Friday, October 16, 2009

Jan Moir in the Daily Mail: sickening homophobia

We said it last week: anti-gay propaganda is back at the top of the Mail agenda.

Since Stephen Gately's death last week, the Daily Mail has been desperately trying to dig up some dirt.

In spite of official confirmations that the Boyzone star died of natural causes, the Mail has decided that the unfortunate death of an innocent 33-year-old man is fair game (see, for instance, Paul Scott's unashamed hatchet job the day after Gately's death).

The lowest point was hit today by Jan Moir with her article "Why there was nothing natural about Stephen Gately's death" [UPDATE: 2pm- the headline's now been switched into something more tame], where this overpaid food obsessive uses a personal tragedy to lash out at civil partnerships and sexual minorities. Look at this bit here (our emphasis):

"Another real sadness about Gately's death is that it strikes another blow to the happy-ever-after myth of civil partnerships. Gay activists are always calling for tolerance and understanding about same-sex relationships, arguing that they are just the same as heterosexual marriages. Not everyone, they say, is like George Michael.

Of course, in many cases this may be true. Yet the recent death of Kevin McGee, the former husband of Little Britain star Matt Lucas, and now
the dubious events of Gately's last night raise troubling questions about what happened. It is important that the truth comes out about the exact circumstances of his strange and lonely death.

As a gay rights champion, I am sure he would want to set an example to
any impressionable young men who may want to emulate what they might see as his glamorous routine. For once again, under the carapace of glittering, hedonistic celebrity, the ooze of a very different and more dangerous lifestyle has seeped out for all to see".


How do you call that? This venomous vulture takes two tragic cases: a young man who died in his sleep and another who hanged himself, to give off the most homophobic shit ever written in about a decade. What on earth has their sexuality got to do with their "hedonistic lifestyle", let alone their death?

How obnoxious would it be if, the day after Jan Moir finally pops her clogs, opinion columnists start pontificating about "the dangerous lifestyle" of eating too much and earning too much money for writing shit articles in tabloids?

Is Jan Moir really that dense not to register that scores of heterosexual celebrities engage in the same "hedonistic lifestyle" she stupidly assumes Stephen Gately and Kevin McGee were leading?

And yet she should know better. Half of what her newspaper is about is that sort of sordid stuff. The Kerry Katonas and the Jordans, the Amy Winehouses and the Russell Brands, the Ashley Coles and the Steve Joneses...Or how about the list of heterosexual celebs who killed themselves? What stuff are you on, Jan Moir, to be capable of writing such a low, vile, judgemental little story in the wake of not one, but two personal tragedies?

How can such levels of intolerance be printed on one of Britain's most popular brands of arse paper a mere two days after the news of yet another homophobic murder in London?

Is there a limit to the shameful, distasteful, hate-soaked drivel the Daily Mail can put into print?

Also on the subject. The Daily Quail: "Do you know any straight people under the age of 50 who are dead? I don't";
Not so wunderbar: "Why There Is Nothing Natural About Jan Moir's Weird Face".

11 comments:

Cheney said...

Excellent article.
That woman has no shame. No respect. No sense of grieving. No sense full stop.
I wanted to point readers towards this article about Jan Moir's piece as well.

Rachael said...

I couldn't agree more, it's a disgrace and she should be bloody ashamed. Although, I suspect the level of hatred is something the Daily Fail will revel in therefore propelling Ms Moir in to stardom much like that other cretinous creature Liz Jones.

Anita said...

Please leave a complaint at the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) website. This is the page. It takes 5 minutes.

Jan Moir's article is in obvious breach of the PCC Code of Practice:

Clause 1 - Accuracy ("inaccurate, misleading or distorted information");

Clause 5 -"intrusion into grief or shock";

Clause 12 -"pejorative reference to an individual's sexual orientation".

Jenny from Leicester said...

This is ugly, nasty journalism. Full of innuendo and cheap digs. I'm really disgusted with Moir's spinning of this issue. No I'm not some hedonist either, I'm a respectable woman in my 60s and lots of my friends and colleagues feel the same way.

Johnny T said...

Smashing. Let's just hope that when Ms Moir kicks the bucket the other tabloids start speculating about how unhealthy she was all along. The bars of chocolate; the lack of sex; the excess bile; the perfidious influence of her employer.

Daniel Hoffmann-Gill said...

Haven't you hears how Jan Moir sucks off parrots and gargles their spunk before spitting into, snow ball style, the mouth of a dead pig?

socialist sam said...

Apparently Moir issued a statement sticking to her guns. Not only is she a bigot, but she's arrogant too!

HarpyMarx said...

Excellent stuff Claude! Words fail me how homophobic and contemptible this Jan Moir is.

As you say, "What the hell has their sexuality got to do with their "hedonistic lifestyle", let alone their death?"

I read one of the first reports (can't recall journos name) about the death of Stephen Gately in the Daily Hate, most of the papers presented it in a factual way yet the Hate stooped so low with its moralistic, homophobic and lecturing tone. So it seems that Moir continued the homophobic venom.
Shame on the reactionaries!

Metrodeco said...

This morning Brighton's Nikki Bayley (@nikkib on Twitter) made one of the first complaints in the country about the Daily Mail's vile columnist Jan Moir and here cowardly homophobic attack on Stephen Gately. Here's the Press Complaints Commission's response http://tiny.cc/aPipa

Stan Moss said...

I'm about to change a pesky light bulb. Thank god I'm hetero because if I died from a lethal electrocution people like Jan Moir would say I snuffed it because I'm gay.

Hussy said...

jan moir has started a penance blog. ccould you put a link in?

http://jan-moir-daily-mail.tumblr.com/

thanks