Daily Mirror challenged by DUP over '˜crackpot' headlines

The former DUP MLA was commenting after the paper branded his party ‘crackpots’ in the Great Britain edition, while using less pejorative language in its Northern Ireland edition.

On Tuesday, for the second time in a week, the GB edition led with the ‘crackpot’ line – referring to ‘May’s £1bn bribe to crackpots’ following the deal reached between the Conservative government and the DUP.

The headline in Northern Ireland read: ‘Now we’ve got money to burn.’

On June 21, the GB edition carried the headline, ‘Now even the crackpots can’t work with May,’ but ran with a different page one story in Northern Ireland.

“The Daily Mirror has certainly been two-faced in its reporting of the agreement between the Democratic Unionist Party and the Conservative and Unionist Party,” Mr McCausland said.

“It is happy to brand unionist politicians as ‘crackpots’ in its English edition but omits that from the edition sold in Northern Ireland. As a newspaper that supports the Labour Party it wants a sensational, albeit offensive headline, for its English readers in order to blacken the Conservatives and it is prepared to abuse the DUP in the process.

“If the Daily Mirror regards unionist politicians as ‘crackpots’ then does it also regard unionist voters and the unionist people as crackpots? The Daily Mirror certainly owes us an answer to that question and an answer as to why it adopts such as two-faced approach to Northern Ireland. Many people will view that two-faced approach as a very ‘grubby’ approach to journalism.”

The former culture minister said the money secured through the deal helps address “significant under investment” in the Province.

The Daily Mirror to date has not responded to a request for comment.