A letter from the Press Complaints Commission arrived in the post yesterday. Glen wrote to them following their anti-gay adoption articles in early April arguing that the Daily Mail had implied that the children in question had been taken away from their mother for the purpose of being placed with a gay couple. They wrote to explain that they had assessed Glen’s complaint and decided that there was no breach of the Code of Practice. Apparently they think it’s regrettable that the distinction between the processes of removing and placing a child had not been made clearer, but they didn’t think that what the Daily Mail had printed was likely to mislead its readers. Glen was furious, but accepted the decision.
With perfect timing, this afternoon we saw the articles in today’s Daily Mail. Now they have taken offence at the fact that The Pink Guide to Adoption (published by BAAF) refers to people who are against gay adoption as “retarded homophobes”. Needless to say, they must feel alluded to. Once again, there’s an article and a commentary. And once again, the worst thing of all is the comments that their readers (you know, the ones who aren’t being misled according to the Press Complaints Commission) have left.
The article
The comment from the Daily Mail
In fairness, the words in the BAAF book are unfortunate and probably borne of frustration. But the Daily Mail’s response of referring to the BAAF as “The Adoption Nazis” surely is worse than being called a retarded homophobe?
BBC 3 Counties radio had a slot about the issue this afternoon. Simon, a gay adopter who appeared on the programme, did a very good job of providing a positive angle on the story.
Listen here (for a limited time only). The interview starts around minute 36.
Thursday, 14 May 2009
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2 comments:
Just stumbled on your blog and have found it really interesting - good luck with everything, you sound like you'd make great parents.
The funny thing about this is that if you go towards the bottom of this article:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1062292/LITTLEJOHN-Zippo-Clown-Trumpet-Taliban.html
you see Littlejohn basically saying that Gordon Brown is a 'retard'.
Really, really sad that the paper can print rubbish like this, but even worse that some people believe it. And you're absolutely right, calling someone a 'Nazi' is much worse than calling someone a retard.
Hi Andy, thank you for your nice comments.
Surely you're not implying in your post that Mr Littlejohn is a hypocrite? : )
Like you say, it's all very sad, but unfortunately true. If you listen to the BBC feature I posted, you'll hear a woman express her view that a child brought up in a gay household will turn gay. The thing is, being brought up my heterosexual parents didn't make me a heterosexual...
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