ASA: PCC is as independent as us

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has rejected my complaint about the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) advertising itself as independent.

I don't consider the PCC to be independent because it is "charged with enforcing the Code of Practice which was framed by the newspaper and periodical industry." This is a long winded way of saying that the Code is drawn up by a body that consists wholly of industry representatives.

The ASA has emailed me to say there are no grounds for formal action:

Although the PCC Code of Practice may have been produced by a committee of industry representatives, it is the PCC that make decisions, administer and enforce the Code.  Industry members would not contribute to the PCC’s decision on a complaint.   As such the claim to be “independent” is unlikely to mislead.

The same could be said for the ASA in that our Codes are written by the Committee of Advertising Practice, which comprises a number of industry members, but ultimately the ASA is independent because we solely enforce and administer the Codes.

Well, quite.

As it's late, I shall limit myself to comparing the reported ruling with the original article ...

PCC: "While many complainants considered that there was an underlying tone of negativity towards Mr Gately and the complainant on account of the fact that they were gay, it was not possible to identify any direct uses of pejorative or prejudicial language in the article."

Jan Moir: "the ooze of a very different and more dangerous lifestyle has seeped out for all to see".

What lifestyle does she mean here?

Jan Moir: "Gay activists are always calling for tolerance and understanding about same-sex relationships, arguing that they are just the same as heterosexual marriages. Not everyone, they say, is like George Michael. Of course, in many cases this may be true."

How gracious - "may" be true "in many cases" that "not everyone" is like George Michael (whatever that means).

Jan Moir: "Another real sadness about Gately's death is that it strikes another blow to the happy-ever-after myth of civil partnerships."

What's she saying, that all civil partnerships are doomed to end unhappily?

PCC: Moir's claim that Gately's death had not been "natural", while controversial and speculative, "could not be established as accurate or otherwise".

Couldn't we have just use the post mortem to decide this?

Today, it tweeted:

The PCC has negotiated this page 2 and online Daily Telegraph clarification after a complaint from Graham Allen MP http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/7207124/Graham-Allen-MP.html

I asked whether this clarification was linked to, and it said:

Yes, there's a link to the clarification on the Telegraph's news homepage: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/

Oddly, if you search for Graham Allen MP on the Telegraph site, the clarification isn't in the results (this seems a fairly major omission to me - surely these things should appear in the search results. Although poor Mr Allen also gets a "Did you mean Graham Alleyn MP"!) .

But there is indeed a link - a link that says "Graham Allen MP" (no use of the word clarification). I've ringed it in red to help you find it ...

So not all that prominent then ...