If people didn't feel that they have to watch every word that comes out of the mouth then maybe they wouldn't be so infatuated with things that "cross the line". If all all ethnic groups, sexualities, genders, and abilities are equal then why does the goverment demand we treat them differently? If black and white people are equal qhy does someone floor you if you make a racist joke about a black man but not when you make one about a scotsman? Surely if we weren't all so uptight and didn't make things so taboo like that then people wouldn't feel the need to buy magazines that are cruel and would be able to keep cruel jokes or w/e inside their walls. Can I just big it up for the able bodied kids since the article kinda suggests tht it's okay to treat them badly, can't you see how by being specially defensive of disabled kids makes them stand out and become a subject topic for jokes?

<:3 )~

Roxanne, Stoke-on-trent, UK

I haven't read Heat before coming across this article. Now I'll definitely go out and buy it.
Anything that produces this priggish, self-righteous response can't be all bad.

B Wood, Surbiton,

What got into the heads of the people at Heat? I'll tell you what got into their heads, it is their readers who allowed them to do what they did. They crossed the line years ago and yet their readers lapped it up, well, if you are going to blame the Heat people, you should also blame their readers.

Amy, London, UK

Spot on, Janice Turner. The hate and cruelty in the UK media against everyone whom they consider a celebrity (and therefore fair game) is a pernicious poison. There's a lot of justification that 'it's all in good fun' and that people who don't like it must lack a sense of humour. But really, it's just hate. And the bile doesn't stop with the tabloids. The supposedly respectable broadsheets and magazines are following along the same path, copying the tabloids in attitude and venom. It's not enough to be critical; these days they throw in personal insults too. The UK media are a pathetic mess. The members of the public who buy such rubbish as Heat, well, I have no word to describe them in polite society.

Myrna, Mississauga,

I agree with your comments that this sticker is extremely offensive In my opinion you are in the same ball park as Heat, who you describe as' harsh, cruel and hateful' in your comments about Katie Price 'whoring' her children.

This is an article which started off as being well-thought out and intelligent (aside from your astonishment that Gordon Ramsay says the F word, for crying out loud he is more famous for that than cooking) which quickly descended into being as vitriolic and judgemental as the thing you were criticising.

Kirsty, Cheltenham, UK

The distinction between 'celebrity interest' and sheer prurient invasion was once much clearer than it is today.

As one of the people most responsible for the muddying of the waters, Jordan shouldn't be too surprised if some of the dirt gets on her child.

Mikey, Bromley, Kent

I absolutely agree with everything Janice says in this article.

I'm ashamed to say I have read Heat every week. Deep down I always knew I owed it to myself to steer clear of it, but still, i kept reading because i enjoyed the celebrity ribbing and told myself it was just my "guilty pleasure".

But the sticker incident was just the kick up the backside i needed to stop seeing this cruel, shallow, self-indulgent publication as entertainment.

I expressed my anger and offence in an email to them and won't be buying it again.

Lindsey, Sheffield, South Yorkshire

Something has changed - you say this as if you've only just noticed. Well wake up! Something changed well over 15 years ago.

There brutality in society now is a drect result of ever more pathetic liberalising that increasingly took away the boundaries between good and bad behaviour.

And the lefty luvvy media were one of the driving forces.

Pete, Newbury,

"Of course it comes down to cash."

Yes, I'm afraid so. But this is a social fixation, not a personal one.

"Cruel sells."

Yes, but not just cruel. We are everyday instructed to regard
human intelligence as a destructive force. Abstract thought is damaging. Raw, basic emotion is a much more natural environment in which to live.

"Clearly Heat staff cannot see the subtle line between these comedies of embarrassment — whose butt is the ignorance and pretension of the able-bodied — and laughing at a fat, autistic blind boy."

Er, I expect they can. But your moral priority is maintaining a standard, and theirs is making money. To improve the situation, the trick, I suggest, is not to focus on the money-makers but on their audience. Make primitivity "uncool" and, hey presto, the focus of the money-makers will be on how we are different from other animals - not how we are similar.

