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| Quentin Richard Stephen Letts, Daily Mail |
Quentin Letts loomed large in Twitter's 'trending' list at lunchtime yesterday.
Wondering whether he'd popped his clogs or if someone had discovered Mr. Letts to have been employing a ghost-writer, I was astounded to see umpteen posts expressing shock and dismay at this article in the Daily Mail.
(link via freezepage.com)
One of today's 'targets', John Prescott, tweeted thus:
Quentin Letts says I should kill myself, Archbishop Sentamu should get elocution lessons & Keith Vaz 'de-oil' http://bit.ly/sEtGnp #hatemail
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| Richard William Littlejohn, Daily Mail |
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| Kelvin Calder MacKenzie, Daily Mail |
Letts is the type of writer who is finding that in order to ensure journalistic longevity inevitably means his becoming ever more acerbic, hyperbolic and meaningless. Others of that ilk are Richard Littlejohn and Kelvin MacKenzie.
These writers are self-opinionated, intractable and entirely predictable.
They write the columns aimed at readers who crave an occasional fix of ridiculous parody from those who see buttons clearly marked 'DO NOT TOUCH' and take great delight in pressing them, aware of the effect their words will have. Most people are accustomed to their style and give their particular brand of sophistry no more credence than is warranted by the average yapping and irritating Yorkshire terrier.
The three men I've mentioned are all employed by the Daily Mail. Other titles have their own eccentrics too, - the Daily Mail's quota is just larger.
Much more dangerous and concerning than the doltish bigotry of this immature trio, is the number of deliberately provocative and completely inaccurate articles printed in many of the the papers, whether red-top or broadsheet.
The relatively recent introduction of online fact-checking teams like Full Fact and the many media-watching blogs such as Zelo Street, Minority Thought , dedicated to highlighting the inadequacies and corruption of elements of the press and some journalists here in the UK, is a much needed attempt to remedy a dire situation.
Perhaps the Leveson Inquiry will come up with a system of press regulation which will ensure those who buy newspapers are presented with facts and not a distortion of the truth intended to further the ambition or forcefully expressed will of their owners or Editors, as seems to happen all too often now. Perhaps.
Paul Dacre's speech to a seminar at the Leveson Inquiry.
Updated:
As the end-of-2011 bandwagon trundles noisily past, Richard William Littlejohn tosses aboard this little offering and laboriously hoists himself up to join Q. Letts. How sweet.
(link via freezepage.com)
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| Paul Dacre, Editor, Daily Mail |
Perhaps the Leveson Inquiry will come up with a system of press regulation which will ensure those who buy newspapers are presented with facts and not a distortion of the truth intended to further the ambition or forcefully expressed will of their owners or Editors, as seems to happen all too often now. Perhaps.
Paul Dacre's speech to a seminar at the Leveson Inquiry.
Updated:
As the end-of-2011 bandwagon trundles noisily past, Richard William Littlejohn tosses aboard this little offering and laboriously hoists himself up to join Q. Letts. How sweet.
(link via freezepage.com)
