Adam Withrington: Read my lips. No more hack jobs!
Here are two headlines:
1. The Carnage continues: Another 1,000 students take part in a drink-fuelled bar crawl as police say they are powerless to stop it
2. Carnage night passes without trouble
These are two real headlines reporting on the same student night - one published on November 12, the other on November 11.
Let's pull out a couple of quotes
1. "Outrageous binge drinking students were at it again last night as yet another 1,000 revellers spilled out on to the streets for the latest Carnage UK event."
2. "The name Carnage conjures up images of intoxicated youngsters falling over, vomiting, fighting, or performing lewd acts in public, and although I feared the worst in reality the night was much tamer than was expected."
One was written by those good people at the Daily Mail - the other by local newspaper the Norwich Evening News.
I'll give you all the money in my bank account if you can guess which one was the Daily Mail…
Wasn't hard was it? (And as for payment. the joke's on you as I'm overdrawn). Yes it looks like the Mail is back on its over-blown anti-drinking crusade. God help us all - the nutters are back.
To be honest it takes me back to our "Say No to the Daily Mail" campaign three years ago. It was launched after a relentless period of negative and vicious headlines and stories appeared in the newspaper, warning readers that 24 hour drinking would soon be upon us; leading, inevitably, to the end of moral standards in our nation.
As a journalist it was great thing to be involved in - a big issue, with big names, standing up against arrogance, pomposity and hugely poor standards of journalism.
I remember a two week period where there was huge anticipation and buzz coming into the office each day, waiting to open the Mail. Highlighter pens would be worn down to a nub, scoring through paragraphs, columns and pages of uninformed, badly researched and under-attributed garbage. Taking the Mail on at times in that campaign was like shooting fish in a barrel: easy and a lot of fun.
But lately the Mail has been laying off pubs - perhaps they came to their senses and realised that there were more important things to focus on. Or maybe Gordon Brown moving into Number 10 took the heat off.
Well, until Carnage-gate.
What is so deeply angering about the Mail's stance is level of hypocrisy. Editor-in-chief Paul Dacre has stood up against binge-drinking and problem drinking many times, both in print and in speeches. And yet the paper runs adverts from supermarkets almost weekly, showcasing cut-price deals.
And not only that, it is the totally unnecessary level of menace they bring to the debate. Perhaps the Carnage nights are irresponsible. And as such they should be criticised for undermining industry attempts to create a more responsible retail environment.
But read the Mail's account and you swear you can hear that evil background music that film director's use when the serial killer walks on screen. Society is obviously about to end.
Do I exaggerate? Back to our Daily Mail reporter:
"An intoxicated young woman in hot pants is bending over to retch and simultaneously be groped by a male undergraduate, who she may well not know. Others are simply in a state of alcoholic collapse. Police, stewards and a medical team lurk nearby."
And now to a quote from the local police in the Norwich Evening News report
"Inspector Michelle Lillie of the University and Eaton ward said: 'We have had no reports of any problems and no-one has been arrested. It's quite noisy but it's a good natured noisiness. It seems to have gone fine at the moment. Everyone has linked in - us, the organisers and the licensees.'"
The Daily Mail is as usual creating a hype. But how is it helping to tackle the binge-drinking problem that exists in the UK? How is it helping us face up to societal problems? It isn't. It is just using scare stories to sell newspapers. And once again it is aiming fire solely at the on-trade.
It might be time to dust down an old campaign idea…
