All roads lead to the DM clearly there is no other paper in the land that is such a conduit of pure evil!
Nanaej can't help thinking you have opened a can of worms a) in saying you ban the DM and The Sun from your staff room because you have to maintain educational standards, sorry I think that just sounds draconian and censorious hence my response when I said "educational standards or Soviet Union standards?", your response was "DM readers would say that", others would think it's a good idea". How do you know what DM readers would say,have you met them all? If it's OK to say you don't agree with their editorials because they skew their headlines to vilify a section of society, are you not vilifying another section of society by saying DM readers believe everything they read in that paper and therefore reflect the undoubted bias that it sometimes presents. In other words they simply can't work anything out for themselves.
Occasionally we buy the DM, more frequently my husband buys The Times, several times a week my younger son buys The Guardian. I read them both, the latter wouldn't be my choice but I'm glad my son does buy a "proper newspaper" from time to time. I wasn't happy when my older son lived at home and bought The Sun and would often tell him so and why, but nevertheless now he is an adult I defend his right to do that even though that paper is still mildly offensive to me.
I often pick up the DM at my health club after a swim. Whilst I appreciate a serious newspaper, sometimes all you want with your flat white is drivel, so whilst I am aware that we are on a knife edge as far as N Korea's plan's to nuke the US are concerned, there are occasions when I am equally happy to read about Victoria Beckham's shoes and whether they are giving her bunions or pictures of famous peoples' dogs and accompanying article along the lines of "Is Jennifer Aniston/Duchess of Cambridge/Geri Halliwell morphing into their dogs?" Because there are times when this is literally all you want! As someone said of A N Wilson, who occasionally writes in the Mail, has the intellect of gnat, that clearly applies to me also. Digressing slightly, if that person had read A N Wilson's excellent acclaimed book on the Victorians they might at least elevate him to the intellect of a gerbil!
So back to the staff room at anonymous infant/primary. I understand why the Sun is banned, because it is indeed sexist in the way it presents women, no argument there. Let me get this right the DM is banned in case a child aged between 4 and 11 should happen upon an article such as "Mick Philipott is an example of "what's wrong with welfare". What about the Express then? Their front page headline seems to veer between Britain is being overrun by immigration and house prices are going up by £1,000 per day. Hardly balanced journalism either, banned! That leaves us with The Times, Murdoch paper banned! Daily Telegraph right of centre, but not quite as puerile as the Mail, insomuch as there are no two page spreads on Victoria's bunions or David's underpants, but nevertheless nasty editorials therefore banned! Then of course there is The Mirror which redeems itself by being left of centre. Keep it or ban it, oh the dilemma, it's a Labour mouthpiece, but it does do a lot of features on Kerry Katona type tittle tattle on latest engagement and plans for another baby. Play safe ban it! So now you are left with the "two proper papers" The Guardian and Independent the preferred choice of that bastion of unbiased reporting the BBC.
I have an issue with the assumption that because you frequently/infrequently read the Daily Mail you must endorse certain opinions such as you cannot distinguish between the Mick Phiipott's of this world and the majority of people on welfare. I said in a previous post that I think the Jeremy Kyle type of show does much more to endorse this perception than the Mail ever could. I think some have mentioned that the coverage papers like the Mail give to these people, is unfair to their children as it propels them into the limelight. Mick Philpott and the woman on another thread with the 11 children both went on the Jeremy Kyle show. If they had kept a low profile then I think it's safe to assume then their children would remain anonymous. Mick Philpott was clearly a type of person who reveled in his own notoriety and you only have to look at the Facebook pages of some today to know from their ramblings that they already see themselves as a star of their own show anyway. This whole tidal wave of non entities was released with the advent of shows like Big Brother and the Genie is well and truly out of the bottle now.
On another thread I think like others I said that I liked Frank Field because he came across as true to his beliefs when so many politicians trotted out the party line. Someone jumped in with a comment "ooooh a love in with Frank Field, bet you wont love him so much when you find out he doesn't support the bedroom tax". Another assumption! I don't support the bedroom tax, I think it's as spurious as the "window tax" in the 18th century. Punitive and pointless I think many of us can work out that there aren't going to be smaller properties with less bedrooms to trade down into. What we all like about Frank Field is that he is true to himself and doesn't just trot out the party line. Week after week on Question Time this is the case right across the political spectrum. The politicians on there are often the least interesting guests because they are so bound by what they can and can't say. Because some of us were glad to see the back of the Labour government, it's automatically assumed that we are over the moon with the trio of smacked arsed faced toffs, we are saddled with at the moment and don't have a problem with the bankers getting away with the appalling damaged they have saddled us with. WRONG! POGS has often said what she is sick of is partisan politics, I agree with her entirely, I'm also sick of career politicians who have had little experience of life. Most of all I'm sick of being judged as a one dimensional person because some days I want to read the Bloody Daily Mail.
