Prime Minister has bad handwriting, tabloid goes into attack mode

So I'm a little pissed at Rupert Murdoch and his empire of evil right now. Plus, I think this story warrants a thread, as it's not exactly godawful news, but it's definitely godawful behaviour from a newspaper.

Now, part of Murdoch's empire of evil is a tabloid newspaper called The Sun. It features a topless woman commenting on the news every day, and it is very rare that it reports any actual news whatsoever. The Sun also hates Gordon Brown. A lot.

What happened is this: Jacqui Janes's son died in Afghanistan. This was a fairly tragic event, and she received a handwritten letter from Gordon Brown expressing his condolences. This seems like a touching gesture.

BUT IT WAS FULL OF SPELLING MISTAKES!!!!!11111111

The letter is behind the link, along with the Sun article. You might note that it's hard to tell if there are spelling mistakes, because his handwriting is so bad. This might be due to the fact that Brown is blind in one eye, and I don't think the other one's up to much either. It's not like The Sun exactly has high standards of spelling, punctuation or grammar anyway. If you want to lose some IQ points, I can always recommend giving it a read.

Then, when the PM personally called to apologise the lady in question recorded the call and gave it to The Sun. Which they printed, again with a hysterical commentary on What An Evil Person Gordon Brown Is.

If you look at the comments, you'll see that even the Sun readers think that this story is going a little too far.

Of course, Murdoch probably doesn't give a shit. He's all busy trying to get off Google and stop "fair use" of his publications. Dick.

I'm not a fan of how that lady is acting either.

Does anybody else thing me defending spelling mistakes is kinda redundant? I thought so. Never mind then.

Somath Cegem wrote:

Does anybody else thing me defending spelling mistakes is kinda redundant? I thought so. Never mind then.

At least yours are definitely spelling mistakes, poppet.

ZoZo wrote:

What happened is this: Jacqui Janes's son died in Afghanistan. This was a fairly tragic event, and she received a handwritten letter from Gordon Brown expressing his condolences. This seems like a touching gesture.

I know. When he could so easily have done what PMs and Ministers usually do, which is to get their civil servants to write the letter and just sign it at the bottom. I mean, a whole letter in his hand - what fucking more could he have done? Sent her his fingers in a bag?

This is why all those disgusting redtops should be banned.

...(Tries to concentrate on story)
(Looks at Cyberwulf)
(Tries to concentrate on story again)
(Turns back to Cyberwulf)
What's a "redtop"?

Tabloid newspapers with a red logo on their front page banners.

Somath Cegem wrote:

Does anybody else thing me defending spelling mistakes is kinda redundant? I thought so. Never mind then.

We all thing so, dear.

grmblfjx wrote:

Somath Cegem wrote:

Does anybody else thing me defending spelling mistakes is kinda redundant? I thought so. Never mind then.

We all thing so, dear.

... did you mean to do that?!

(HOW META IS THAT?! SPELLING WANK IN A THREAD ABOUT SPELLING WANK!)

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

That's bad handwriting? These people have obviously never worked for a Doctor. There's a reason they have nurses and employ medical transcriptionists, you know.

The art of calligraphy is the foundation of empires. How dare they dare to allow such a philistine into such a high position of power?

Saleha wrote:

grmblfjx wrote:

Somath Cegem wrote:

Does anybody else thing me defending spelling mistakes is kinda redundant? I thought so. Never mind then.

We all thing so, dear.

... did you mean to do that?!

Probably.

The _awesome_ thing to do would be to mark it with red pen and send it back.

...or at least, that's what I'd do.

Baron Chuddlington III wrote:

The art of calligraphy is the foundation of empires. How dare they dare to allow such a philistine into such a high position of power?

Oh come on, Baron, he's far better than that Catholic Blair.

I think Brown's handled all of this with so much more dignity than Mrs. Janes, and I hope she has the decency to let it go now.

Her complaint was that he had disrespected her son's memory by sending the letter in the state we've seen it in. Now, I think that he should have had the letter looked at before it was dispatched, but as it happened, he didn't. It's not the worst thing we've ever seen a prime minister do, and I can't imagine it was a deliberate act. An evil prime minister does not poke the poodle, he kicks the dog. This accidental letter-sending does not smell of dog-kickage to me.

And what did she do in response? First thing she did was contact The Sun. The fucking Sun.

As ZoZo said, they don't really report news so much as use emotionally-charged events and their own journalists/editors' skewed opinions of those events to stir up the knucklescrapers. If my child had died I wouldn't want them to report on it. That would make me sick to my stomach, because one just knows they'd try and dig up some dirt on the kid or guffaw about the last sexual relationship they had. That's how bad The Sun is.

I have no children, and I can't imagine the pain Mrs. Janes has been through. But the boy went to war of his own volition, he went out there knowing - as everybody knows - that it wasn't all going to be a fabulous adventure, and that he would see things that would horrify many of us, and he died a hero. And she's repayed his sacrifice by getting The Sun involved.

I've far less sympathy for her because of that than I would have had otherwise. I don't know whether she wanted to make a profit out of this or whether she's just unwise enough not to know that, when your mind is in turmoil, you keep quiet until it calms down a bit - then you act when your mind is clear. I really hope it's the latter.

Aggie wrote:

I'm not a fan of how that lady is acting either.

Nor am I. From where I sit she's shaping up to become the UK's answer to Cindy Sheehan.

Chris91 wrote:

Aggie wrote:

I'm not a fan of how that lady is acting either.

Nor am I. From where I sit she's shaping up to become the UK's answer to Cindy Sheehan.

oh please kill yourself

ZoZo wrote:

Of course, Murdoch probably doesn't give a shit. He's all busy trying to get off Google and stop "fair use" of his publications. Dick.

...not to mention using The Sun for months as a vehicle to promote his social networking site and strongly imply the main rival will kill you and fuck your body.

This is pretty much the standard for the tabloids in the run up to the election when it comes to their the side they don't support. The Sun was virutally accusing that homophobic old shitwit Michael Howard of drinking the blood of "our boys" before the last general election, (and even the red tops are hard pressed to match the lies and distortion of the Daily Mail, as the academic study for journalist Nick Davies' Flat Earth News showed.)

At least she can rest easy, knowing that the Sun will always spell her name correctly.

Saint Archie wrote:

At least she can rest easy, knowing that the Sun will always spell her name correctly.

Haha, oh god that is wonderful.

Saint Archie wrote:

At least she can rest easy, knowing that the Sun will always spell her name correctly.

:roflmao: Oh I bet they're embarrassed now. If they noticed.

ZoZo wrote:

Saint Archie wrote:

At least she can rest easy, knowing that the Sun will always spell her name correctly.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] Oh I bet they're embarrassed now. If they noticed.

To their credit, they have. Curiously though, it hasn't made their front page and been blasted as a shameful disgrace.

Odd that.

When she's just lost a son it seems wrong to call her a bitter and sulky looking old bat but that doesn't mean it's inaccurate.

Personally, I'm not prepared to sympathise with anyone who would willingly name their son James Janes.