As you know the Mail Online repeated the Guardian story that "pro-tobacco activists" are "harassing and abusing anti-smoking campaigners".
Unlike the Guardian, the Mail report allows moderated comments, which are now beginning to filter through.
On Saturday I encouraged members of Forest's Facebook group to comment but I suggested they do so in a calm and rational way. "Our side doesn't have to resort to cheap abuse. Leave that to our opponents. Show them, and uncommitted readers, that we are better than that."
I then posted a comment of my own:
Threats and abusive language are not acceptable but this is not a one-way street. Smokers are told, without good evidence, that they are killing those around them; public money is used to fund campaigns with slogans like "If you smoke you stink"; sometimes they are denied jobs with employers who advertise for "non-smokers only"; fanatical anti-smoking zealots regularly send messages such as "I hope you die of cancer"; Duncan Bannatyne tweets, "Smoking in a car carrying children is child abuse. Fact." This is just the tip of the iceberg of abuse that smokers face in 2012. I don't condone it but is it any wonder that smokers sometimes respond with invective of their own? Intolerance breeds intolerance. The media needs to wake up and expose the tobacco control industry for what it is and what it represents.
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Update: "We are no longer accepting comments on this article." Not impressed.