(no subject)
Haha, my rant to the Daily Mail:
I've just finished reading your statement about the protest organised by fans of My Chemical Romance in London today. This is what your statement said:
"The Daily Mail’s coverage of the 'Emo' movement has been balanced, restrained and above all, in the public interest. Genuine concerns were raised at the inquest earlier this month on 13 year old emo follower Hannah Bond who had been self-harming and then tragically killed herself.
"In common with other newspapers we ran an accurate news story recording the Coroner's remarks and the parents' comments. We also published two other articles, one of which explained the background to the Hannah tragedy in calm and un-sensational language.
"The other was a first person opinion piece by a well-known writer, written from the perspective of a mother concerned for her children. We have also run two prominent page lead letters from an emo music fan and from a fan of My Chemical Romance defending their point of view.
"Our music critic admires the music of the band and publicised the band’s UK tour last year. Since this protest was announced a great deal of misinformation has appeared on the internet, much of which confuses what the Daily Mail has actually published with the comments of website readers and 'blogs' over which we have no control and which have stirred up emotions.
"We note it has been pointed out by others that all this provides wonderful publicity for Warners and their impending release of My Chemical Romance's latest album.
"The Daily Mail is a broad church and is always ready to listen to the views of readers. We do, however, suggest those who want to protest or comment read everything we have published and act on fact not rumour."
You act on fact?
First of all, My Chemical Romance do not have a new album coming out. They have a live compilation coming out, and to suggest that the protest, which came from such a positive and well organised group of kids is a publicity stunt is crass and disrespectful.
Secondly, your coverage has not been balanced and restrained. I am an English student, about to graduate, and I can tell you right now it appears as if you don't know the meaning of the words balanced and restrained. One of your headlines was: "Emo cult warning for parents". This is not balanced, and it is not restrained. In one foul swoop, you've generalised every single teenager in the UK and you've done so based on misinformation and inaccurate myths. This article was published by yourself in August 2006 and had the following lines in it:
"The Emos - short for Emotional - regard themselves as a cool, young sub-set of the Goths.
Although the look is similar, the point of distinction, frightening for schools and parents, is a celebration of self harm."
Emo is not a sub set of Goth, nor has it ever been. Emo music started in the mid 80s in Washington DC, when a new set of bands emerged who championed more melodic songs which featured lyrics about heart break and teenage angst. The "emo" acts at the time did not look like Goths, and while black is a popular colour among fans of bands like My Chemical Romance, they also favour bright colours like pink, blue and red. So that was your first mistake.
"Emo" as a genre of music does not exist anymore. The bands that led the emo movement, such as Rites of Spring, have all disbanded. If, and that's a very improbable if, emo still exists as a genuine form of music, it's so far underground that it is not widely accessible to the wider music audience. So you've got that wrong, too. Are these facts hard to come by? Could you excuse Sarah Sands' ignorance by saying she wasn't a music critic? No - these facts can be found on any number of sites, including Wikipedia. It would have taken Sarah Sands mere moments to know the truth.
You also said:
"Emo bands (Green Day, My Chemical Romance), Emo conversation (sighing, wailing, poetry)."
Green Day and My Chemical Romance are not "emo" acts. As previously explained, they simply do not fit in with the musical criteria to justify this label. If you had bothered to read any recent interview with My Chemical Romance or Green Day, if you'd spoken to their fans, you would know this to be inaccurate. Both bands do not sing about heart break very often - and emo was never concerned with death, let me point that out - nor do they follow an "emo" fashion, or play acoustic guitars. Both My Chemical Romance and Green Day are completely removed from the "emo" genre, and they've only been stuck with that tag through ignorance and misinformation as spearheaded by publications like yourself.
So by claiming My Chemical Romance are emo, you're claiming that they indulge in a "celebration of self harm". This is the crux of your problem, this is what caused so much offence and anger, and this is what led hundreds of teenagers to protest against your newspaper.
