Please don't buy the News of the World.

I'm asking you this, due to a article that appeared in the newspaper by Carol Malone. To the Cumbrian people, and to local families affected by the recent shootings, she was insensitive to say the least.

The News of the World must sack her before we will pick up the dirty rag again.
Please tell your friends not to buy it.

You can read her full article here.



I'm, along with a number of other people, are urging people to write off to the Press Complaints Commission regarding her article. You can make a complaint about the article here: http://www.pcc.org.uk/complaints/form.html

Please read through the PCC code of practice to make your complaint:
http://www.pcc.org.uk/cop/practice.html


Here's my complaint in full:

Dear Sir, I'm writing to you today to complain about a article that appeared in the News of The World, dated 6th June 2010. The article was written by Caroline Malone. I've extracted sections of the story that I object to, along with my concerns.

The article, on a whole has been written as fact. However, the vast majority of reporting is speculation, which is misleading to the reader and distorts the facts of the day. The lack of sympathy and discretion of Ms. Malone, while making enquiries, and her intrusion into the lives of those grieving oversteps the mark of common deceny and flies in the face of the code of practice of the Press Complainst Commission.

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Quote 1:
"FIRST it was incredulity. Now it's anger. Raw anger. The people of Cumbria are raging - yet their anger isn't directed at Derrick Bird. At least not yet. For now it's directed at a world that has suddenly and without warning invaded their lives, a world that is shining an unwelcome light on them at a time when they are scared and vulnerable and confused."

Concern 1:
As a Cumbrian, I have no complaint with the outside world. I do have concerns over press intrusion during a very difficult period.


Quote 2:
"It's as if Derrick Bird is their shame, their failure and they want to deal with it privately in their own time. These proud working class communities don't want to grieve, to heal themselves with the world looking on - judging them, judging Derrick. More importantly they don't want to admit they may, in some way, have failed him. How couldn't they have seen his anger, his paranoia, his pain?"

Concern 2:
Derrick Bird is not our shame and to suggest this is disgusting. Derrick Bird brought shame onto himself as a result of his actions. The Cumbrian people have not failed him. Support services did not fail him - how could they know that he, or anyone else was to carry out what he did on that fateful day. To blame the Cumbrian people for not seeing his "anger, his paranoia, his pain" is disgusting.


Quote 3:
"Because even though the bloody reality of what happened is there for them all to see, these are people in denial."

Concern 3:
We are not in denial. What happened, happened. It was out of our control, and everyone elses. To suggest that we are in denial, when she blatently doesn't know us is reporting at it's worst.


Quote 4:
"Because the Derrick Bird THEY knew could never have done these terrible things. The Derrick they knew couldn't have looked into the eyes of defenceless women and pensioners and blown their faces off."

Concern 4:
Due to the emotional nature of the events on the 2nd, it is not appropriate to use language, such as, "defenceless women and pensioners and blown their faces off" - especially in a newspaper touted as a family newspaper!


Quote 5:
"Some might even have yearned for a bit of excitement, believing their lives to be a bit boring."

Concern 5:
To suggest that we wanted this to happen, because our lives are boring is again disgusting and unwarranted.


Quote 6:
"Are you family?" one of them asked politely. I said I was not. "Then you have no business here," she said, turning her back to me. And as she did, I saw an elderly lady in their group quietly weeping. Maybe she WAS family. Or maybe, like everyone else, she was just overwhelmed. Either way, her pain was raw and her friends comforted her - and then each other.

Concern 6:
Press intrusion during the events of the 2nd June have overstepped the mark. Approaching mourning families during a time like this is press intrusion at it's worst.


Quote 7:
"But looking at David Bird's beautiful house nestling in its private road, with green fields and rolling hills in the distance it's not hard to see why his brother had grown resentful."

Concern 7:
This is pure speculation on the part of Ms. Malone. This is speculation, written as fact.


Quote 8:
"The brothers might have started out as equals but life drove a whopping great wedge between them - a wedge that left David with a life his down-at-heel brother could only dream of. Which is why over the years Derrick's jealousy festered, together with his sense of failure and growing resentment towards his mother Mary, who he believed favoured David over him. Derrick had come to believe David's very existence was a symbol of his own failure and so last Wednesday he terminated that existence - and the killing spree started."

Concern 8:
This is pure speculation on the part of Ms. Malone. This is speculation, written as fact.


Quote 9:
"Just two minutes before he died Darren had been in their shop, as he was every day, buying a cuppa. Minutes later he was lying just a few feet away with his face shot off."

Concern 9:
Information regaring the injury is too graphic and pure specualtion as cornoner reports have not yet been released.


Quote 10:
"And where once tourists would come to see the scenery, now they'll come to gawp at Derrick Bird's killing fields.

Concern 10:
Again, this is speculation, written as fact.


Quote 11:
"A lethal combination of circumstances, frustrations and resentments came together in a seething hot cauldron of emotions - and out of it came the grotesque spectre of a man who mutated into a cold-blooded assassin devoid of conscience and humanity."

Concern 11:
How Ms. Malone can know the state of mind of Derrick Bird is beyond comprehension. This is speculation, written as fact.

I don't feel a "well done" Sean is appropriate under the circumstances & subject matter but I totally agree with all the above & I myself will take time to read the full article & then take it from there. Ms Malone has proved herself to be totally insensitive & unprofessional by her comments, perhaps she should engage her brain before putting her mouth in gear in future!!

I can't remember the last time that she engaged her brain before opening her gob. Why they employ her is beyond me. She is a complete waste of space.

i think its more than unsensitive!

"Just two minutes before he died Darren had been in their shop, as he was every day, buying a cuppa. Minutes later he was lying just a few feet away with his face shot off."

with his face shot off? how nice must this be for the familes of the people that were killed to be reading!

I know Jade - it's disgusting.

I've had a reply from the Press Complaints Commission telling me that a case worker has been assigned. I'm not expecting anything to come from this. The PCC are paid for by the newspapers!

I have read part of the piece i am seething that she could put something like that in the paper.I have never liked her she should put an apology in the paper to all the families and people of Cumbria and she should get the sack.She doesnt know the people of Cumbria they all pull together i have only been up here 3 yrs but they are the salt of the earth,What is she doing going round asking questions for the media have gone let people try and get on with there lives.