It's hard work challenging mainstream perception. But look at Wilberforce's achievement.

Simon Stephenson, Windermere, UK

Andrew
Those stand-up jokes you mention are usually tongue-in-cheek - ie Ricky Gervais mocking the idea that we should treat disabled people as different - I'll give you a clue, his producer Ash Attala is disabled. He's having a joke with his mate; the joke being - imagine anyone being cretinous enough in the 21st century to share the same opinions as you.

Joe, Exeter,

Andrew of Swindon. I think that you are in a very small minority when you say that.........'the 'in your face' attitude of the disabled lobby has caused resentment', proberly the small minority who think that human rights are for sissy's!

Grow up, grow some and stop moaning about something which you take for granted and which others have no choice in!

Kim, London,

I am blown away Heat sells half a million copies. I bet they'll add 10% to that from this issue. That is our democracy in action. It's so easy to tubthump and blame a tabloid mag ethos and ignore the fact that a lot of English people are not actually very nice. We deal in extremes, always have done, extremes of violence, culture, intelligence, whatever, and our depths are extreme too. God knows what the solution is.

chris, England, Worthing

Seen in Canada recently at a shopping mall - "If you want my space you can have my disability."
To the point.

Mark, Ashington, UK

I have a disabled baby. It is very isolating. So, actually, I think it is good that Jordan has allowed Harvey to be photographed and talked about because it shows us that (a) having a disabled child can happen to anyone, (b) it's a lot more common than you might think and (c) thank God, we've gone past the days when a disabled child was a shame hidden from other people. For a magazine to mock this poor child is dreadful as it hurts everyone who is disabled or is a carer for a disabled child or adult.

Maria, London, UK

Andrew from Swindon: whats the matter with you? Have you left the building? Do you have an answer to the people who have replied in indignation to your comments which are towering in their stupidity and insensitivity? If the purpose of your post was to anger and provoke, get yourself in a wheelchair for a day and watch the ironic smile on your face rapidly disappear.

Brian Warner, Woking, UK

I'm kinda annoyed my copy of Heat didn't have the offending sticker for me to see what all the fuss is about

Rebecca, London. ,

A good article and nice to see sense prevails at last. I have been buying Heat since it came out, and while I agree that people who court this kind of publicity deserve what they get, children are not fair game. The african saying 'it takes a village to raise a child' is applicable in this case. We are all in a sense responsible for the messages we give out, and I for one, will be boycotting Heat from now on and would encourage others to do the same. Yes I might enjoy seeing pictures of fame-obsessed, self-absorbed, drugged up celebrities having to deal with themselves, but I find the idea of paying money to a publication which ridicules any child - disabled or not - abhorrent. Hit Heat the only place it hurts and don't buy it.

Anne, Bristol,

Since the abortion act and screening in pregnancy a whole generation has grown up without any real contact with disabled children or adults on their own street and as tthey think it is fair game to game to mock the disabled.
If you grew up with, say, a downs syndrome child next door of your own age you will know that, hard as it was on that child's parents, he was the most loved (and lovable) child ever. You'd never mock..

Jim, Brussels,

andrew from Swindon - you are joking aren't you. Please tell me that you are being ironic.

Do people really resent having to walk past "acres of empty disabled only spaces" or are they just bloody grateful that they can actually walk quite comfortable on their own 2 legs? If you are serious, please don't speak for me - I'm an ordinary person and I find your attitude completely mind-blowing.

FWIW, I don't think it is acceptable to make fun of children, disabled or not - it's just bullying really.

Jac, Essex,

Cruelty is your theme. The English have a long reputation for it.
When I was a student in the late 1950's, reading French, I came across the French phrase 'le vice anglais'. I assumed at the time that this English vice was exemplified by Oscar Wilde. I talked about this phrase with French students in France and was surprised to hear that it referred to the English taste for 'le sadisme'. Another forty-odd years looking at our public life and media have only confirmed our reputation as a cruel lot. Public disapproval will not make a jot of difference as long as nasty mags can sell enough to a disturbed minority to keep their producers in the black.