Again, a simple internet search would have shown you that My Chemical Romance in no way, shape or form celebrate self harm or condone suicide. If your reporters, like Sarah Sands, are given a brief to write something on a genre they clearly do not understand, then at least go to Wikipedia. Type in "Gerard Way" - he's the frontman of My Chemical Romance, if you didn't know - and click on the Wikiquote link. You'll find the following words of wisdom:
"Nothing is worth hurting yourself over! Nothing is worth taking your life over! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!" - said in Brazil, 17/02/08
"If we never play another show again... keep yourself alive" - to a sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden 09/05/08
"Suicide is a serious thing. And if you know anyone who is suicidal, you need to get them help. No one should be in pain. Everyone should love themselves. Like I love you all."
"We want you to live. We want to save your lives. You saved ours. We never want to let a single thing hurt any of you. And you should all know...if you support us...you are not a cult. You are a fuckin' ARMY."
"If you guys have been listening to this band and coming to see us for a long time, you know we've always said to you guys that if you get depressed, that you can find somebody to talk to. You can find help if you feel suicidal or anything like that. That's something we've always said. That's something we've been saying on this tour... is that, you know, sometimes the world can be a really ugly place, right? It's not always really pretty, it's ugly, people's feelings get hurt. Sometimes it's terrible, but it's also a really beautiful place, and we all share it together. If you ever feel depressed or hurt in any way, or you find yourself feeling very desperate, you find somebody that you trust, that you can talk to-- be it a teacher, a parent, a best friend, a therapist at school. There's lots of free programs, you guys can find somebody to talk to... but the main thing is no matter what, no matter what happens to you, no matter how desperate you feel, you never resort to violence." - Bamboozle Festival, 2007.
Have I made my point quite clear yet? All these quotations, all the interviews Gerard has ever given - they are all so readily available. You have thousands of fans claiming this band has saved their lives, have turned them away from self harm, suicide and depression - and you not only claim that they celebrate suicide, you then go on to say this is accurate when it has been proven otherwise?
In your article about Hannah Bond, you went on to call My Chemical Romance "an emo suicide cult band". As the previous lengthy section proves, you were very, very wrong. You acted on the misinformed words of others instead of doing your own research. Not only is this a terrible crime in the world of journalism - as a journalist myself, I understand the process - it's down right lazy.
In the article, dated 9th May 2008, you mentioned the following My Chemical Romance lyric:
"One of their songs contains the lyrics: "Although you're dead and gone, believe me your memory will go on.""
You failed to put this lyric in context, and in doing so manipulated an image of the band that people who do not know better would easily accept. What you failed to mention is that the lyric in question, taken from the band's number 1 hit "Welcome To The Black Parade" is a reference to death of Gerard and Mikey Way's grandmother, Elena. The sentimental view of a life after death and the preservation of the deceased's memory as a way of keeping them with us is not dark and dangerous, in fact it's a very mainstream coping mechanism.
But seeing as how you're so clued up on My Chemical Romance lyrics, and you claim to be so balanced, why didn't you refer to their follow up hit, "Famous Last Words"? That includes the lyric: "I am not afraid to keep on living/I am not afraid to walk this world alone". Does this sound like a suicide cult to you? Does that sound like a band that promotes suicide and glamorises self-harm? Of course it doesn't, but you didn't include that lyric because you were either too ignorant to do your research properly, or you knew that adding that balance would take away the sensational aspect of your piece. Balanced, accurate and unsensational? I think not.
"It is a largely teenage trend and is characterised by depression, self-injury and suicide."
As I've outlined above, this line of yours is completely inaccurate, and Gerard Way's own words support that. But once again, you failed to properly research the band you demonised, and mentioned them specifically:
"One of the foremost of these "suicide cult" bands is My Chemical Romance, from New Jersey."
And again, as I've outlined, that is also completely inaccurate.
