INTERNATIONAL MEN'S DAY LETTER - MEDIA NOT INTERESTED

I hope men and women are all enjoying International Men's Day (went out for lunch with my father) today.

Earlier this week this site reported that the Men's Network who are the UK coordinators for International Men's Day had put together a letterfor the Equalities Minister (Lynne Featherstone) which was eventually signed by 80 organisations and a press release sent.

Going through the 280 comments on a thoughtful article  in the Guardian's Comment is Free section by Ally Fogg (plus Glen Poole's contributions throughout), MarkBrooks70 reveals that no one has been interested in the letter or the press release:

"Not one journalist has called and it has been sent to a number (including the Guardian) today. Hopefully there will be something in the papers tomorrow."

So what media coverage has there been given to the letter. Well, none. The above does not count as it is an article and didn't over the letter (Mr Fogg will not have known about it) and while Cllr Peter Davies in Wales makes a great point and Preston FM has a whole day, the media's silence is deafening.

For International Women's Day in March there were endless articles and the Guardian even banned men from its Comment is Free section but this is not reciprocated by the media.

The fact that 80 charities supporting male issues and run by women and men were actually prepared to put their names to such a balanced and well written letter is a news story - yet why are the media not interested. Such is their hypocrisy and double standards, if "Women's charities" had written the letter about women's issues it would have been on the front page and all over the BBC's news bulletins. The Fawcett Society get a nice feature about their march in The Guardian

As can be seen by the number of events and days in the UK celebrating today (including a number of colleges again), there is starting to be a lot of momentum about today. It is a great pity that the media are not interested but shows the barriers that need to be broken down.

Once again, enjoy today.

Posted by Skimmington