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Westminster Refuses To Criticze Daily Mail's "Legs-It" Photo Of Sturgeon & May
Topic Started: Mar 28 2017, 01:35 PM (17 Views)
Webster
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(The Guardian) No 10 refuses to criticise Daily Mail's sexist 'Legs-it' May/Sturgeon coverage
--At today’s Number 10 lobby briefing the prime minister’s spokesman refused to comment on the Daily Mail’s sexist “Legs-it” front page.

--PM spokesman on Mail: "You would not expect me to comment on what newspapers should or should not put on their front pages." (Anushka Asthana, The Guardian - 28 March 2017)

The Labour MP Michael Dugher (who used to work as press spokesman at Number 10 when Gordon Brown was prime minister, but as a political one, not a civil service one), said this was unacceptable.

--Isn't it routinely the job of the PM's spokespeople to comment on what's on the front of newspapers? How can the PM have no view on sexism? (Michael Dugher, Labour MP for Barnsley East - 28 march 2017)

It is not entirely irrelevant that the prime minister’s new press secretary is one James Slack, who used to work - for the Daily Mail.

But equally, it would be a mistake to read too much into this. Downing Street has been refusing to criticise the Daily Mail for years, long before Slack joined the team. For example, when the Mail published an article saying Ed Miliband’s father hated Britain (which he didn’t), Cameron would not join the chorus of politicians criticising it. And last year, when the Mail published its “enemies of the people” splash headline about the judges how ruled against the government over article 50, May refused to condemn it.
-Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/mar/28/daily-mail-legs-it-front-page-sexist
-Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/28/daily-mail-legs-it-front-page-theresa-may-nicola-sturgeon
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Webster
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(The Guardian) Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, said the Daily Mail’s Mail/Sturgeon splash today was the sort of thing that would deter women from going into politics.

You’ve got two of the most senior politicians in the country, two very important politicians. The idea that we are talking about their legs beggars belief.

What sort of message does that send to girls, young women, thinking about starting a career in politics if we are talking about their legs rather than their views on important matters?

You compare and contrast photographs of Boris Johnson and David Cameron - nobody comments on the trousers they’re wearing or their legs.

I want to judge Nicola Sturgeon and Theresa May on their politics, their values and their vision, rather than their legs.
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Webster
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Posted Image
--Apparently, some mild interest in politicians' legs today; here are mine. They're a bit short. But with a lovely Aboyne vista here. #Legs-it (Ruth Davidson, Ldr. of the Scottish Conservative Party - 28 March 2017)
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Webster
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--Daily Mail spokesman: "Has a po-faced BBC & left-wing commentariat, so obsessed by the Daily Mail, lost all sense of humour… and proportion?" (Chris Mason, BBC News - 28 March 2017)
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Webster
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(The Guardian) Sarah Vine's World at One interview
--Sarah Vine, the Daily Mail columnist (and wife of Michael Gove), is on the World at One talking about her paper’s “Legs-it” coverage of Theresa May and Nicola Sturgeon. Vine wrote the inside article headed (in the paper edition): “Finest weapons at their command? Their pins!”

Q: Are you surprised by how much attention this attracted?
Vine asks if people have had “a slight sense of humour failure”. The paper wrote lots of serious stuff about the meeting too, she says.

Q: But a third of pages six and seven are about the talks, two thirds is about the legs.
Vine says she does not just talk about the legs. She is talking about how they are sitting.

Q: Is this as important as the break up of the UK?
Vine says how they relate to each other could affect the break-up of the UK. We are a tabloid newspaper and this is what we do. The serious coverage may be quite dry, she says. She says the picture is worth commenting on.
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Webster
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(The Guardian) Daily Mail refuses to apologise and tells 'po-faced' leftwingers to get a sense of humour
--Here is the Daily Mail’s response to the row about the story in full. This is from a spokesperson for the paper. For goodness sake, get a life! Sarah Vine’s piece, which was flagged as light-hearted, was a side-bar alongside a serious political story. It appeared in an 84-page paper packed with important news and analysis, a front page exclusive on cost-cutting in the NHS and a health supplement devoted to women’s health issues.

For the record, the Mail was the paper which, more than any other, backed Theresa May for the top job. Again for the record, we often comment on the appearance of male politicians including Cameron’s waistline, Osborne’s hair, Corbyn’s clothes – and even Boris’s legs. Is there a rule that says political coverage must be dull or has a po-faced BBC and leftwing commentariat, so obsessed by the Daily Mail, lost all sense of humour … and proportion?
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Webster
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(The Guardian) Sturgeon accuses Mail of taking UK 'back to the early 1970s'
--Nicola Sturgeon has chided the Daily Mail for “taking Britain back to the early 1970s” after it ran a widely condemned front page article in its English editions focusing on her and the prime minister’s legs and dress.

Alongside a posed photograph of the two leaders before they opened talks on Brexit and Scotland the headline ran: “Never mind Brexit, who won Legs-it!” The Mail’s editors in Scotland ran a very different headline: “Oh so frosty! Secrets of Nicola and PM’s talk-in.”

Sturgeon refused to fuel the row by responding on Twitter, but her spokesman said:

It is slightly surprising that when the first minister of Scotland and the prime minister of the UK meet to discuss the key issues of the UK’s departure from the EU and giving the people of Scotland a choice over their future that the main focus should be on their legs and what they are wearing. Brexit may risk taking Britain back to the early 1970s, but there is no need for coverage of events to lead the way.
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Webster
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(The Guardian) Green party submits complaint about Daily Mail to Ipso
--Amelia Womack, the Green party’s deputy leader, has submitted a complaint to the Independent Press Standards Organisation about the Daily Mail’s coverage of Theresa May and Nicola Sturgeon today. Her letter says: I wish to make a complaint under the editors’ code of practice relating to the Daily Mail’s coverage on March 28 of a meeting between Nicola Sturgeon and Theresa May.

The coverage breaches clause 12 as the women are being discriminated against due to their gender.

To bring the politicians’ appearance into this story is not only entirely irrelevant but incredibly disrespectful.

This headline and the further derogatory comments inside the paper would not have even been considered, let alone published, if the two politicians in question had been men.
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Webster
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--The Mail's "light-hearted side-bar alongside serious political story in an 84-page paper" a bit disingenuous as #legsit fills front page (Jane Martinson, The Guardian - 28 March 2017)
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