"The Black Parade is a nickname for the place where Emo fans believe they will go when they die".
This is ludicrous. I've been a My Chemical Romance fan for four years now, before the Black Parade was released and I'm very involved with the fanbase. I myself have written articles about The Black Parade, the misrepresentation of emo and the protest that took place today and I can tell you, as an involved and active My Chemical Romance fan, I have never heard of this image. In the My Chemical Romance fandom, the Black Parade has never been referred to as a "place where emo fans believe they will go when they die." If you had researched the concept behind the album - again, you could have used any readily available interview with Gerard Way, you would have known that the album is based on the concept that when you die, death comes for you in any way the dying person would like. In the case of the Patient, the character the concept features, it comes to him in the form of a Black Parade as his father took him to see a parade when he was little. Therefore, each death is individual and not once did My Chemical Romance ever claim that The Black Parade is where people go when they die.
In the statement you released in defence of your ignorance, you claimed that you were not responsible for the sheer inaccuracy of the blogs posted on your website. I accept this whole heartedly, but every single misinformed quote I have featured in this email featured in articles that YOU published - one by Sarah Sands and one by Andrew Levy - these featured on YOUR website and in YOUR paper, so by publishing them you are publically stating that you believe these pieces to be accurate, informed and balanced.
This email, and the outrage of the My Chemical Romance fans the world over, have proved you wrong. This email has shown that the statement you have released that claimed your pieces were accurate and informed, is a lie. Your articles were not accurate. They were not informed, and they were not balanced. Calling a bunch of well adjusted, well organised and mostly upbeat teenagers a "cult" is not balanced. You should have taken note from the backlash that followed the Sarah Sands article, so that the next time you mentioned My Chemical Romance, it was informed. You clearly did not learn your lesson, which is why hundreds of teenagers took to Hyde Park today.
What happened to Hannah Bond was tragic, and the image of emo that she was shown, and that she herself represented, was inaccurate. She was misinformed, the coroner was misinformed, and her parents were misinformed. They knew before her death that she was self harming, and they dismissed this because she told them it was part of some fashion? That is the danger of misrepresenting My Chemical Romance fans the way you do - if they are self harming, their parents are going to dismiss it just like Hannah Bond's parents dismissed it, with tragic consequences. Self harm is clearly a cry for help, and in this case, her parents did not listen. That is not the fault of a band who go out of their way to show their teenage fans an alternative to self harm and suicide. I understand why her parents feel the need to place the blame somewhere, but they've chosen the wrong scapegoat this time. You've chosen the wrong scapegoat.
Lastly, to claim that the protest that took place today, against your publication, was a publicity stunt is completely disrespectful. I have been researching this protest and have interviewed the girl behind the entire operation, and let me tell you, this has nothing to do with publicity. She, and hundreds of others, were sick and tired of you and other publications misrepresenting the band that saved them. They were sick of being dismissed, they were sick of being ignored, and they were sick of your ignorance. The amount of time and organisation that went into this protest has been awe inspiring. These teenagers - who Sarah Sands claim sit about in a dark room - met with the police to ensure their protestors were safe, they researched peaceful protesting, they updated and maintained a website, they thoroughly read your articles - so don't for a minute claim they didn't - and they ensured the protest went well. This was not a publicity stunt, this was a rallying call for every single teenager you have failed by your ignorance. You have been given many opportunities to present the balanced, accurate side of "emo" that you claim you have always shown. Again, this email has proven that your articles were not balanced, or accurate. You were told these things time and time again. You chose the sensational route to sell papers, and in doing so, you failed teenagers like Hannah Bond.
So do yourself a favour, learn your lesson this time. Because My Chemical Romance fans have proven that they will not stand for your ignorance anymore.
Yours sincerely
Vicki Kinnaird
THE BLACK PARADE IS DEAD! LONG LIVE THE BLACK PARADE!
^^^
Everyone loves a good rant, right?
