The Daily Mail: A weekly edition of Mein Kampf.

I'm not sure who it was that gave me the title for this post, but it made me smile so I thought I'd use it. Maybe it's a small exaggeration, but the Mail is certainly no use for anything more than mopping up sick, and even then the sick would be disappointed to be associated with such a rag. In fact, I hate it so much that I'm even going to defend the Pope against what they've written (looking through some previous posts will tell you this definitely is not the norm for me).

So, what can a tabloid newspaper possibly have done to make me despise it so intently?

It's the intentional manipulation of facts they use to back up their views which are often racist, homophobic or just plain evil. No respectable journalist could work there without severely marring their reputation.

Here's a few examples. I'll start with there main headline from today's website:

'Pope likens the rise of atheism in Britain to the Nazis as he admits his 'shock and sadness' over abuse scandal' and the first line which says 'Benedict XVI, a former member of the Hitler Youth, warned Britain it must retain its respect for traditional values as he attacked the 'atheist extremism' seen in Nazi Germany.'

Now, two posts again I argued the Pope should be arrested and tried for his pivotal role in years of sex abuse, so evidently I'm no fan of Benedict XVI. But when there are so many good reasons to attack him, why would they choose to take his remarks completely out of context and smear him?

He did not liken Britain to Nazi Germany, or atheists for that matter, although he did attack 'militant atheists', a group I'd imagine I'd be included in despite having no militant tendencies whatsoever. The Mail seems to enjoy wheeling out the word Nazi whenever it wants to plump up a story. But then even worse is the mention of him being a member of the Hitler Youth, they don't say it directly, but I can only imagine it was intended as a smear. Yes, he was in the Hitler Youth, but like so many children of his generation it was not out of choice, he was forced into joining. For all his sins, being in the Hitler Youth was not one of his immoral actions.

So let's look at the front page, and the Mail seems to want it both ways as it says there is an 'athiest hate campaign led by Stephen Fry' and names the 'Left-wing chorus' who are 'spitting venom'. So in one breath it essentially labels the Pope a nazi, and then swiftly attacks those who were simply questioning whether we should be paying the bills for the visit of a man who in any real sense is not the head of any real state and is at the centre of a massive controversy? They had no problem with him coming to visit, just the fact that we were paying for his nice holiday.

Anyone who can attack Stephen Fry and label him a self-involved quiz master is clearly an idiot.

Now let's rifle through some other disgusting Mail examples (links are to the brilliant Left Foot Forward site which has kindly shown where and why the Mail is wrong):

• Completely twisting the figures to claim that millions of people who receive benefits are 'scrounging' and defrauding the country when in fact the vast majority of money wrongly handed out was due to system error, not fraud.
• Claiming immigration has risen while it has in fact being falling by twisting the data and including people who are clearly not immigrants in their figures.
• Portraying immigrants as animals in a cartoon.
• Suggesting Stephen Gateley's death was somehow related to him being in a civil partnership and that same sex couples are not as natural as opposite sex couples.

In the words of Stephen Fry:

'It is the final proof, if proof were needed, that the Daily Mail is not just actually wicked (intentionally, knowingly lying) but actually now quite, quite mad. In the name (it must suppose) of morality, spirituality, goodness, kindness, sweetness and honesty, it intentionally, knowingly twists, distorts, misrepresents, smears and calumniates.'

It's very sad that so many people choose to read a paper that will eventually poison there mind with lies and smears.

We'll know we live in a better society when papers like the Daily Mail disappear because no-one is longer willing to read their drivel.