Enemies of Reason Poundshop potshots at the media moral maze.

What do the Mail and its readers think of racism?

Exhibit A: It's Richard Littlejohn saying Muslim protesters should go on the 'first plane home'. Back on the plane to Britain? Seems a bit of a waste of aviation fuel, Dickie; but then you'd know all about that, commuting to do Question Time from Florida as you do.

Exhibit B: Comments on a story about the protesters including such delights as this.

The story says:

He told the Star: 'He was born in this country in Newcastle and he is proud to be British. He's a good boy. He doesn't smoke, he's done nothing violent and he just likes to pray five times a day at home.'

A reader says:

Is he here legally or illegally though? It does not say. He must be a student.
Click to rate Rating 644
- taff, wales, 12/3/2009 9:43

Rated up positively to the power of 644, despite directly contradicting things written in the article. He was born in Britain and is British, yet the reader wants to know if he's here 'illegally'.

Many readers label the protester as a terrorist:

The principle of free speech is one thing, but surely we are begging for destruction giving a known Bid Laden sympathiser who hates Britain and shows loyalty to the Taliban a job airside at a major airport, loading baggage???

Where is it said he's a Bin Laden sympathiser? Nowhere. Where does it say he's loyal to the Taleban? Nowhere. I'm not saying it's not true, but he is linked to a group that seems pretty unpleasant, sure; that doesn't mean he subscribes to opinions X, Y and Z.

Additionally, look at how the Mail present this:

in another development, there were suggestions that another protester, Abu Omar, chaired a meeting last September in which hardline Islamists discussed taking over Britain 'from within' using the massive baby boom among Muslim families.

Is there actually a 'massive baby boom' among Muslim families? The Mail certainly wants to present it as fact. And is there any evidence for these 'suggestions'? If there is, then let us see it.

Of course we all know how the Mail loves foreigners and their 'baby booms', don't we?

This man is not a terrorist; he is a protester. Yet readers are allowed to incorrectly join the dots and portray him as such.

Meanwhile, this comment of

Aren't people allowed the right to protest for what they believe in here? Were there any non-Muslims protesting too, or were they the only group that the media focused on?
- Sue, Aberdeen, 12/3/2009 10:27

is rated down 1188 by fellow Mail readers. It's clear what they think about the 'right to protest'.

Exhibit C: today's front page.

A queue of 'illegal migrants' trying to get in the UK. Labelled bizarrely as 'recession madness'. Eh? In the sense that they're all coming over here stealing our hard-earned benefits, presumably, and taking away BritishjobsforBritishworkers? Except of course they can't, if they're illegals. Funny how that never gets mentioned, isn't it?

Exhibit D: 'Humourous' (I'll let you be the judge of that) jokes out of the Ark about the French and how they surrender, lol! The Mail blows off the cobwebs from some miserably poor old clangers, including:

What did the mayor of Paris say to the German army as they entered the city in World War II?
'Table for 100,000, monsieur?'

Eh? Eh? Do you see? It's funny because the French always surrender, and thousands of people were killed in the Second World War in France, eh? Isn't it, eh? Hilarious, isn't it? Eh? Isn't it, eh?

Now I don't see anti-French stuff as being in the same class of racism as other nastiness, but still. This sort of crap went out with Mind Your Language and the Bay City Rollers, didn't it? No, apparently not.

Exhibit D: Black actors 'white up' for role. Is it like the 'reviled practice' of blacking up for Othello? No, not at all, as the story itself explains:

Director Rufus Norris said the move to have some of his black cast play white British colonials had not been taken lightly. "The approach has been to frame the play as a ritual performed by a group of Yoruba story-tellers," he said. "They play the black and the white parts - and the bushes and at one point all the windows of a house."

Have the readers seen that bit, do you think?

What beats me is why we even listen to these bloody idiots.
- Arturo, Loughborough, 13/3/2009 13:44

Exhibit E: A shocking story about men raping women in South Africa to 'cure' them of lesbianism. It's a truly terrible story, but what's this in the comments?

I know!, let's send them some more aid money!. That'll cure everything ....NOT!.
Click to rate Rating 26
- george morley, calgary, canada, 13/3/2009 11:32

Savages.
Click to rate Rating 50
- Tony Quinlan, Essex, 13/3/2009 11:51

It's never far away, is it?

And the case for the defence:

When it's the BBC, of course, then the Mail fails to see the funny side of news presenter George Alagiah being compared to a chimp by one of his colleagues. Is this the same Mail that ran a billion billion articles defending Carol Thatcher for comparing Patrick Tsonga with a golliwog? Surely it can't be!

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