The Daily Mail

About

The Daily Mail, officially known as Mail Online, is an English-language news site run by the British daily newspaper with the same name. As of 2014, it is the most visited English-language news website in the world, though its reputation as a news publication has often come under scrutiny for running stories based on unreliable sources and featuring wordy and inflammatory headlines for sensationalism.

Features

The Daily Mail^[1] covers a wide range of news stories and trending topics across more than a dozen of vertical category sections, including current events in the United Kingdom, Europe and the rest of the world, sports, U.S. entertainment, fashion and beauty, health, science, business, travel and op-eds, among others.

Headlines

The Daily Mail is known for its long, strange headlines. On November 30th, 2012, The Huffington Post^[7] published a list titled "'Daily Mail' Greatest Hits: 14 Absurd Headlines About Women." Several social media accounts devoted to sharing outrageous Daily Mail headlines have been created. On December 28th, 2012, the Tumblr blog^[4] ridiculousdmheadlines, which features screen shots of the strangest, longest Daily Mail headlines, was created.

On August 22nd, 2013, Buzzfeed^[5] published a post titled "17 Ridiculous Daily Mail Headlines." On June 17th, 2014, The Huffington Post^[6] published a post titled "The 15 Most Daily Mail Headlines Ever."

Controversies

Ralph Miliband

On October 6th, 2013, protesters gathered at The Daily Mail's^[9] offices to protest the paper for calling Ralph Miliband, the father of British politician Ed Miliband "the man who hated Britain" in an article published on September 27th, 2013.^[11]

George Clooney

On July 7th, 2014, The Daily Mail published a story about actor George Clooney's future mother in law, Baria Alamuddin, saying she opposed Clooney's impending marriage to her daughter for religious reasons.

On July 9th, Clooney wrote a response to the Mail's article, which was published in USA Today^[17], saying:

"First of all, none of the story is factually true. Amal's mother is not Druze. She has not been to Beirut since Amal and I have been dating, and she is in no way against the marriage -- but none of that is the issue. I'm, of course, used to the Daily Mail making up stories -- they do it several times a week -- and I don't care. If they fabricate stories of Amal being pregnant, or that the marriage will take place on the set of Downton Abbey, or that I'm running for office, or any number of idiotic stories that they sit at their computers and invent, I don't care.

But this lie involves larger issues. The irresponsibility, in this day and age, to exploit religious differences where none exist, is at the very least negligent and more appropriately dangerous. We have family members all over the world, and the idea that someone would inflame any part of that world for the sole reason of selling papers should be criminal."

The same day The Daily Mail^[18] published a post titled "George Clooney: A correction and an apology" which explained:

"'We only became aware of Mr Clooney’s concerns this morning and have launched a full investigation. However, we accept Mr Clooney’s assurance that the story is inaccurate and we apologise to him, Miss Amal Alamuddin and her mother, Baria, for any distress caused. We have removed the article from our website and will be contacting Mr Clooney’s representatives to discuss giving him the opportunity to set the record straight."

On July 11th, Clooney rejected the apology in a second piece for USA Today^[19] saying:

"In this case, the Daily Mail has printed an apology for insinuating religious tensions where there are none. In the apology, managing editor Charles Garside claims that the article was "not a fabrication," but "based the story on conversations with senior members of the Lebanese community."

The problem is that none of that is true. The original story never cites that source, but instead goes out of its way to insist on four different occasions that "a family friend" spoke directly to the Mail. A " family friend" was the source. So either they were lying originally or they're lying now."

Angelina Jolie Video

On July 8th, 2014, The Daily Mail^[13] published a video taken in the early '90s featuring an ill-looking Angelina Jolie allegedly calling a drug dealer. On July 11th, The Times^[14] reported Jolie planned to take legal action against The Daily Mail for publishing the video. The lawsuit was covered by several sites including Buzzfeed^[12] and Gawker.^[15]

Social Media Presence

As of October 2014, The Daily Mail's Twitter account^[2] has gained over 740,000 followers and its Facebook page^[3] has gained over 2.1 million likes.

Traffic

As of October 2014, Mail Online is ranked as the 93rd^[8] most popular site world wide and the 67th most popular site in the United States. The site receives just over 30% of its traffic from the United States and just over 19% of its traffic from the UK.

Search Interest

External References