British newspapers - a guide for tourists?

"Newspaper" is a broad sweep here.
There are the tabloids (or "Red Tops") that, despite war breaking out everywhere, will be only interested that Britnay Spears' left tit popped out at an award show, or what knitwear David Beckham is wearing.
The "broadsheets", which are now reduced in size to "tabloid"(!) (Independent & Times) are the serious papers with news in them. They have different political leanings and I like to pick whichever one I fancy at the time, although I rarely buy one to be honest. I can see little point with reading a paper that conforms to your own viewpoint all the time, as you never see the other side of the argument. I hate the Telegraph (Torygraph) for it's political standpoint, but it is actually a very good paper and I like it when I get it, but it gets me mad as hell. The Independent is as close to my comfort zone as any, although I do get The Guardian sometimes too from habit.
I think it's good to get a spread of papers, and I think this is becoming a more common thing to do now that people tend not to get a paper every day anymore. It is around here anyway.

* The Daily Mirror is read by people who think they run the country;
* The Guardian is read by people who think they ought to run the country;
* The Times is read by people who actually do run the country;
* The Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country;
* The Financial Times is read by people who own the country;
* The Morning Star is read by people who think the country ought to be run by another country;
* The Daily Telegraph is read by people who think it already is.
* The Sun is read by people who don’t care who runs the country, as long as she’s got big tits.

First thing to recognise when reading ANY newspaper, or magazine is that they can contain both FACTS and OPINIONS.

Second thing is to recognise the difference.

Some of the better newspapers present more facts and provide more considered opinion. Others are a bit light on fact and full of the patron's opinion.

Cheers

Don

Pretty accurate too!

How about a gradation from left to right? probably roughly as follows;

Most right wing first

Daily Mail
Daily Telegraph
Sun
Daily Express (not sure about this one)
Mirror
Times
Independent
Guardian

Bruce (gradually sinking down the list for his daily paper)

I like the Telegraph on Saturday (very good crossword)and The Times on Sunday otherwise I read the Times during the week sometimes The Independent or Guardian and I have been known to read the Daily Mail - I do this as it is it is nice to see chunks of the moronic paranoid fascist /racist editorial posted on this ere forum by you know who. In general I prefer specialist magazines for my news as newspapers are run and written by lying manipulative whores. If I am abroad I get the Sunday Times which lasts me the week.

quote:

Originally posted by Bruce Woodhouse:
How about a gradation from left to right? probably roughly as follows;

Most right wing first

Daily Mail
Daily Telegraph
Sun
Daily Express (not sure about this one)
Mirror
Times
Independent
Guardian

Bruce (gradually sinking down the list for his daily paper)

I'd say that that list is absolutely right!

Strangely (and for reasons I have not yet discovered), people buy a newspaper, except Telegraph readers. They always "Take" the Telegraph.

quote:

Originally posted by Bruce Woodhouse:
How about a gradation from left to right? probably roughly as follows;

Most right wing first

Daily Mail
Daily Telegraph
Sun
Daily Express (not sure about this one)
Mirror
Times
Independent
Guardian

Bruce (gradually sinking down the list for his daily paper)

No FT, no comment.

quote:

Originally posted by Rasher:
Strangely (and for reasons I have not yet discovered), people buy a newspaper, except Telegraph readers. They always "Take" the Telegraph.

LOL yes absolutely correct.

We do have a surprisingly diverse national press here.

The most right-wing paper is in fact the Express, a vicious little rag run on a shoestring and which is obsessed with Princess Di, the weather, house prices, asylum seekers and pensions.

The Mail is a rotten paper, but is edited with a weird kind of macho brilliance; of all the papers it understands its readers the best, invests most heavily in editorial resource and - as a former hack myself - I can't help but have a sneaky admiration for it, even if I despise its views.

The Sun is no longer the force it as, but still occasionally deliversthe goods - the US friendly fire story it broke earlier this year was a masterful example of a good old-fashioned scoop.

The Mirror too is waning, but also still breaks scoops. It's not fair to say that the two main red-tops are obsessed with soaps and celebrities - generally they, along with the NoTW, will break the most scoops over the course of a year.

The Times and Guardian have both drifted downmarket and towards the centre, leaving the Tele and Indy to take up cudgels on behalf of the right and left respectively. The true paper of record, now that the Times has taken its eye off the ball, is the FT I guess.

