Here’s How We Protest Against Fascist Newspapers In Britain


Protesters in the UK set fire to the Daily Mail newspaper at weekend in a rally against the corporate right-wing press’s divisive nature and fascist fear-mongering. The Daily Mail is read by almost 4 million British people per day. Along with many other UK newspapers (namely The Sun, The Daily Express, The Times, The Sport and The Telegraph), The Mail is a rabidly conservative propaganda machine: think the UK’s answer to Fox News, in print form.

The newspaper hates gays, immigrants, Muslims, single parents, poor people, and pretty much every other minority group in Britain. It supports David Cameron’s crushing austerity measures, the privatization of public services (including our beloved National Health Service, or NHS), wants to preserve tax havens for the rich, and it consistently backs our illegal and bloody military campaigns abroad. The Mail actually supported the Nazis during the 1930s, and sadly not a lot seems to have changed since then.

Activists at a rally against austerity measures in the city of Manchester on Saturday burned a copy of the newspaper as a symbolic gesture, and vowed: “The Daily Mail is there to divide us. They are not going to succeed.” Another declared: “The one thing we all have in common is that the Daily Mail hates us. Let’s stand together and fight together.”

Protesters then began to chant “Hate mail will fail”, before gathering together to discuss what it is about them personally that offends The Daily Mail so much. One man takes the mic and says: “I’m unemployed, I’m gay, I’m a socialist: there are so many reasons why the Daily Mail hates me.” Another woman says she is despised by the right-wing newspaper for being a single mother, while a man says his father is an immigrant.

Save for the people who read it, The Daily Mail is a source of ridicule for many British people. Humor is often used by the left as ammunition to deflect the newspaper’s linguistic violence against minorities: there exists, for example, a spoof Daily Mail headline generator, and a ton of parody front pages of the Mail (and The Daily Express, which is just as bad) have been created to highlight the sensationalist extremism the newspapers serve up on a daily basis. Here are a few real and spoof copies of the Mail and Express’s hysterical reporting for you to compare.

A real headline from the Daily Express claims 98% of Britons support an end to economic migration from Eastern Europe, which is a very dubious claim indeed

dailyexpressreal2

A real front page of the Daily Mail plays to Islamophobes by instilling panic over the consumption of halal meat. Was this really the most important news story of the day?

dailymailreal1

A parodied Mail headline uses a Chinese panda to highlight the newspaper’s hysteria

A parodied Mail headline uses a Chinese panda to highlight the newspaper's hysteria

While a spoof Daily Express front page highlights the newspaper’s primary topics of fear-mongering

While a spoof Daily Express headline highlights the newspaper's primary topics of fear-mongering

A real Daily Mail headline encourages racism against immigrants

A real Daily Mail headline encourages racism against immigrants

While the Express made a ridiculous claim that there are no jobs left for British people due to immigration

While the Express makes a ridiculous claim that there are no jobs left for British people due to immigration

This is a real headline from another extremist newapaper, The Sunday Sport, last month: but you have to ask yourself, are ISIS sending press releases to Murdoch telling him of their evil plans? Hmmm.

This is a real headline from the Sunday Sport: you have to ask yourself, would ISIS's PR team really be telling us all this?

Finally, here’s a hilarious fake Daily Mail front page which is so close to the Sunday Sport’s Jihaddy-long legs “exclusive”, it makes you wonder who is parodying who…

And a hilarious fake Daily Mail front page is so close to the Sunday Sport's "exclusive", it makes you wonder who is parodying who...


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