Daily Mail Hits The Interweb

Yes things are looking up for 2004.

Regards

Indignant of Swindon

The fe-mail agitators are railling against queue jumpers.

Right On!

After a 15 minute shuffle, I saw off a family of queue jumpers at Euston yesterday, with a firm but polite 'That's not he way we do things is it?' The ticket seller thanked me for saving him sending them to the back of the Disney style maze to the counter.

Smiles from the rest of beleaguered queuists.

DS

OTD - The Pump Panel - Confusion Re-mover

Although it does appear our intellectual Guadianistas are pretty f*cking clueless when it comes to hi-fi.
John

How can one tell the difference between a Guardianista troll and a genuine Mail reader?

Ask them what the current mortgage base rate is.

A Guardianista will not care as a few points of base rate hardly makes a difference since their 5 bed Victorian town house in Islington has trebled in value since last March.

By contrast the DM reader will quote the exact figure as the current mortage rate is mentioned in at least 25% of all DM articles (e.g. "How a Family of Darkies Next Door Can Be Like 0.5% On Your Mortgage Rate").

Matthew

PS Great DM splash today -- all about how young people are doomed becuase of their debauched lifestyles. Up there with their "Five Ways the World Could End Tomorrow" classics.

quote:

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Originally posted by Matthew Robinson:
PS Great DM splash today -- all about how young people are doomed becuase of their debauched lifestyles. Up there with their "Five Ways the World Could End Tomorrow" classics.

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Good thing I only read the DM at my folks' then isn't it? My debauched youth lifestyle will be the end of me...

ALL papers suck - they just rehash the same BS stories with different slants - and none of them are proof read or edited properly either.

And no, I won't be going on the DM forum - got better things to do with my time than waste it arguing about houses I can't afford...

After all, I'd not want to be seen as "sexually-repressed, neo-fascist, crypto-racist of Middle England" now would I?

You're all foreign to me - I'm Cornish

__________________________
Make your choice, adventurous Stranger;
Strike the bell and bide the danger
Or wonder, till it drives you mad,
What would have followed if you had.

domjfbrown -- I was under the impression that a lack of debauchery was, if not a problem, then at least an issue in your life?

Matthew

It depends on what kind of debauchery you mean

I'm working on the one YOU mean (well, already been there done that, but after something a bit more exciting than an ex now - she was about as exciting as watching paint dry, but hey, at least that's that one out the way!). Working on a total babe I met this weekend now so here's hoping (she gives blinding massages though)...

__________________________
Make your choice, adventurous Stranger;
Strike the bell and bide the danger
Or wonder, till it drives you mad,
What would have followed if you had.

Dom -

All papers do not suck. All papers have bits which suck (usually the supplements, features and swollen opinion columns) but that's usually balanced by attempts to actually inform people in a balanced way.

On this count, most of the news reporting in the Times, the Guardian and the Independent is done to a high standard, usually by reporters who know their stuff.

Can't vouch for any of the others, who are an absolute shower.

Tim

Ah yeah, but if you're partially sighted like me, you'll boycott the broadsheets on general principle 'cos they're effing IMPOSSIBLE to read without folding into eigths. It's the same reason I boycott subtitled films...

I'm not thick or a heathen, but alternatively I don't like having to really struggle to keep up with something if I don't have to; if they cut half the rubbish out they could make a broadsheet "tabloid" sized and keep everyone happy. They'd then also have less to edit, so could pay a decent editor to do their job properly - how much does it cost to press the spell check button for fripp's sake?

Let's face it though - be honest - you can't trust any of the news you hear or see - it's all spin and propaganda; never ever take anything at face value...

I just wish they'd dub Man Bites Dog - I can understand the odd word in French (I failed it - kept up our family tradition of sucking at French!) but white subtitles on no tint on grainy black and white is a real PITA. I DID make the effort though as that film is stunning...

__________________________
Make your choice, adventurous Stranger;
Strike the bell and bide the danger
Or wonder, till it drives you mad,
What would have followed if you had.

domfjbrown,

"if they cut half the rubbish out they could make a broadsheet "tabloid" sized and keep everyone happy"

You need to get down your local newsagent more often -- The Independent and The Times both now have a tabloid edition (same paper different size/shape) with The Telegraph following in the new year.

They might not be available in Exeter yet as initially it was a London only experiement (a big advantage of the tabloid shape is being able to read it on the tube or bus) but they should be by early in the New Year.

Incidentally, an excellent upshot of the change to tabloids is that there is every indication it will seriously damage the Daily Mail. The Indy is harldy an alternative for HateMail readers but The Times and Telegraph are so hopefully the DM will lose lots of sales when they kick in.

"They'd then also have less to edit, so could pay a decent editor to do their job properly - how much does it cost to press the spell check button for fripp's sake?"

Editors don't actually edit in that sense -- that would be sub-editors.

Matthew

Matthew,

quote:

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Editors don't actually edit in that sense -- that would be sub-editors.

---

Is sub-editor the British term for copy editor?

Just curious.

Joe

Joe:

Not quite. Copy editors tend to be fact-checkers who also write headlines and captions. Subs do that but also rewrite, shape and trim the copy into its finished state, know if a story is legally OK, proofread, coordinate with production etc. But their proudest boast is that they insert the errors reporters inadvertently omit.

Davie

In my epxerience the subs tend to be much better writers and more imaginative than the hacks -- particularly on The Sun where frequently the headlines are better than the copy. In fact many of them seem to be aspiring novelists who opted for the night shift so they can work on their magnum opus when nobody is looking.

My favourite ever headline was for a story about a library crisis in the Essex town of Onger: "Books Lack In Onger"

Matthew

Matthew:

Could be a whole new thread here. The best headline I ever heard about was spiked at the Evening Standard before it made it to proof. It was during the Jeremy Thorpe trial, and read: "Scott of the arse antics." Genius.

Davie

D'oh - well if I didn't even know they'd found Saddham I'm hardly likely to know there are now "quality" tabloids out there - d'oh!

I'll have to look into that (the Exeter/papers thing) then...

Oh - I guess our design studio at work (pre-downsizing) was too small to have sub/copy editors - we just had a chief editor and 3 others - who did all the copy stuff including copy writing.

I bet the copy editors get less than the hacks too...

__________________________
Make your choice, adventurous Stranger;
Strike the bell and bide the danger
Or wonder, till it drives you mad,
What would have followed if you had.