The tabs and Tele are best for sport, the Indy has the best covers.

All our papers are worth sampling, with the exception of the Star (nothing in it except tits) and the Express.

K

The Indy is a bit lost at the moment IMHO (although I believe it is actually gaining readers). It seems to have increasingly trashy tendencies and has lost the campaigning bite of a year or so ago. It seems vaguely cross a lot of the time without much reasoned argument. I also lament that it seems to have dropped the committment to exceptional photography that marked it out at launch.

I've always rather admired The Sun. It actually delivers its news content with great clarity of communication. It knows its readers and does actualy attempt to inform as well as entertain. It seems like quality populism to me.

I've never read the Express, and from the views expressed by Kevin-W I think I'm glad. I did not even know the FT covered non-business news!

My ideal paper (and I read one every day and have since a teenager) might combine the Indy's Arts coverage and obits, the Guardian for main news/comment/letters and literature reviews and the Torygraph for Sport!

Bruce

Bruce,

What about including a nice 'page 3' type pic?

A

quote:

Originally posted by acad tsunami:
* The Daily Mirror is read by people who think they run the country;
* The Guardian is read by people who think they ought to run the country;
* The Times is read by people who actually do run the country;
* The Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country;
* The Financial Times is read by people who own the country;
* The Morning Star is read by people who think the country ought to be run by another country;
* The Daily Telegraph is read by people who think it already is.
* The Sun is read by people who don’t care who runs the country, as long as she’s got big tits.

© Anthony Jay and Jonathon Lynn....

quote:

Originally posted by Nigel Cavendish:

quote:

Originally posted by acad tsunami:
* The Daily Mirror is read by people who think they run the country;
* The Guardian is read by people who think they ought to run the country;
* The Times is read by people who actually do run the country;
* The Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country;
* The Financial Times is read by people who own the country;
* The Morning Star is read by people who think the country ought to be run by another country;
* The Daily Telegraph is read by people who think it already is.
* The Sun is read by people who don’t care who runs the country, as long as she’s got big tits.

© Anthony Jay and Jonathon Lynn....

Sorry if this offends any of my countrymen on the Forum, but it seems the British might (prepare for sweeping generalisation...) be a little more sophisticated about their personal news gathering due to the choices they have.

Unfortunately the readership here is not big enough to support foreign correspondents for all of the newspapers and I think most of the overseas news that's printed here is Associated Press feed. Also, the city newspapers (Dominion, The Press, Otago Daily Times etc) have been bought up by media conglomerates over the years and this seems reflected in their editorial bent.

It is interesting to me that there seems to be little argument so far about the differences in the British newspapers.

Talking of Page 3 pics, the Birmingham Post had a picture I took across the top of page 3 during the week of Crufts Dog Show.

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quote:

Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)

might allow one to browse the restrictive archives of domestic and overseas newspapers but I could not possibly comment.

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quote:

Originally posted by Derek Wright:
Talking of Page 3 pics, the Birmingham Post had a picture I took across the top of page 3 during the week of Crufts Dog Show.

There have been a few dogs on page 3 over the years I'm sure.

Yes I would certainly put the Express nearer the top for pandering to Right wing insecurities and is often down right nasty (whatever happened to Tebbit?)

No one has mentioned the daily sport

We also have good regional papers, up in the North East the Northern Echo is good and the Evening chronicle is a fair paper but is full of murder's, knifings, drug dealing and nasty things. Rarely any mention of Torvill & Dean these days.

Diccus

hampstead and high for me, but then I can't actually read good so I have the butler read it for me.

quote:

Originally posted by Jay:
hampstead and high for me, but then I can't actually read good so I have the butler read it for me.

Jay,

I do hope your butler also irons your newspaper - it is so difficult to get good staff these days.

quote:

Originally posted by acad tsunami:
Jay,

I do hope your butler also irons your newspaper - it is so difficult to get good staff these days.

Don't be ridiculous! the maid does the ironing.

As I can't read good, what's the equivalent hierarchy with the TV news? I personally get all my news from E! which I've found extremely enlightening. Who has more credibility than a well known celebrity?

quote:

Originally posted by Jay:

Who has more credibility than a well known celebrity?

That's easy. A member of the Royal Family!