normal’ in which he blasts the parents to be Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black for announcing that they are expectant fathers.

    In the column, Littlejohn firstly questions who the mother is. Then goes on to ask, what role of the mother will play in their child’s life and who the sperm donor is.

    ALSO READ: OPINION | The “mother” of all questions, who is Tom Daley’s surrogate mother?

    Littlejohn then goes on to slam a transgender woman for becoming the first trans woman in the world to be able to breastfeed a child, born to her partner, who did not wish to breastfeed the child.

    He misgenders the woman numerous times and describes the move as a selfish demand of “adults being given priority over the best interests of the unborn child”.

    He writes,

    “For a start, this person is described as a woman, but has had no surgery to transition from a man. Sorry, but I’m with Germaine Greer — someone in possession of a full set of wedding tackle is a man, not a woman.

    Secondly, if this is his/her baby, did he/she fertilise the egg in the traditional fashion? On third thoughts, let’s not go there”.

    Brands questioned

    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.

    The Daily Mail was urged to fire Richard Littlejohn by over 200,000 people in 2013 after a piece he wrote “monstered” transgender school teacher, Lucy Meadows, who sadly committed suicide shortly after her transition.

    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.

    The ads placed on the column are provided by a system called InRead, by Teads, an inventor of native video advertising.

    UPDATE: Both Center Parcs and Southbank have pulled their advertising spend for the Daily Mail.

    THEGAYUK.com has reached out to Quorn, Natwest, Visa, Jet2 for comment.

  • Katie Hopkins Has The Staying Power Of A Cockroach

    Outspoken Celebrity Big Brother star Katie Hopkins has the staying power of a Cockroach.

    Gay icon wannabe and generally outspoken former Apprentice turned Celebrity Big Brother star, Katie Hopkins has proven that she has the staying power of a cockroach after The Sun refuses to back down, keeping the controversial tweeter on staff, despite a growing petition calling for her sacking.

    The star, who recently angered many after writing in her column about migrants, has been backed by her employer, The Sun, who have refused to edit or pull the controversial article. In the article Katie writes,

    “NO, I don’t care. Show me pictures of coffins, show me bodies floating in water, play violins and show me skinny people looking sad.

    “Make no mistake, these migrants are like cockroaches. They might look a bit ‘Bob Geldof’s Ethiopia circa 1984’, but they are built to survive a nuclear bomb. They are survivors.

    “Once gunships have driven them back to their shores, boats need to be confiscated and burned on a huge bonfire.”

    More than 100 official complaints have been written to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) and over 230,000 people have now signed an online petition calling for Katie’s firing. She and the Sun’s editor, David Dinsmore have been reported to the police for incitement to racial hatred.

    In the petition to The Sun, Izzy Saunders, who created the missive says,

    “We live in a forward thinking society and Katie Hopkins’ views should not be encouraged; this is why I ask The Sun newspaper and editor David Dinsmore to remove Katie Hopkins as a columnist, at the very least to redeem yourselves from publishing this prejudiced article in the first place.”

    Katie Hopkins is not alone in causing controversy and remained in position, even after huge public outcry. In 2013, a petition calling for the resignation of The Daily Mail’s Richard Littlejohn after he ‘monstered’ trans teacher Lucy Meadows, who subsequently committed suicide, racked up over hundreds of thousands of signatures.

  • Lucy Meadows vigil outside Daily Mail attracts large crowd

    Lucy Meadows vigil outside Daily Mail attracts large crowd

    Around Two Hundred and Fifty People Unite In front of the Daily Mail offices in London for the candle-lit vigil for Transgender Teacher found dead at her home.

    Lucy Meadows vigil
    CREDIT: TheGayUK

    A gathering of around 250-300, from all walks of life, braved the near sub zero temperatures in London this evening in solidarity with the transgender community, to pay respects and to mark a vigil for teacher, Lucy Meadows, 32, who was found dead at her home last Tuesday.

    The Vigil which was dubbed a ‘vigil against monstering’ was aimed at the Daily Mail and its columnist Richard Littlejohn, who prompted an angry outburst after the emergence of an article entitled ‘He’s not only in the wrong body… he’s in the wrong job’.

    Daily Mail have since removed the column, however a cache copy of the article remains here: http://web.archive.org/web/20121221195332/http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2251347/Nathan-Uptons-wrong-body–hes-wrong-job.html

    It’s claimed that following Littlejohn’s column, Meadows, who was transitioning at the time, was routinely hounded by the press. In a New Year’s Day email to a friend, reported by the Guardian, Meadows complained that the media had published one of her wedding photos, and had lifted other photos from her siblings’ Facebook pages. She described the lengths she had taken to avoid being photographed. “I became pretty good at avoiding the press before Christmas. I live about a three-minute walk from school so they were parked outside my house as well as school. I’m just glad they didn’t realise I also have a back door. I was usually in school before the press arrived and stayed until latest I could avoid them going home.”

    Lucy Meadows vigil
    CREDIT: TheGayUK

    Speakers at the event included journalist and activist Jane Fey and Natasha Kennedy, who works in trans activism. Graham Jones the MP for Haslingden and Hyndburn, the constituency in which Miss Meadows lived, also made an appearance.

    He tweeted: “Just raised the death of #lucymeadows in the House of Commons. Universal sympathy. Speaker described such journalist actions as despicable.”