David Medd, Lytham St. Annes, England

andrew in swindon,

I trust you are joking. If not, then what a deranged and nasty comment. I hardly ever see disabled loos, but in any case what is more 'grotesque' about them than ordinary ones? As for 'acres' of disabled parking spaces, on which planet are you living? And how much inconvenience does it really cause you?

Being able bodied, I walk to my supermarket, which is about a mile away. Not ideal for everyone, I admit, but I hardly see that able-bodied drivers are in much of a position to moan about disabled parking spaces. What's wrong with you, Andrew? Don't your legs work? What mean-minded hypocrisy.

Robert Stanfield, Edinburgh,

Great article.

I believe Heat magazine taps into the evil zeitgeist and then amplifies it back.

It's no wonder we hear of school bullies filming attacks on mobile phones and a general level of shouting on the bus behaviour from a large part of society when a magazine so popular casually prints "mocking paraphenalia".

And for the editor to say no offense was intended. What did he intend exactly. I'd be shocked if he's still in his job in a week's time. Unfortunately I won't be shocked if people carry on buying Heat magazine.

David Martin, Bath, UK

Janice Turner is really gesturing in this article if she thinks that it is culturally accpetable to have the 'magazine' (is that what one calls it?) in the first place, but just tinkering with it to dispense with soemof the worst excesses.

Austin Tassletine, Bristol, UK

The 'in your face' attitude of the disabled lobby, so that we all have to use grotesque disabled-friendly toilets in restaurants, pass acres of empty 'disabled only' spaces before we can park at the supermarket, etc etc has generated some resentment amongst ordinary people that we are not allowed to express in public. This is the classic context for subversive humour to work. You'll find stand ups making carefully pitched disabled jokes these days. it's a form of release to be able to laugh at these jokes, and many do...

andrew, swindon,

You let your nine year old child sit through an episode of Gordon Ramsey??? Well that's where your credibility just ended.

Why should Jordan mind her son being on that hateful sticker? She herself was recently on television mocking a disabled person, in this case Heather Mills. But I suppose her own son is a different case...

And is Alistair Campbell descended from the judge at the Lady Chatterley trial?!

Yasmin, Merseyside,

It's goes beyond brave to try to mark the low point in British journalism...

Chris Jackson, London,

I'm so glad that your writing, Janice, shares no resemblance to the vitriolic 'poison' of magazines such as Heat. Such a measured of Jordan. But then, of course, she's 'fair game' isn't she?

BTW, you let your nine year old watch Gordon Ramsey?

Melanie Jeffery, Lancaster,

Why let your 9 year old watch Gordon Ramsey, and then act outraged when the child hears the man swear? I'm guessing that you knew Ramsey swears on his show, so this little vignette is either made up or just your own fault.

Redcliffe, London,

The sticker is very bad taste and I have every sympathy with the child, but none for the mother. As the article says, Jordan has whored him out to these gutter journalists when there's been money to be made. Time for her to decide priorities in her meaningless life.

Jack, Stevenage, UK

Brilliant article magazines like everyone should have a code of conduct and Jordan or not there has to be boundries.

ian rogers, liverpool , uk

I've worked at Emap (though not on Heat), and unfortunately this doesn't surprise me at all. Dare to question the morality of a distasteful piece of "journalism" and you'll be patronised and ignored. I know because I've tried it. Celebrities are fair game, innit! It's what the readers want!

R, London,

sadly people will buy a turd in a hat if someone sells it them. they don't take responsibility. go katie !

mount, dorset, gb

An excellent article. Although I detest Jordan and all her kind, that is no excuse for magazines such as Heat to treat her or anyone else's children in such an abhorrent fashion. I cannot comprehend the mindset of those who publish or buy this kind of magazine.

Helen, Dublin,