The Mail just doesn't care about Haiti

Today, the Daily Mail was the only national newspaper not to have a mention of the Haiti earthquake on its front page. It chose to plug its Poirot DVD giveaway instead:


It's an astonishing editorial decision to relegate the biggest news story of the year so far to the inside. How did Editor Paul Dacre and his henchmen come to that conclusion, when even the Daily Star thought it important enough to put on the front page?

So where, exactly, did the Mail place its coverage in the print edition?

Flicking through, there are stories about:

• Conservative Party plans on alcohol and teachers' pay.
• Swine flu.
• Nick Clegg, faith schools and homosexuality.
• The BBC and U2.
• A 106-year-old woman 'forced to leave the home she loved'.
• Gary McKinnon.
• Britain being out of recession (buried on page 6).
• Madeleine McCann.
• The Chilcot Inquiry.
• Weather warnings.
• Lawyers trying to gag an MP.

And there are also articles about:

• A policeman who is 5ft tall.
• How women's handbags are 57% lighter than two years ago.
• Dannii Minogue being pregnant.
• A review of the Legally Blonde stage show.

And it is only after all that, on pages 12 and 13, that the Mail finds room for the Haiti earthquake.

Even then, page 12 is half taken up with a Tesco advert for Bold washing powder. 'Lighten the load' it says, next to pictures of a child with bandages around its head and a dazed woman crawling over rubble.

Page 13 contains the longest article of the spread - and that is a short history of Haiti titled 'Rape, murder and voodoo on the island of the damned' which hardly mentions the quake among all the stereotypes.

Meanwhile, the main article is 25 unrevealing sentences long.

So why is the Mail so uninterested?

The headline on their website earlier today gives some indication (as spotted and snapped by Megan Lucas):


Ah. So there it is. The Mail only regards this as a 'top story' when they think some 'Brits' may have died. The deaths of thousands of Haitians and the wrecking of their country is not important enough on its own, apparently.

Certainly not as important as a free Poirot DVD.

Even when they do turn their attention to Haiti, it ends up like this:


Still, with the story leading the Mail's website - in one form or another - for most of the day, surely it would make Friday's front page?


Nope. Still no room for Haiti. What Beyonce did two weeks ago, another Poirot DVD and - believe it or not - a bird feeding kit are considered far more worthy.