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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to ask why the Sun and the Mail newspaper are so hated on here?

428 replies

missnamechange · 06/12/2011 11:18

I have name changed for this as i am a regular MNer and i know i really ought to know this Blush but i don't

i read the Sun every most days, i like the vacuous celeb gossip and their easy to understand way of writing (again - Blush ) and the womens section, and the problem pages

what's so bad about it?

OP posts:
JaneBirkin · 07/12/2011 10:36

Daily Mail Home page this morning.

Just look at all that crap.

'fat woman does pole dancing'

'model brings baby to bikini shoot'

You're seriously trying to defnd this pile of shit, Claig? it has a 'feminist' columnist does it? Right!

claig · 07/12/2011 10:42

The Daily Mail is not a feminist campaigning newspaper. It reports the type of stories that its milions of readers want to read and that includes gossip and celeb twaddle etc.

No one reads every story in it. The political elite who Jonathan Powell said fear it the most, pass over that stuff. It has other political stories that are of relevance.

MrsWifty · 07/12/2011 10:43

And bingo! Another example of a 50+ woman who's supposedly so weak-minded she can only be spoon-fed opinions by The Mail. Won't be long before I can call a full house on that one Xmas Hmm

claig · 07/12/2011 10:47

I don't agree with half of its stories or its slant on many issues, but can you imagine what would happen if it didn't exist and how happy the political elite would be?

We would never be ware of stories like this

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2066706/BBC-sought-advice-global-warming-scientists-economy-drama-music--game-shows.html

claig · 07/12/2011 10:50

Well said, MrsWitty. Its readers are not as stupid as we are often told by the political elites, who fear it most.

JaneBirkin · 07/12/2011 10:50

I consider the current political elite very happy with the DM slant. It's a tory paper and always has been. It LOVES the tories.

LisasCat · 07/12/2011 10:51

MrsWifty if you're referring to my mother, yes she bloody well is. I have listened to her opinions change over the 15 years she's read that shit rag. She used to at least know to keep her more offensive views shtum. But now she feels a sense of solidarity with the 'journalists' who spout this stuff, she feels more confident that it's an acceptable viewpoint. She simply regurgitates the crap she's read that morning.

For example....several years ago research was done into what paper someone reads compared to what percentage of the UK population they think is first generation immigrants. The broadsheet readers were all under 10% (the actual number at the time was about 4%). The other tabloids ranged from 10-20%. The Daily Mail readers were around the 30% mark. When I asked her, my mother said she thought 40% of the UK were first generation immigrants. 40 fucking %. I blame the paper for making my mother stupid.

So sue me.

claig · 07/12/2011 10:55

'I consider the current political elite very happy with the DM slant. It's a tory paper and always has been. It LOVES the tories.'

If you read it, you will have seen many recent negative articles about Cameron. It doesn't love all tories. In fact by reading it, you get a good idea of what changes might happen next.

claig · 07/12/2011 10:56

It also has lots of stuff that is negative towards Nick Clegg. It has its positions, but they are not necessarily the same as the current Coalition's.

claig · 07/12/2011 10:58

In fact, whereas the Guardian "enthusiatically backed" Nick Clegg in the election, the Mail along with the Mirror was one of the few papers that effectively said the emperor had no clothes.

JaneBirkin · 07/12/2011 10:58

Oh but Claig, they have to say that stuff. It buys readership. But they don't mean it.

JaneBirkin · 07/12/2011 10:59

Everyone says horrid things about Clegg basically because he's a chocolate teapot kind of a man. That's irrelevant. It's a tory government and the DM loves it.

tilder · 07/12/2011 11:00

It doesn't love Cameron because he keeps trying to drag the tories back towards the centre ground, which is not exactly where the DM positions itself.

JaneBirkin · 07/12/2011 11:01

precisamment

JaneBirkin · 07/12/2011 11:01

though I'm not sure he entirely means it either

MrsWifty · 07/12/2011 11:05

JaneBirkin - it sounds like whatever The Mail does or will do won't be good enough for you in that case, as only you know what it's really thinking.

claig - also, Paul Dacre was one of the most enthusiastic cheerleaders for Blair in the late 1990s.

LisasCat - not just you, it's a standard brickbat thrown at Mail readers, that they're too stupid to think for themselves, and that it shouldn't exist because older women are being led astray. But you yourself say that your mum has always had those opinions.

JaneBirkin · 07/12/2011 11:07

Blair was incredibly right wing, maybe that's why. And yes, I do know what they are thinking. it's really obvious.

claig · 07/12/2011 11:09

'It doesn't love Cameron because he keeps trying to drag the tories back towards the centre ground, which is not exactly where the DM positions itself.'

I think that is probably right. But we are also in teh midst of the most monumental changes in Europe's history in our lifetime. This new treaty and possible fiscal union and teh deposition of democrats and teh rise of teh technocrats is hugely important.

I think there is a battle going on about what Britain's response and role should be in this changing world ad that why I think negative articles about teh Coalition are starting toi become more prevalent in the Daily Mail and other papers too.

As Jonathan Powell said, the political elites fear the Mail the most, but I don't think that means only the Labour elites.

exexpat · 07/12/2011 11:09

Has anyone linked to this blogpost recently?

It shows, in detail, how Daily Mail journalists lie and distort everything said to them even by a willing, cooperative interview subject. Just imagine what they do if they aren't even pretending to like you. Well, actually, you don't have to imagine - you can see examples of it every day in the paper.

claig · 07/12/2011 11:11

Yes, I agree with Jane Birkin on that, that Blair did lots of things that pleased the Mail. I think I have read that Dacre was close friends with Gordon Brown too, but I can't remember it exactly.

claig · 07/12/2011 11:22

Here is a quote from that article

'The Daily Mail regards Cameron as a traitor on Europe, especially for poo-pooing the growing demands for a referendum on Britain's continued EU membership. Earlier this autumn, Dacre even hired Tory fogey Simon Heffer, who can't stand Cameron and his modernising chums'

claig · 07/12/2011 11:24

The Daily Mail is a powerful newspaper, as Jonathan Powell's comments show.

NinkyNonker · 07/12/2011 11:26

It is a powerful paper, but that isn't necessarily a good thing.

claig · 07/12/2011 11:29

I agree. But in a healthy democracy, you need a powerful press with different views that can hold politicians to account. A free press and a diverse press which argues for different positions is a very important part of our democracy.

It is naive to think that the Daily Mail is like "toilet paper" etc., it is in fact a very influential political paper that politicians fear the most.