The Sun is facing calls for a boycott in Manchester after its despicable response to the attack there on 22 May. But The Daily Mail sank even lower than The Sun in the next day’s paper.
Exploiting attacks
The Mail is among the rags that claim to love the country, and the people in it. But it then agitates for military action that threatens the country’s security. And it rails against politicians who oppose such actions. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has of course borne the full brunt of The Mail‘s bile on these issues.
So on 23 May, hours after a terrorist set off a bomb in a Manchester concert venue, killing dozens and injuring many more, The Mail decided to run the following cartoon:
https://twitter.com/red_underthebed/status/867045253810880512
The Mac cartoon depicts a couple hiding behind their curtains, as two terrorists carrying guns walk up their garden path. It carries the text: “Oh dear. Will you answer the door? I think they’re canvassing for Jeremy Corbyn.” It appears the cartoon ran in The Scottish Daily Mail and has, unsurprisingly, not been loaded onto The Mail‘s main website.
And The Mail’s cartoon the following day revealed it wasn’t going to back down on this fearmongering content. It shows the Manchester bomber following a short, signposted path between the UK and Libya. The bomber is heading in the direction of Britain and the caption reads “There’s no place like home”. People were about as impressed with this cartoon, however, as the one it produced a day earlier. The image was shared only 39 times on The Mail’s website.
Destroy Corbyn, at all costs
The Mail‘s article that accompanied the picture tried to skewer Corbyn over his attempts to try and find a solution to ‘The Troubles’ in Northern Ireland. This is now the common attack line used by the right-wing press and Conservative politicians against the Labour leader. But ex-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher also sought such solutions, as did Tony Blair after her. And this attack line is used despite the fact that no one would realistically want to overturn the peace agreement that these combined efforts provided.
But that clearly doesn’t matter to The Mail. Or The Sun. They incessantly drive home how dangerous Corbyn is in their minds, even as people in Manchester were reeling from the very real danger of a terrorist attack. Because Corbyn is a danger to these tabloids. He’ll start, for example, making tax-avoiding media company owners, like The Mail’s Rothermere family, pay what they owe.
As we move closer to election day, the media’s naked self-interest becomes more and more apparent in their reporting.
Backfire
These outlets, however, don’t appear to be weighing up the consequences of their actions before doing them. Already, The Sun is facing a backlash from its reporting the day after the attack. And now, The Mail is facing the same criticism. These tabloids could be doing themselves more harm than good. They’re not impervious to ruin, as the closing of Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World showed.
And for many in the country, that outcome would probably be more than welcome.
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Featured image via The Canary