    Creators of the Facebook events page, Theresa Heath and Puja Maniar, said: “It was so spontaneous and I think shows a real feeling that people are sick to death of it. The trans community has been absolutely trashed by certain sections of the media, and everybody is thinking this has just got to stop.”

    Jane Fae tried to get a comment from the Daily Mail, but they wouldn’t talk to her.

    Two online petitions calling for Littlejohn to be fired by the Daily Mail and issue a formal apology have received huge support over the weekend.

    http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/the-daily-mail-fire-richard-littlejohn-for-victimizing-lucy-meadows-leading-to-her-possible-suicide

    http://action.sumofus.org/a/daily-mail-littlejohn-lucy-meadows/1/1/?sub=homepage

    Combined the two e-petitions have garnered over 162, 922 signatures.

  • 130,000 Signatures On Petitions For The Sacking Of Richard Littlejohn

    Over One Hundred and Thirty Thousand Signatures Call For The Sacking or Resignation Of The Daily Mail’s Columnist,Richard Littlejohn, Over ‘He’s In The Wrong Body’ Article.

    Over 130,000 signatures have been collected on one of two e-petitions calling on the Daily Mail to fire one of its writers, Richard Littlejohn.

     

    The controversial writer was blasted by thousands of people after the Daily Mail published a piece, in December 2012, entitled “He’s not only in the wrong body… he’s in the wrong job”, about Lucy Meadows, a transgendered primary school teacher, who was found dead in her home last Tuesday.
    Creators of the SumOfUs petition said: “The vile article led to a witch hunt targeting Meadows. Newspapers offered to pay parents for a picture of her, and she complained of having to leave home by the back door and arrive early to school to avoid the packs of journalists.

    Sign our petition to the Daily Mail: sack Richard Littlejohn, issue an apology, and institute an editorial review to ensure that this never happens again.”

     

    The two online petitions are hosted by SumOfUs.org and Changes.org. They have received 108, 520 and 22,097 signatures respectively.
    You can find the petitions here:
    http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/the-daily-mail-fire-richard-littlejohn-for-victimizing-lucy-meadows-leading-to-her-possible-suicide
    http://action.sumofus.org/a/daily-mail-littlejohn-lucy-meadows/1/1/?sub=homepage 

    The Daily Mail have vehemently defended Littlejohn. A spokesman said: “It is regrettable that this tragic death should now be the subject of an orchestrated Twitterstorm, fanned by individuals – including former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell – with agendas to pursue.”

     

    Campbell had previously tweeted: “I hope journalists are doorstepping Dacre Murdoch and Littlejohn for their reaction to Lucy Meadows suicide. The Mail really is scum.”
    David Allen Green, legal advisor to Trans Media Watch, a charity for transgender people, told BBC Radio 4’s The World Tonight: “There is no public interest in the story whatsoever. The only part of the story which seems significant is that there is a gender reassignment, what used to be called a sex change.” 

    “What makes it especially easy for tabloids is that transgendered people are very unlikely to fight back. They are usually members of the public and have no experience of dealing with media and all they want to do is to make it go away.
    “In a way, tabloids treat transgendered people the way they would treat anybody if they could get away with it.”

    “There is a sense that transgendered people are fair game for sensationalist reporting. These are people who are going through the most traumatic experiences you can imagine and they are suddenly humiliated by these stories in the tabloids.”

    A vigil is due to take place outside the Daily Mail offices today on the 25th March 2013, in Memory of Miss Meadows.

  • Over 100,000 People Sign Petitions Calling For The Resignation Of Richard Littlejohn

    Over One Hundred Thousand People Call For The Sacking or Resignation Of The Daily Mail’s Richard Littlejohn, Over ‘He’s In The Wrong Body’ Article.

     Over 100,000 people have signed one of two e-petitions calling on the Daily Mail to fire one of its writers, Richard Littlejohn.
    The controversial writer was blasted by thousands of people after the Daily Mail published a piece, in December 2012, entitled “He’s not only in the wrong body… he’s in the wrong job”, about Lucy Meadows, a transgendered primary school teacher, who was found dead in her home last Tuesday.

    Creators of the SumOfUs petition said: “The vile article led to a witch hunt targeting Meadows. Newspapers offered to pay parents for a picture of her, and she complained of having to leave home by the back door and arrive early to school to avoid the packs of journalists.Sign our petition to the Daily Mail: sack Richard Littlejohn, issue an apology, and institute an editorial review to ensure that this never happens again.”

    The two online petitions are hosted by SumOfUs.org and Changes.org. They have received 91,619 and 18,886 signatures respectively.
    You can find the petitions here:
    http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/the-daily-mail-fire-richard-littlejohn-for-victimizing-lucy-meadows-leading-to-her-possible-suicide
    http://action.sumofus.org/a/daily-mail-littlejohn-lucy-meadows/1/1/?sub=homepage
    A vigil is due to take place outside the Daily Mail offices tomorrow on the 25th March 2013, in Memory of Miss Meadows.
    Details of the vigil:
    Monday 25th March at 6.30pm.
    Outside Daily Mail HQ,

    Northcliffe House,

    2 Derry Street,

    Kensington

    London

    W8 5TT
    Nearest Underground station: High Street Kensington (District and Circle)

    www.thetube.com