Comments on: Why councils must ban the Daily Mail!

By: Philip Hunt

Philip Hunt — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 17:53:55 +0000

I make it 23 seconds a day, assuming the employees work an average of 20 days a month. I don’t see where the 11 second figure comes from.

By: D-Notice

D-Notice — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 09:03:38 +0000

I’ve just asked the following councils:

LB Tower Hamlets
City of London
LB Merton
LB Newham
LB Wandsworth

By: Clifford Singer

Clifford Singer — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 08:09:49 +0000

I only asked two questions:

1) How many times was Mail Online website (all urls beginning http://www.dailymail.co.uk) accessed by council staff during the months of June, July and August 2009?

2) What length of time did council staff spend accessing the Mail Online website during the months of June, July and August 2009?

And I’ve sent requests to:

Westminster City Council
Hampshire County Council
Hackney Borough Council
Essex County Council
Portsmouth City Council
Birmingham City Council

By: sunny hundal

sunny hundal — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 21:25:27 +0000

Plan being hatched to find how much time ppl are wasting reading Daily Mail website. See: http://is.gd/3FJjF - want to join in?

[Original tweet]

By: Sim-O

Sim-O — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:47:51 +0000

I’ve done the local ones I can remember:

Vale of White Horse

Oxfordshire County council

Oxford City council

Abingdon Town Council.

See this post. Nothing juicy in it, I’m afraid.

By: Daily Mail/ Councils FOI requests | Sim-O

Daily Mail/ Councils FOI requests | Sim-O — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:30:42 +0000

[...] of an idea in the comments of this post on Liberal Conspiracy, I fired a few FOI requests to [...]

By: Mr Tyke

Mr Tyke — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 19:46:37 +0000

to Paul @ 29

What is elitist about that? I am not leaping to any conclusions. All the papers and TV news shows should be compared against each other for accuracy. My point is that you do not like the conclusions that the Daily Mail comes to or the editorial line that it takes. I don’t much either and I do not read it for that reason, but it is a publication subject to the same laws on libel as any other. If they make a material error in their reporting they have to deal with that. If they draw a conclusion you disagree with, you have to deal with that.

By: Sunny H

Sunny H — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 17:52:39 +0000

Which local councils have you folks written to?

Just so we don’t duplicate this… we need people to take about 5 councils each from a list, and send off requests.. and then let us know when it’s done.

By: Paul Evans

Paul Evans — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 17:47:34 +0000

I guess that I must be a bit arrogant to just leap to the elitist conclusion that the Daily Mail isn’t directly comparable to, say, the BBC or the FT for accuracy.

Sorry to disappoint you.

By: No Facebook in the Dinosaurs’ Den | ToUChstone blog: A public policy blog from the TUC

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:30:21 +0000

[...] 25 Sep: Clifford Singer has the logical follow-up to this story – ban the Daily Mail at work now! Related posts (automatically generated):Flexibilising inflexible bossesFlexible working [...]

By: Sim-O

Sim-O — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:42:14 +0000

RT @pickledpolitics: Plan being hatched to find how much time ppl are wasting on Daily Mail website: http://is.gd/3FJjF - want to join in?

[Original tweet]

By: Mr Tyke

Mr Tyke — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:33:14 +0000

lol! and I thought it was lefties who has no sense of humour

What you mean, Paul Evans et al, is that the Daily Mail doesn’t report the facts as you see them or the “truth” as you believe it to be. That’s pretty arrogant don’t you think? Maybe, and I ask this in a devil’s advocate sort of way, they have a point and are actually right and it is you who have it wrong? I don’t personally read the paper as it is a tad reactionary and full of stories I have no interest in.

Incidentally, there is a game played on Facebook, the object of which is to create Daily Mail headlines by each player supplying one word at a time. http://www.facebook.com/groups.php?ref=sb#/topic.php?uid=2205128322&topic=3238

Hmmm Chavez and Merkle? Which one is Livingston’s buddy?

By: sunny hundal

sunny hundal — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:25:27 +0000

Plan being hatched to find how much time ppl are wasting reading Daily Mail website. See: http://is.gd/3FJjF - want to join in?

[Original tweet]

By: Ryan rae

Ryan rae — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:07:26 +0000

Poor old Mr Tyke he has no sense of humour.
Too busy fighting evil Christian democrats and their socialist agenda’s.
You never see Chavez and Merkel in the same room. I wonder why ?

By: Resources and Links 25/09/09 « Framing the Dot

Resources and Links 25/09/09 « Framing the Dot — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:19:05 +0000

[...] tangled web of Facebook, local government and the Daily [...]

By: Daniel Hoffmann-Gill

Daniel Hoffmann-Gill — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 08:53:59 +0000

I’m with Sim-O.

By: Alex Beaumont

Alex Beaumont — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 08:38:46 +0000

Ban the Daily Mail from council offices! http://tinyurl.com/ydbubak

[Original tweet]

By: adam

adam — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 07:22:14 +0000

Agreed, this is something I’d love to know too. I’m sure, obviously, that the Mail would using all-”British” staff at all levels…right?

So, how do we go about finding out?

By: Alex Beaumont

Alex Beaumont — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 01:38:46 +0000

Ban the Daily Mail from council offices! http://tinyurl.com/ydbubak

[Original tweet]

By: Justin

Justin — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:55:14 +0000

Why councils must ban the Daily Mail: http://bit.ly/jCNOV. Comment #11 = win. Courtesy of @Jocorrigan.

[Original tweet]

By: Bob B

Bob B — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:49:13 +0000

That should raise public spending by several notches. I expect the Pound will depreciate a bit more tomorrow.

By: Sim-O

Sim-O — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:46:21 +0000

Just fired off a few FOI requests to a few local councils via http://www.whatdotheyknow.com

I don’t know if I’ve used accurate enough language or not but the wording was:

Could you please let me know the following information:

– What are the top 10 websites visited by *A Council* staff during the months of June, July and August 2009.

– How many many minutes were spent on each site during the above months.

– How many people does the *A Council* employ.

– How many times the Daily Mail website (any URL beginning http://dailymail.co.uk) was accessed in the above months if not in the top ten.

Bang goes any semblance of anonymity I thought I had if they get a proper response.

By: Dave Chapman

Dave Chapman — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:51:59 +0000

RT @mailwatch Liberal Conspiracy: Why councils must ban the Daily Mail http://is.gd/3DGAc

[Original tweet]

By: mailwatch

mailwatch — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:43:11 +0000

Liberal Conspiracy: Why councils must ban the Daily Mail http://is.gd/3DGAc

[Original tweet]

By: Paul Evans

Paul Evans — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:40:39 +0000

“It was a joke.”

Awww!

There’s an argument for blocking newspaper sites that don’t meet any standards of accuracy. If a public employee is reading the Mail, they’re almost certainly Wasting Taxpayers Money whereas if they’re reading something a bit more worthy, it’s probably because they have to in order to keep up with their job.