Is the move by Virgin Trains to stop selling the Daily Mail an act of censorship?
Since you can still take a copy bought elsewhere onto the trains, I don’t think so. But it might be a bigger PR issue than the company realises.
Virgin says it ceased stocking the paper owing to “considerable concern” from staff about its editorial positions on immigration and other issues.
Perhaps it imagines this move will only irk Daily Mail journalists. It’s wrong. I doubt there is a single newspaper hack who doesn’t find this move troublesome.
What other views might the company decide are not fit to sell?
The Spectator says Virgin Trains “expected to get applause for dressing up what looks like a very simple commercial decision….as a grand statement about values”.
It has got some applause. But every time a journalist gets on a Virgin Train from now on, she will be inclined to think: this is the company that wants to put me out of work.
There will be a backlash.
