This blog is not given to media criticism – meaning discussion
and analysis of how news organizations are covering a particular story. There are several reasons.
First, it just seems like kicking someone when they’re down. It’s also out of
recognition of the incredibly wide variety of potential meanings and purposes that “news” may fulfill: No matter how irrelevant or trivial a story may seem, chances are someone has some
use for the information it contains.
But there are limits, and those limits were reached and transgressed this week by the Daily Mail, a British tabloid that may have unwittingly
penned the epitaph for democracy with a headline so contemptible it might qualify as self-parody. If the “self” in question wasn’t the Daily Mail.
Like many
other British newspapers, highbrow to low, the cover of Daily Mail’s Tuesday edition was devoted to an important meeting between British Prime Minister Theresa May and Scottish First
Minister Nicola Sturgeon. At it, the leaders grappled with thorny issues regarding Britain’s impending departure from the European Union, which has triggered calls for a second referendum on
Scottish independence.
advertisement
advertisement
In short, May and Sturgeon were discussing very weighty issues that concern the future of millions of Britons, including many readers of the Daily Mail. If
nothing else, the end of the 300-year-old United Kingdom might mean cumbersome border control and customs duties for English holiday-makers visiting Scotland — not to mention all the potential
economic impacts of Brexit.
What the Daily Mail chose to focus on, however, was the fact that May and Sturgeon are both women — who have legs. The cover photo, showing both
leaders wearing nylons or silk stockings, was accompanied by the headline: “Never mind Brexit, who won Legs-it!”
Let’s set aside the egregious sexism of the headline.
Calling the cover sexist is like calling Hitler irritable — in order to concentrate on the flippant, pandering idiocy with which Britain’s largest newspaper is covering the likely
breakup of its own country.
And to be clear, this isn’t just about one country splitting up. The world’s oldest surviving voluntary political union, it helped lay the groundwork
for the British Empire, thus shaping the modern world. It later came to serve as a model for other countries devolving powers to local and regional authorities.
Above all, it held out hope
that different peoples could live together in relative harmony under a common democratic government — a key tenet of the old liberal worldview, now on the defensive in so many quarters.
Brexit and “Scoxit,” if it happens, may well usher in a new age of closed borders, economic protectionism and splintering states – for example Belgium and Spain both face internal
secessionist movements. Plus, there are still powder kegs across the Balkans and Eastern Europe, which could easily explode with renewed ethnic violence.
But according to Britain’s most
popular newsletter, “Never mind Brexit, who won Legs-it!”
On top of all that, it’s a crap pun.