To read the Daily Mail if it's free?

[LaMarschallin]

There are no DM readers here.

I realise that.

However, I regularly sully my poor, defenseless eyeballs by getting stuck into a free DM. Usually in a Waitrose cafe*.

I like the gossip. I like criticising the right-wing bias. I like, very occasionally, the writing (Craig Brown mostly).

I wouldn't dream of buying it.
I buy the Times and the Guardian and add in the Sunday Telegraph. Totally based on good cryptic crosswords and quizzes.

I think the DM is a rag and I wouldn't pay for it on principle (and the crossword is rubbish).

But - like the occasional Gregg's chicken bake, trashy television, blue waterline eyeliner - it is strangely addictive.

And, for all that nobody here reads it, it's often quoted.

I suppose my AIBU is:

Am I wrong to read the DM without buying it, even though I realise it's an awful right-wing rag that is, occasionally, funny and to believe it's read by more Mumsnetters than would own up to it?

PS Didn't want to get in to a Waitrose Vs the rest of the world discussion.

Meant to asterisk that.

I read it! In fact I even have the app 😳. I find comments amusing and quite like a bit of the sleb stuff. On the actual news front I tend to read their version and if I'm interested I go to BBC for the apt version.

I read it, but I also read a whole spectrum of ‘news’ papers. The comments on articles are eye opening, read what you want, why do need to ask the question?

I read it too. Sometimes it has details that the more sanitized media are lacking.

As long as you have an open mind and read other newspapers too I'm sure you'll survive the lies!
If I'm in a café I'll read anything to hand.

No I can’t abide it & would not read it on principle. I like The Guardian news app. I hate celebrity news, gossip etc

I wouldn't pay for it, but I don't see what's wrong with reading it for free as long as you can engage your critical thinking. The only thing I will never understand is people reading it and then being shocked, horrified etc etc to read how awful some of it is. It's like following Katie Hopkins on twitter and being horrified to discover she posts disgusting things.

Not for the faint hearted, but I don't see the harm in having a quick look in a cafe.

That said, the minute you start nodding along thinking "yeah, absolutely fucking right. Death penalty needs to be reintroduced", you know you've gone too far !

The other day I counted NINETEEN separate articles to click on relating to Harry and Meghan 😂

I do like the sidebar of shame sometimes.

I was once offered a free copy of The Sun and wouldn't take it on principle, but that's just me being a bolshi cow- standard.

Of course you're ok... It's good to get a broad view - even from those you find distasteful.

I once watched something on ITV, and I survived.

Read what you want.

Whatever you do read though, it's a good thing to evaluate it and not regard it as any kind of gospel.

That does for all our media.

I think it's simultaneously naive and arrogant to imagine you can read it but not get sucked into internalising, to some extent, its toxic right-wing narrative, not to mention its banality. But hey, you crack on. After all, you're balancing that with the Times, the Torygraph and the Guardian. Or their crosswords anyway.

I have the App. I take each sleb story with a pinch of salt. I also have the BBC App but don't read that as much

All newspapers are biased one way ir another. Just as long as you are aware that everything your read may not be true I dont think it matters at all.

It's good to read a range of stuff that you agree and disagree with to avoid just being in a bubble. No such thing as a free lunch though so you'll be paying for it somehow, even if just through the annoying pop ups you get

There are no DM readers here.

Laughed my fucking arse off. There are loads of Fail readers on here, they just don't admit it. Loads of links to the Fail are regularly posted.

why do need to ask the question?

Well, for a discussion. And, with luck, some humour.

Don't worry - I don't live my life by asking MN what do to do, then blindly following the advice.

Although, I have LTB, gone NC, been imprisoned for burning down a local shop that sold loo* brushes and made a chicken last for two years.

*Other euphemisms are available.

I do glance at it occassionally, good the know the enemy and all that. I get a small thrill of anger from it. I would never pay for it, no.

I think people should read newspapers from all the spectrum.
In a morning I go through BBC, DM, Guardian as three main ones and whatever else pops up on my news feed.

It's good to get a broad view - even from those you find distasteful.
Yessssss!

YANBU. I have a subscription to The Times and take the Guardian but I also look at the Daily Mail website on a daily basis. Its a rag but I love the different takes they all have on the same issue. I wouldn't buy it though my dad a life long Labour supporter did because it was the only tabloid he thought had enough content and he couldn't cope with a broadsheet.
DM also picks up stories, particularly world weather news etc which the others don't.

It's very entertaining. I love hate-reading Sarah Vine and Amanda Platell.

DM does have the most amusing apocalyptic headlines sometimes

If it's free to you, someone's bought it & left it (adding to their circulation figures and advertising credentials), or it's one that is given out (eg on planes) - also adding to their circulation. So all round, it's bad. They count every copy.

I find comments amusing and quite like a bit of the sleb stuff.

Many of the comments aren’t so amusing when you’re a BAME immigrant (albeit with a British passport).

I read it! I adore the comments section, it's hilarious. Getting a massively downrated comment on there makes me happy
I also find their reporting funny in general. Nobody walks down the street, they "saunter while flashing their assets". Nobody has legs they have "lithe pins". Its cracking for light entertainment.