Take The Highground - or why we shouldn't read The Daily Mail By Andy Dykes

Oh The Daily Mail: bastion of British journalism, voice of the British people, key to the formulation of a balanced opinion and veritable textbook of reporting and the written word. It was within a day or two of the catastrophic tsunami that The Daily Mail printed a front page headline that read, FOR PITY'S SAKE, HELP HER! Alongside the headline was a picture of a suitably, and understandably, sad looking Indonesian child sitting on the ground, surrounded by debris. And all of a sudden I don't want to help her.

It seems that The Daily Mail believes its readership to be the kind of people who get a tug at the heart strings when they see a black and white photo of a muscular man holding a baby. Perhaps it is.

My personal objection however, was against the newspaper's use of the lowest common denominator in an effort to stimulate public interest and awareness of the disaster and sympathy and support for its victims. Though a worthy cause, there was no need to employ these kinds of tactics and create a poster boy for the appeal in such a self righteous context, as if this was the only newspaper to care. Perhaps those responsible for the headline foresaw that it would be inspiration for an aid campaign; as if the entire population of Britain was going to look up from its Daily Mail and say, Oh yeah. They're right you know. We should do something.

Is this the way we are? As a nation of people, is this what we respond to? No. I don't think so. Millions in aid had already been raised through public donations by this point, and I doubt that The Daily Mail's shamelessly patronising front page, that reeked foul of right wing Britain, can have had much to do with it.

After all, The Daily Mail is the paper that drives fear into the hearts of its middle aged, middle class, middle, English, middle of the road readership at every opportunity, informing them that their taxes are being spent on things like benefits and horrific things of that ilk. This is the newspaper that advocates the notion that charity begins at home more than any other.

Rather than donating to the cause, Daily Mail readers may well have been spending money on defences for their properties, fearing an influx of the dreaded foreign folk from the tsunami stricken countries to these sacred shores. Or perhaps not.

But foolish conjecture aside, regular readers of The Daily Mail must be living in a perpetual state of terror. The newspaper promotes fear with almost every headline, exposing the ills of this country: asylum seekers, immigration, where and how the tax payers money is being spent. Does it matter? We pay tax and it gets spent. It's not ours. It is the rent we pay for living on this fair isle under this fair (?) government. The state of the health service, long waits for operations, burglary, crime stats, gun crime, youth culture - which is in itself bad.

Regurgitating the same worrying stories over and over, The Daily Mail is responsible for creating a culture of fear in Britain, to what purpose I have no idea.

But, if there is ever an argument about any contemporary issues with anyone who appears more politically narrow minded than yourself, you can bet that The Daily Mail has played a part in the forming of their opinion. Quite simply, it is the lowest form of journalism. Even gossip magazines have news. Okay, I just implied that The Daily Mail does not contain news.

Obviously, this is an exaggeration, however slight. But I'll end with this. The Daily Mail's latest advertising campaign is a real testament to the quality of the journalism inside.

A large poster in Kings Cross Station advertising The Daily Mail says THE NEWSPAPER THAT STAYS ON YOUR MIND, NOT ON YOUR HANDS. Black letters on a white background covered in smudgy black fingerprints.

What exactly stays on your mind is unclear. What is clear however, is that the major, perhaps only selling point of this paper is that it uses ink that doesn't make your hands dirty. Wow. Now that's good journalism.

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