In other news: Passions update, I swear. Next week!
x
I've just finished reading your statement about the protest organised by fans of My Chemical Romance in London today. This is what your statement said:
"The Daily Mail’s coverage of the 'Emo' movement has been balanced, restrained and above all, in the public interest. Genuine concerns were raised at the inquest earlier this month on 13 year old emo follower Hannah Bond who had been self-harming and then tragically killed herself.
"In common with other newspapers we ran an accurate news story recording the Coroner's remarks and the parents' comments. We also published two other articles, one of which explained the background to the Hannah tragedy in calm and un-sensational language.
"The other was a first person opinion piece by a well-known writer, written from the perspective of a mother concerned for her children. We have also run two prominent page lead letters from an emo music fan and from a fan of My Chemical Romance defending their point of view.
"Our music critic admires the music of the band and publicised the band’s UK tour last year. Since this protest was announced a great deal of misinformation has appeared on the internet, much of which confuses what the Daily Mail has actually published with the comments of website readers and 'blogs' over which we have no control and which have stirred up emotions.
"We note it has been pointed out by others that all this provides wonderful publicity for Warners and their impending release of My Chemical Romance's latest album.
"The Daily Mail is a broad church and is always ready to listen to the views of readers. We do, however, suggest those who want to protest or comment read everything we have published and act on fact not rumour."
You act on fact?
First of all, My Chemical Romance do not have a new album coming out. They have a live compilation coming out, and to suggest that the protest, which came from such a positive and well organised group of kids is a publicity stunt is crass and disrespectful.
Secondly, your coverage has not been balanced and restrained. I am an English student, about to graduate, and I can tell you right now it appears as if you don't know the meaning of the words balanced and restrained. One of your headlines was: "Emo cult warning for parents". This is not balanced, and it is not restrained. In one foul swoop, you've generalised every single teenager in the UK and you've done so based on misinformation and inaccurate myths. This article was published by yourself in August 2006 and had the following lines in it:
"The Emos - short for Emotional - regard themselves as a cool, young sub-set of the Goths.
Although the look is similar, the point of distinction, frightening for schools and parents, is a celebration of self harm."
Emo is not a sub set of Goth, nor has it ever been. Emo music started in the mid 80s in Washington DC, when a new set of bands emerged who championed more melodic songs which featured lyrics about heart break and teenage angst. The "emo" acts at the time did not look like Goths, and while black is a popular colour among fans of bands like My Chemical Romance, they also favour bright colours like pink, blue and red. So that was your first mistake.
"Emo" as a genre of music does not exist anymore. The bands that led the emo movement, such as Rites of Spring, have all disbanded. If, and that's a very improbable if, emo still exists as a genuine form of music, it's so far underground that it is not widely accessible to the wider music audience. So you've got that wrong, too. Are these facts hard to come by? Could you excuse Sarah Sands' ignorance by saying she wasn't a music critic? No - these facts can be found on any number of sites, including Wikipedia. It would have taken Sarah Sands mere moments to know the truth.
You also said:
"Emo bands (Green Day, My Chemical Romance), Emo conversation (sighing, wailing, poetry)."
Green Day and My Chemical Romance are not "emo" acts. As previously explained, they simply do not fit in with the musical criteria to justify this label. If you had bothered to read any recent interview with My Chemical Romance or Green Day, if you'd spoken to their fans, you would know this to be inaccurate. Both bands do not sing about heart break very often - and emo was never concerned with death, let me point that out - nor do they follow an "emo" fashion, or play acoustic guitars. Both My Chemical Romance and Green Day are completely removed from the "emo" genre, and they've only been stuck with that tag through ignorance and misinformation as spearheaded by publications like yourself.
So by claiming My Chemical Romance are emo, you're claiming that they indulge in a "celebration of self harm". This is the crux of your problem, this is what caused so much offence and anger, and this is what led hundreds of teenagers to protest against your newspaper.
