Reproductive Freedom; the Daily Mail
Aug. 31st, 2005 10:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreamer_easyAs I'm on hiatus, I'm no longer filling my LJ with my voluble opinions on pollie tix, but I just found a huge bundle of news clippings from our UK trip which I'd planned to rabbit on about.
From New Statesman, a review of the documentary Life Before Birth points out a common pro-life deception:
The sonic scans were remarkable, but they were introduced early in the programme's narrative, at the ten- to 14-week stage. You had to concentrate to notice that many of the images shown as illustrations - of babies smiling and pawing their noses - came from much later in a gestation, 30 or 32 weeks in.
This was around the time the Tories were engaged in a desperate search for an election-winning issue - gypsies one week, late-term abortion the next. Now, while overseas, I try to read as many different newspapers as possible. This was my chance to discover that the Daily Mail is basically the publishing arm of the Conservative Party - something which will be well-known to Britons, but which I discovered with surprise, outrage, and finally enormous amusement.
I brought home a big chunk of the 15 March 2005 DM, which devoted itself pages to the Tories' latest policy effort. ABORTION BECOMES ISSUE IN ELECTION, says much of the front page. ("Torch that can detect breast cancer", announces a banner at top, with a tasteful picture of a nude lady covering her nipple with a hand.) Four pages inside are devoted to the late-term abortion issue, including an entire page faux feminist column. A VITAL DEBATE, says her headline. No space whatsoever is given to dissenting views.
According to my scribbled notes, the same day's paper contains two anti-gay diatribes, the joyous tale of some poor bitch with five kids who's expecting triplets, children (saved from drowning, saved from meningitis), and grumbling about equal rights for de facto couples. In fact, what with the item on the glycaemic index and the breast cancer story, this might be the women's issue, except perhaps for the page 3 girl modelling lingerie on page 37. There's even a puff piece on a new vacuum cleaner, demonstrated by a happy housewife.
Do not try to eat a full English breakfast while reading this newspaper. Not even a vegetarian one. You'll laugh so hard baked beans will get everywhere.
From New Statesman, a review of the documentary Life Before Birth points out a common pro-life deception:
The sonic scans were remarkable, but they were introduced early in the programme's narrative, at the ten- to 14-week stage. You had to concentrate to notice that many of the images shown as illustrations - of babies smiling and pawing their noses - came from much later in a gestation, 30 or 32 weeks in.
This was around the time the Tories were engaged in a desperate search for an election-winning issue - gypsies one week, late-term abortion the next. Now, while overseas, I try to read as many different newspapers as possible. This was my chance to discover that the Daily Mail is basically the publishing arm of the Conservative Party - something which will be well-known to Britons, but which I discovered with surprise, outrage, and finally enormous amusement.
I brought home a big chunk of the 15 March 2005 DM, which devoted itself pages to the Tories' latest policy effort. ABORTION BECOMES ISSUE IN ELECTION, says much of the front page. ("Torch that can detect breast cancer", announces a banner at top, with a tasteful picture of a nude lady covering her nipple with a hand.) Four pages inside are devoted to the late-term abortion issue, including an entire page faux feminist column. A VITAL DEBATE, says her headline. No space whatsoever is given to dissenting views.
According to my scribbled notes, the same day's paper contains two anti-gay diatribes, the joyous tale of some poor bitch with five kids who's expecting triplets, children (saved from drowning, saved from meningitis), and grumbling about equal rights for de facto couples. In fact, what with the item on the glycaemic index and the breast cancer story, this might be the women's issue, except perhaps for the page 3 girl modelling lingerie on page 37. There's even a puff piece on a new vacuum cleaner, demonstrated by a happy housewife.
Do not try to eat a full English breakfast while reading this newspaper. Not even a vegetarian one. You'll laugh so hard baked beans will get everywhere.
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no subject
Date: 2005-08-31 05:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-31 05:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-31 09:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-31 05:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-31 08:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-31 09:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-31 09:49 am (UTC)There are tears of laughter trying to run down my face! (Fortunately, my contact lenses are absorbing them all.)
WILL GAYS DEFRAUD BRITAIN'S SWANS?
DOES CHERIE BLAIR SCROUNGE OFF HOMEOWNERS?
COULD GAYS SCROUNGE OFF THE MEMORY OF DIANA?
...I'll stop now
no subject
Date: 2005-08-31 06:37 pm (UTC)At what point can it be said that you've lost your BBC cherry?
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Date: 2005-09-02 12:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-31 11:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-31 03:36 pm (UTC)OMG teh pr0n *covers virgin eyes*