Milli bashing - fair or foul?

[vetran]

now the thread is played out, my opinion is that its gutter press at its worst.

They could quite reasonably have pointed out he was a tax avoiding Marxixt, he was a hypocrite etc.
That Ed had not refuted his views and probably still held them and what that could mean if he was elected. That is all fair comment. a similar piece on CMD would be just as interesting.


But inferring as a war veteran he hated Britain or showing pictures of the Grave was vile.

of course by doing it they have created a media storm and sold papers.

[Flashman]

The gutter is where papers we don't care for operate. Most decent people consider that the Guardian and the Independent seldom rise out of the gutter; Dimwitted lazy bigots that infest the public sector stigmatize the Daily Mail and so on.

Our press is far too respectful toward worthless lightweights like Miliband; far too sparing about their curious back stories. The Mail does a service by exhuming the backgrounds of these unsavoury and untrustworthy people.

So while I agree that a free press is worth defending (note that the Guardian and its small band of readers is desperate to see press censorship imposed), there is nothing mean-spirited about the Mail. If you want mean-spirited consult the despicable behaviour of the left on the subject of the funeral of Baroness Thatcher.

[vetran]

there is nothing mean-spirited about the Mail. If you want mean-spirited consult the despicable behaviour of the left on the subject of the funeral of Baroness Thatcher.

I think with this they joined the Morning Star etc in a 'ding dong the witch is dead' stylie.

[SimonMac]

^ This ^

The guy is a turd and anything that can be done to make him feel uncomfortable is a bonus. As far as I am concerned he lost all right to decent treatment after he blew off the union rally to get a trip in a Roles Royce and a seat in the directors box at some northern football club so that he could suck up to the foreign owners.

Yes HE is subject to fair game the minute he decided to step into the public limelight, but his family is not, and this is below abhorrent from the Daily Mail

[Zippy]

Yes HE is subject to fair game the minute he decided to step into the public limelight, but his family is not, and this is below abhorrent from the Daily Mail

WSM (and quite a few others) S.

This isn't about freedom of the press, it's about piss-poor, desperate journalism. I wonder what Kim Kardashian thinks?

[vetran]

Yes HE is subject to fair game the minute he decided to step into the public limelight, but his family is not, and this is below abhorrent from the Daily Mail

why is his family not?

If CMD's brother was a Drug addict it would be news.
If CMD's father was a fascist it would be news.
If CMD's teacher was supporting the BNP it would be news.

especially if CMD had brought them into his speeches.

If the Guardian called CMD's dead (so he can't defend himself) father unpatriotic after being a war veteran or showed him in an unfair light then it would be slanderous.

Its not the fact that Milliband senior was a Marxist and a hypocrite that was fair comment, that is relevant to brothers Milliband. It was the fact the Mail called him unpatriotic when he clearly wasn't and showed no respect for his grave.

You may have hated Fatch, but wishing her dead was disgusting, especially when she was a frail old woman. Junior has a point they should have let the old man keep his dignity.

Hitler & Stalin were sick mass murderers and frankly I would load the gun to shoot them regardless of age.

[Old Greg]

Lot of fuss about nothing. I'm sure the Mail just wanted to highlight the guy's political views and war service in quiet commemoration of yesterday as the 75th anniversary of Daily Mail owner Lord Rothermere's finest hour:

My dear Fuhrer: Everyone in England is profoundly moved by the bloodless solution to the Czechoslovakian problem. People not so much concerned with territorial readjustment as with dread of another war with its accompanying bloodbath. Frederick the Great was a great popular figure. I salute your Excellency’s star which rises higher and higher.

Esmond Cecil Harmsworth, 1898–1978
Lord Rothermere
Telegram to Adolf Hitler, October 1, 1938

[Old Greg]

Interesting intervention from a Tory retired cabinet minister:

A former member of Margaret Thatcher's cabinet has accused the Daily Mail of "telling lies" about Ralph Miliband after the newspaper claimed that the Marxist writings of the late father of the Labour party meant that he hated Britain.

In the biggest blow to the Mail editor Paul Dacre, who has launched a strong defence of his paper's decision to claim that Ralph Miliband had left an "evil legacy", Lord Moore of Lower Marsh said his former tutor was a good man who never had a bad word to say about Britain.

Moore, who served in Thatcher's cabinet between 1986 and 1989 and who was briefly tipped as a potential successor to Thatcher, said it "beggars belief" that the Mail could impugn the patriotism of Miliband who taught him at the London School of Economics.

Praising Miliband as a "great academic" and an inspiring teacher, Moore said: "Ralph Miliband taught me and I can say he was one of the most inspiring and objective teachers I had. Of course, we had different political opinions but he never treated me with anything less than complete courtesy and I had profound respect for his integrity."

In a statement issued to the Press Association Moore added: "He had come here as a refugee, done his duty to his adopted country by serving in our Royal Navy during the war, become a great academic and raised a good family.

"I saw him week after week and it beggars belief that the Daily Mail can accuse him of lacking patriotism. I never heard him ever say one word which was negative about Britain – our country.

"The Daily Mail is telling lies about a good man who I knew. The people of this country are good and decent too. They do not want the Daily Mail attacking the dead relatives of politicians to make political points."

Thatcher ally accuses Daily Mail of 'telling lies' about Ralph Miliband | Politics | theguardian.com

[centurian]

especially if CMD had brought them into his speeches.

^^ This

Although I can't say I ever listened to his speeches, so I have to take it on faith that he did so, but if he keeps banging on about how his father was an inspiration etc. - he's opened the door...

[mudskipper]

Nasty stuff. Would hate to be judged by my dad's politics.

(as an aside, my phone offered masturbate as a correction for nasty...)