Title: The Mail on Sunday food bank backlash exposes a media power struggle
- There is an increasingly interesting power struggle between the national press – wrongly labelled in past times as "the mass media" – and its democratic digital replacement, "the media of the masses".
- Mail on Sunday was confronted by widespread anger across social media, notably Twitter, over its two-page article about food banks.
- The report also claimed that many food parcel claimants were asylum seekers, and cast doubt on the trust's claims that almost 1 million people would use one of its food banks this year, up 163% on the previous year.
- The Twittersphere hummed with anger as people argued that the article discredited the mission of food banks to help the poor. One tweet said: "No, no Daily Mail [sic]. The scandal isn't that food bank volunteers didn't check your cretins' ID. The scandal is that food banks exist at all."
- I note that Murphy did not take to his Twitter account to respond, nor did Manning. But Slater, in the wake of the furore, returned his food parcel, tweeting: "All food returned to saint Philip church Notts at 0930 plus small donation". His gesture merely earned him, and the paper, yet more expletive-laden abuse.
- I understand he regarded the food bank investigation as a legitimate inquiry to ensure the system was working as it should, and regards the backlash as a relatively minor one.
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