A short letter to readers of the Daily Mail
Posted by Tim Ireland
November 27th, 2009
Hello. If you know any readers of the Daily mail, would you be so kind as to pass this on to them by email (or simply link to this post)?
Cheers
Tim
Hello to you, dear reader of the Daily Mail.
I would like to bring to your attention the story of a hospital ward and a map:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1231150/Mapping-strain-NHS-243-sick-babies-treated-London-hospital-ward—just-18-mothers-born-UK.htmlA few things about this story need to be pointed out:
1. That some of these ‘foreign’ mothers they speak of may have been here for as long as their entire adult lives is neatly tossed to one side in the following manner (one fact has nothing to do with the other, unless you are to say that ‘foreign is foreign’, and if you agree with that, then you may as well give up on this letter now):
“It is impossible to say how long each of the mothers has been in this country. But the fact is only a fraction of them declared themselves as having a British background.”
2. What is also tossed to one side is the ‘theory’ of rules about visas and NHS care. Absolutely nothing valid or relevant is produced to verify the doubts raised.
3. Then some statistics are casually thrown about that, rather than reinforcing any of the above specifics, merely reinforce an idea (i.e. that we are being flooded with foreigners).
4. The following sentence (part of a wider statement from the hospital) was included *after* this story was first written and published, and shows the extremes to which reality conflicts with the fantasy this newspaper is trying to sell you. This is the only statistic in the article that comes from the hospital. It is also the only statistic that relates directly to the case being made about the map… and it contradicts it entirely!
“In 2009, there have been just two overseas admissions.”
Yes, you read that right; every other mother that year (and there were 548 of them in 2009) were British citizens, yet the headline (below) portrays this group as being vastly outnumbered:
“Mapping out the strain on your NHS: 243 sick babies treated in one London hospital ward…. and just 18 mothers come from Britain”
It is not just the way in which the truth is handled so casually in the entire affair but *what* is so casually done away with that makes it clear the writer and editor either have an innate and irrational fear of foreigners or (worse) are willingly misrepresenting the good work of some our most valued care workers (who, it turns out, are also represented by some of the pins on this map) in order to deliberately make you more fearful of a foreign invasion than you have cause to be.
All the hospital workers wanted to do was a engage in a little nurturing and enable a little community bonding. That’s been completely misrepresented here, maliciously one might suspect, just to make you afraid.
The alternative is that the lines have been blurred in this way because the writer and editor responsible have allowed their own fear to cloud their reason; where everyone else sees a gesture of community, they see an invasion map!
I guess what I am trying to say is that you should probably think twice before trusting people like this as a primary source of something as important as *news*, as there is no telling how, when or why they might misrepresent facts, or even to what extent they may try this with you beyond (maybe) my saying this one’s a new low on me.
Thanks for your time.
Tim Ireland
Daily Mail Watch
http://www.mailwatch.co.uk/
This same issue has also been covered by Uponnothing, and Five Chinese Crackers. Do prepare yourself for a slightly terser tone.
Categories: Immigration |
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I’m sorry for the strong language, but it’s not worth anything more considered.
She’s an absolute fucking cunting twat.
Just printed a stack and left them by the DMs in the lobby of the Hospital where I work.
Brilliant letter (however horrifically unsurprising from the Fail). I’ve been working on a good case to break my grandparents’ subscription *shudder* to The Mail. This is being added the arsenal.
This is a great summing up and nice work on digging deeper. This ’story’ is one of the worst pieces of ‘journalism’ I’ve read in a long while.
Sue Reid can suck my boiling farts.
Submit a complaint to the PCC (I just have) on the basis that Section 1i) of the code states “The Press must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information, including pictures.”
I know it’ll achieve bollocks all, but I live in hope that if they receive complaints every time they publish something demonstrably false, they might start realising they need to spend slightly less time fearmongering and more time doing some actual fucking journalism…
Oh who am I kidding…
I’m a regular DM reader (no i’m not a middleclass nazi)
I read the mail coz it has the best online content compared to other papers. I’m not niave enough to believe that the DM prints the truth but does any paper or news network actualy tell the truth? You have to treat it like a sum, read as many different papers as you can, add them up and take an average. (you’ll still have to filter the bull shit) Anyway my point is don’t be niave yourselves believing that DM readers actually believe what they read. Best way to combat it is to comment on the articles.
@CJ Greenock
That’s the problem though, a quick skim through the article comments suggests very worryingly that a lot of the readers DO actually believe this stuff. To be honest though I doubt it matters to the majority of DM readers whether it’s true or not, they merely want fuel for their racist fires, so they can’t rant on about how there are too many foreigners.
It’s about time they just dropped the BS and called themselves “The Daily BNP Mail”
@David.
I tend not to comment on articles on the DM forums anymore coz it’s clear I’m not ‘one of them’. But what I have noticed is the people who make hard line comments and racially abuse me for being Scottish, It’s the same 50 people every day. These are the people who read and comment on the articles every day, usually the same old shite repeated time and time again, ZaNULiebour this Gordon McBroon that.
they’ve removed the quote from the hospital now, it indicates at the bottom of the article there should be a quote from the hospital, but it’s absent. shocking lies really.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your posting on this vile article.
I have posted this piece on the “Print Media” section of Digital Spy. The wider the audience the better.
On the same day the front Page tells us of the awful state of some NHS hospitals, while Mail On Line tells us of people flocking from all over the world to be treated! Something doesn’t quite stack up there.
You’ll notice too that the Mail still believes Ireland to be part of the UK, looking at the map.