The Daily Mail Gets Honoured at the Press Awards But Who Won the Dress Awards?

Certainly not Paul Dacre! The 68-year-old father-of-two and editor of the Daily Mail wore a tired tuxedo as he picked up the Newspaper of the Year award at the National Press Awards this month.

Paley Male!

Nothing about Dacre’s look screamed “winner”. His black and white outfit was boring at best, with not a hint of colour or velvet. Husband of successful professor Kathleen Thomson, Paul looked washed out and pale, with a grey comb-over hairstyle that reeked of impotence and limp insecurity. Time to get himself some sunshine though it’ll be a long while before he’s beach-body ready!

Dacre, seen as the male Dawn Neesom, did try to turn heads with a flirtatious bowtie, hoping to emphasise a bulging Adam’s apple. Sadly it fell flat as his neck looked flabby and his bow was decidedly floppy.

Daily Mail Decision Fail

Dacre’s look was as stale as his paper and the biggest shock of the night was The Mail being celebrated as Newspaper of the Year. Who sort of judges could make such a decision after a year in which the Mail bullied and misled us over Brexit, treated refugees like a disease and trivialised women with a ferocity shown by this week’s front-page focus on Theresa May and Nicola Sturgeon’s legs rather than their Brexit policies?

 The judges for Newspaper of the Year Award were an interesting mix. It’s no surprise that Daily Mail contributor Lindsay Nicholson and former Daily Mail journalist and News of the World Editor Colin Myler backed the reactionary Mail. Even ex-communist Claire Fox has show Mail-mindedness when it comes to multiculturalism. Four other judges were members of the media establishment who apparently share a strange sense of their profession’s values – ex-editor of The Times Charles Wilson, Ben Preston of Radio Times, Peter Clifton of the Press Association and the broadcaster John Stapleton.

It’s the others who really amaze us. How could Amol Rajan, a migrant from India and former editor of The Independent, agree to reward the headline “Non-EU migrants take more than they put in”? What about Alan Johnson, a leading Labour Party Remainer, lending his name to a panel honouring the Nazi-echoing front page that branded Brexit judges “Enemies of the People”? Then there’s Tina Weaver, ex-editor of the left-leaning Sunday Mirror and the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire, who put their reputations behind a celebration of the paper that came up with the latest “Legs-it” sexist, offensive bullshit about May and Sturgeon.

Wily Words

What is wrong with these people? According to the panel, The Mail won because it “had its finger on the pulse of the national conversation”, was “a must-read” and its “strong and provocative voice never wavered”. There was no mention of its morality or reliability. The judges could have been reviewing fiction for all the references they made to accuracy or fairness.

In the end, it hasn’t raised the paper in my eyes. It’s just lessened my trust in the Society of Editors. The weakness of their decision was as obvious as Dacre’s bald-spot, forcing the judges to choose their words carefully when explaining their choice. Yes, the “provocative” Daily Mail does have “conviction”, “energy”, and “strong opinions” – but doesn’t every hate group?

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