Monday 26 September 2011

Craftiness from CAMRA or Daily Mail being it's usual vile self?

You may have noticed that I am not CAMRA's number one fan. The dogmatism, the prickliness, the thinly-veiled politics, the intransigence, the self-congratulation: you get the picture.

Nor am I a fan of the Daily Mail. The lies, the distortions, the misinformation, the racism, the bigotry, the homophobia, the misquotation, the sexism, the abuse, the entirely unveiled politics. They are all thoroughly taken apart by my favourite non-beer blogs: Tabloid Watch, Press Not SorryAngry Mob, Enemies of Reason, Liberal Conspiracy, Five Chinese Crackers, Buff the Banana and Mail Watch.


I know it's not good for my blood pressure, but I regularly scan the outpourings of both CAMRA and the Daily Mail.

Yesterday the Daily Mail ran a non-story about a non-contoversy (nothing unusual in that) about the Good Pub Guide charging pubs for listings. This isn't news. The DM's rubbish "story" also contradicts its previous glowing coverage of the Good Pub Guide.


The story is here. I've saved it for all time in Freezepage as the DM does have a habit of disappearing stories from its website when commenters point out glaring wrongnesses.

The interesting bit is the penultimate paragraph:


Could this keen pub-goer be the Iain Loe who is CAMRA's Research Manager and National Spokesperson? CAMRA are, of course, publishers of the Good Pub Guide's arch-rival the Good Beer Guide.

I suspect this lack of honesty is the fault of the Daily Mail. It has a history of lazy and feckless journalism and non-existant fact-checking all for the sake of whipping up its readers into false rages.

I suspect – and hope – Iain Loe and all at St Albans HQ are furious that the Daily Mail has brought their integrity into question.