Again, a simple internet search would have shown you that My Chemical Romance in no way, shape or form celebrate self harm or condone suicide. If your reporters, like Sarah Sands, are given a brief to write something on a genre they clearly do not understand, then at least go to Wikipedia. Type in "Gerard Way" - he's the frontman of My Chemical Romance, if you didn't know - and click on the Wikiquote link. You'll find the following words of wisdom:
"Nothing is worth hurting yourself over! Nothing is worth taking your life over! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!" - said in Brazil, 17/02/08
"If we never play another show again... keep yourself alive" - to a sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden 09/05/08
"Suicide is a serious thing. And if you know anyone who is suicidal, you need to get them help. No one should be in pain. Everyone should love themselves. Like I love you all."
"We want you to live. We want to save your lives. You saved ours. We never want to let a single thing hurt any of you. And you should all know...if you support us...you are not a cult. You are a fuckin' ARMY."
"If you guys have been listening to this band and coming to see us for a long time, you know we've always said to you guys that if you get depressed, that you can find somebody to talk to. You can find help if you feel suicidal or anything like that. That's something we've always said. That's something we've been saying on this tour... is that, you know, sometimes the world can be a really ugly place, right? It's not always really pretty, it's ugly, people's feelings get hurt. Sometimes it's terrible, but it's also a really beautiful place, and we all share it together. If you ever feel depressed or hurt in any way, or you find yourself feeling very desperate, you find somebody that you trust, that you can talk to-- be it a teacher, a parent, a best friend, a therapist at school. There's lots of free programs, you guys can find somebody to talk to... but the main thing is no matter what, no matter what happens to you, no matter how desperate you feel, you never resort to violence." - Bamboozle Festival, 2007.
Have I made my point quite clear yet? All these quotations, all the interviews Gerard has ever given - they are all so readily available. You have thousands of fans claiming this band has saved their lives, have turned them away from self harm, suicide and depression - and you not only claim that they celebrate suicide, you then go on to say this is accurate when it has been proven otherwise?
In your article about Hannah Bond, you went on to call My Chemical Romance "an emo suicide cult band". As the previous lengthy section proves, you were very, very wrong. You acted on the misinformed words of others instead of doing your own research. Not only is this a terrible crime in the world of journalism - as a journalist myself, I understand the process - it's down right lazy.
In the article, dated 9th May 2008, you mentioned the following My Chemical Romance lyric:
"One of their songs contains the lyrics: "Although you're dead and gone, believe me your memory will go on.""
You failed to put this lyric in context, and in doing so manipulated an image of the band that people who do not know better would easily accept. What you failed to mention is that the lyric in question, taken from the band's number 1 hit "Welcome To The Black Parade" is a reference to death of Gerard and Mikey Way's grandmother, Elena. The sentimental view of a life after death and the preservation of the deceased's memory as a way of keeping them with us is not dark and dangerous, in fact it's a very mainstream coping mechanism.
But seeing as how you're so clued up on My Chemical Romance lyrics, and you claim to be so balanced, why didn't you refer to their follow up hit, "Famous Last Words"? That includes the lyric: "I am not afraid to keep on living/I am not afraid to walk this world alone". Does this sound like a suicide cult to you? Does that sound like a band that promotes suicide and glamorises self-harm? Of course it doesn't, but you didn't include that lyric because you were either too ignorant to do your research properly, or you knew that adding that balance would take away the sensational aspect of your piece. Balanced, accurate and unsensational? I think not.
"It is a largely teenage trend and is characterised by depression, self-injury and suicide."
As I've outlined above, this line of yours is completely inaccurate, and Gerard Way's own words support that. But once again, you failed to properly research the band you demonised, and mentioned them specifically:
"One of the foremost of these "suicide cult" bands is My Chemical Romance, from New Jersey."
And again, as I've outlined, that is also completely inaccurate.
"The Black Parade is a nickname for the place where Emo fans believe they will go when they die".
