Fisking Paperchase

Here is some light fisking of the apology issued on social media by Paperchase who abandoned a promotion with the Daily Mail in response to a campaign group "Stop Funding Hate" (SFH)

According to Guido Fawkes' blog, SFH’s stated aim is to “take on the divisive hate campaigns of the Sun, Daily Mail and Daily Express by persuading advertisers to pull their support”

I frequently disagree with things written in the Sun, the Daily Mail and the Daily express - even more frequently than I disagree with things written in the Times, Telegraph or FT and nearly as often as I disagree with things written in the Daily Mirror or the Guardian.

But if I tried to cause financial harm to any or all of the above newspapers every time one of them published something which I strongly disagree with, I would be undermining democracy and free speech in this country. And so are SFH.

So here is my response to the Paperchase apology.

 Paperchase: "We’ve listened to you about this weekend’s newspaper promotion."

CJW: "No you didn't. You listened to a bunch of anti-free-speech cranks who do not represent me."

 Paperchase: "We now know we were wrong to do this -

CJW: "You did nothing wrong by running a promotion with a national newspaper and I have no problem with your listening to - I just mean listening to - SFH. Everyone is entitled to express their opinions, including SFH. But in my opinion you were wrong to accede to their blackmail."

Paperchase: "we’re truly sorry and we won’t ever do it again."

 CJW: "You should be sorry for giving in to blackmail, not for running the campaign. But if you imagine you can run a business without ever again placing an advert which anti-free-speech campaigns like SFH will take exception to - especially now you have proven you can be bullied into changing your policies - you are nearly as remote from reality as they are."

 Paperchase: "Thanks for telling us what you really think"

 CJW: "You're welcome."

Paperchase: and we apologise if we have let you down on this one.

CJW: "You have indeed let us down. When you apologise for giving in to SFH I will be happy to accept your apology."

Paperchase: "Lesson learnt."

 CJW: "I wish."

In the words most often attributed to Voltaire,


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