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As a result of a social media campaign, last week makers of the famous geek-popular toy highly sophisticated inter-locking brick system the Lego Group has stopped giving away polybags with print copies of the Daily Mail, something it has done for years in occasional promotions.
The Daily Mail is frequently criticised for its right-wing stance and critics often claim that many of the stories are either inaccurate or utterly fabricated, as the quote below from the " Stop Funding Hate" campaign shows:
While I disagree with their political stand I can accept their right to have it. But lately their headlines have gone beyond offering a right wing opinion. Headlines that do nothing but create distrust of foreigners, blame immigrants for everything, and as of yesterday are now having a go at top judges in the U.K. for being gay while making a legal judgment.
Another article from The Independent has more background.
Lego spokesperson Roar Rude Trangbaek told The Independent: "We spend a lot of time listening to what children have to say. And when parents and grandparents take the time to let us know how they feel, we always listen just as carefully.
"[...] The agreement with The Daily Mail has finished and we have no plans to run any promotional activity with the newspaper in the foreseeable future."
Other targets of "Stop Funding Hate" include John Lewis, Waitrose, and Marks & Spencer.
Is this a case of the liberal left shouting and screaming to enforce a kind of corporate self-censorship, or simply free markets and freedom of speech working together as they should?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 19 2016, @04:44PM
They could ask their readers to pay for it. Or attract advertisers that match their editorial stance.
Being dependent on ad revenue from companies that consistently cannot (publicly) support their articles was the Daily Mail's business decision, blaming others to try to silence them when they chose a way to finance themselves that is not compatible with what they want to write seems rather funny to me.
A newspaper that wants to be able to write whatever it wants needs to find someone willing to pay them no matter what they write. There is no way to avoid that basic truth.
I also believe that to mean that anyone who wants an independent press should be paying at least one newspaper. And preferably one that empasizes more on publishing what is interesting to its readers than publishing what is convenient to them/matches their opinions.