This is ludicrous. I've been a My Chemical Romance fan for four years now, before the Black Parade was released and I'm very involved with the fanbase. I myself have written articles about The Black Parade, the misrepresentation of emo and the protest that took place today and I can tell you, as an involved and active My Chemical Romance fan, I have never heard of this image. In the My Chemical Romance fandom, the Black Parade has never been referred to as a "place where emo fans believe they will go when they die." If you had researched the concept behind the album - again, you could have used any readily available interview with Gerard Way, you would have known that the album is based on the concept that when you die, death comes for you in any way the dying person would like. In the case of the Patient, the character the concept features, it comes to him in the form of a Black Parade as his father took him to see a parade when he was little. Therefore, each death is individual and not once did My Chemical Romance ever claim that The Black Parade is where people go when they die.
In the statement you released in defence of your ignorance, you claimed that you were not responsible for the sheer inaccuracy of the blogs posted on your website. I accept this whole heartedly, but every single misinformed quote I have featured in this email featured in articles that YOU published - one by Sarah Sands and one by Andrew Levy - these featured on YOUR website and in YOUR paper, so by publishing them you are publically stating that you believe these pieces to be accurate, informed and balanced.
This email, and the outrage of the My Chemical Romance fans the world over, have proved you wrong. This email has shown that the statement you have released that claimed your pieces were accurate and informed, is a lie. Your articles were not accurate. They were not informed, and they were not balanced. Calling a bunch of well adjusted, well organised and mostly upbeat teenagers a "cult" is not balanced. You should have taken note from the backlash that followed the Sarah Sands article, so that the next time you mentioned My Chemical Romance, it was informed. You clearly did not learn your lesson, which is why hundreds of teenagers took to Hyde Park today.
What happened to Hannah Bond was tragic, and the image of emo that she was shown, and that she herself represented, was inaccurate. She was misinformed, the coroner was misinformed, and her parents were misinformed. They knew before her death that she was self harming, and they dismissed this because she told them it was part of some fashion? That is the danger of misrepresenting My Chemical Romance fans the way you do - if they are self harming, their parents are going to dismiss it just like Hannah Bond's parents dismissed it, with tragic consequences. Self harm is clearly a cry for help, and in this case, her parents did not listen. That is not the fault of a band who go out of their way to show their teenage fans an alternative to self harm and suicide. I understand why her parents feel the need to place the blame somewhere, but they've chosen the wrong scapegoat this time. You've chosen the wrong scapegoat.
Lastly, to claim that the protest that took place today, against your publication, was a publicity stunt is completely disrespectful. I have been researching this protest and have interviewed the girl behind the entire operation, and let me tell you, this has nothing to do with publicity. She, and hundreds of others, were sick and tired of you and other publications misrepresenting the band that saved them. They were sick of being dismissed, they were sick of being ignored, and they were sick of your ignorance. The amount of time and organisation that went into this protest has been awe inspiring. These teenagers - who Sarah Sands claim sit about in a dark room - met with the police to ensure their protestors were safe, they researched peaceful protesting, they updated and maintained a website, they thoroughly read your articles - so don't for a minute claim they didn't - and they ensured the protest went well. This was not a publicity stunt, this was a rallying call for every single teenager you have failed by your ignorance. You have been given many opportunities to present the balanced, accurate side of "emo" that you claim you have always shown. Again, this email has proven that your articles were not balanced, or accurate. You were told these things time and time again. You chose the sensational route to sell papers, and in doing so, you failed teenagers like Hannah Bond.
So do yourself a favour, learn your lesson this time. Because My Chemical Romance fans have proven that they will not stand for your ignorance anymore.
Yours sincerely
Vicki Kinnaird
THE BLACK PARADE IS DEAD! LONG LIVE THE BLACK PARADE!
^^^
Everyone loves a good rant, right?
In other news: Passions update, I swear. Next week!
x