To ditch the Daily Mail

[Morag72]

Realised that reading all the crap in DM was just depressing me. Finally ditched it. Will use Sky news for factual updates. Feel so much better already. A few years ago I ditched East Enders - similarly depressing.

My paper of choice is The Guardian but I am finding it increasingly disappointing in detail and depth, and increasingly silly in the positions it adopts on some issues.

I also stopped reading DM as it was making me feel negative about the world. IRL the vast majority of people are just getting on with their lives and want what’s best for their families and are generally good. DM provides a very skewed view of the world, amplifying negatives which is very unhealthy for society. They’ve cleverly designed their pages with click bait to draw people in.

In decades to come studies will be done on the DM and its influence on British culture. It plays back the snarling negative side of its readers, like the Dorian Gray picture in the attic.

A friend linked me to an article about Kelly Piquet on there last week. It was horrific.
Her only crime was to be rich, stunningly beautiful and the older girlfriend of Max Verstappen.

The comments were absolutely depressing, calling her a slag, she’s only with him for his money (yeah right) and she looks like his mother. It was dripping with pure hated.

I tend to read Apple news, though if any of them told me the sky was blue I’d probably double check for myself.

Definitely give it up. When it started crusading against Meghan Markle, that was insanely sinister. It's not a healthy paper, it just tears women down for the slightest thing, peddles lies, and once was vocally for Nazism. It's an outrage machine that should be shut down.

It's most popular surely because it isn't behind a paywall, a lot of the others are.

@Eredoor

It's most popular surely because it isn't behind a paywall, a lot of the others are.

The paper version was also very popular before that.

@Beefcurtains79 I read both the G and the DM. DM is vile about women. The Guardian isn't. No contest there. DM female contributors (are they journalists? hardly) turn my stomach with their striving to be just like the boys, similarly vile and right wing.

[quote LadyWithLapdog]@Beefcurtains79 I read both the G and the DM. DM is vile about women. The Guardian isn't. No contest there. DM female contributors (are they journalists? hardly) turn my stomach with their striving to be just like the boys, similarly vile and right wing. [/quote]
So why are you actively supporting and helping to fund them?

@WorraLiberty I'm not proud. I've reduced my browsing to only the left half of the webpage, that of news (of sorts). I don't read the celeb section on the right. I aim to reduce this further. Maybe I'll take this as my January challenge. I also browse The Mirror, though I give up after 2 minutes due to the millions of pop-ups.

It's a terrible misogynistic, people-bashing, xenophobic rag.

For some reason lots of women read it in spite of that.

I'm glad you're no longer one of them. Weaning yourself off that kind of sexist bullshit is much better for you in the long run.

Occasionally I've been drawn to read the old link from here and it's still the usual claptrap with an endless obsession with what women look like rather than anything they might achieve.

Just dreadful.

[quote LadyWithLapdog]@WorraLiberty I'm not proud. I've reduced my browsing to only the left half of the webpage, that of news (of sorts). I don't read the celeb section on the right. I aim to reduce this further. Maybe I'll take this as my January challenge. I also browse The Mirror, though I give up after 2 minutes due to the millions of pop-ups. [/quote]
You don't have to answer, but I asked why are you actively supporting and helping to fund them?

Don't get me wrong, you're as entitled to be a Daily Mail reader as all the others, but I don't get the claim that your dislike it?

I don't like Sushi so I don't eat it...

It’s a dreadful paper that peddles lies and hatred - so no.

It is a dreadful paper. But I don't believe it tells lies. At least no more than many papers, the Guardian included. 'Lies' are what people tend to call political and social opinions they disagree with, or facts they find awkward and uncomfortable and would rather didn't get known about.

I gave up the daily mail and the guardian. Both are just campaigning newspapers that don't report the news. Now I stick with the times or telegraph.

I agree, although I do still look at them both online just to see what they are up to. I usually end up snorting with derision at most of it.

I read the Times and the Telegraph and I trust them both. The Telegraph is more obviously pro-Tory and pro-Brexit than the Times, but it's still more balanced than the Guardian.

As far as I am concerned the Guardian is absolutely NO BETTER than the Mail. Which is funny because most of the people who love to mock the Mail and say things like 'it peddles lies and hatred' are avid Guardian readers. I find that quite ironic that they are more than happy to be spoonfed a diet of bias, blended up and sieved to remove any awkward lumps that might get in the way of a good agenda, so long as it's bias they agree with.

Although actually, when it comes to reporting the full facts of a story and not just the ones that suit the politics of its audience, I find the Mail much better than the Guardian. The Guardian is an absolute joke to be honest.

Oh the irony of going to the Murdoch press for impartial news.

And where should we go, pray tell? Even the BBC isn't considered unbiased any more. Although I find it quite hilarious that accusations of bias made towards the BBC come from the left and the right, and from Leavers and Remainers.

The Telegraph is more obviously pro-Tory and pro-Brexit than the Times, but it's still more balanced than the Guardian

The Telegraph, balanced, hahahaha! Okay, then....

I wouldn't insult my butt by wiping it with the DM. Nasty right-wing anti-feminist rag obsessed with royalty and celebrities.

What are you going to put on the nail on the back of the door now?

I ditched the Daily Mail when they slagged off a good friend of mine who is in the public eye. That was about 25 years ago, and I haven't touched the despicable rag since.

@WorraLiberty the health articles are short and simple. I also read somewhere that clicking on articles or going via that donotclick thing doesn't make a difference. TBH I also enjoyed seeing Johnson getting a bit of a bloody nose for the past few weeks. But I know I should have some more self respect and desist.

The Telegraph, balanced, hahahaha! Okay, then....

Can't you read? Or do you have a basic problem with comprehension? I clearly said that it is pro-Tory and pro-Brexit but in general I find it a more balanced paper than the Guardian. I didn't say it was balanced. I said it was more balanced than the Guardian.

I read all the papers to get opinions from each view. And to see how things are reported and the spin put on them. It’s good to keep up to date with how people will perceive certain things I think.

Exactly right. I do the same.

The Mail, like most of the British tabloids whips people up into a frenzy of angst and indignation with every headline.

At the moment .... All this 'Cancel Christmas' one minute, 'Save Christmas' the next bollocks being just one example. Christmas is going to happen regardless of the Daily Mail or Covid or the Government. People will just get on and do it in their own way as we always do.

My nan told me when I was a kid "Today's headlines are tomorrow's chip wrappings" (that was back in the day when Fish & Chips from the Chippie were wrapped in newspaper) and she was right.

Whatever scandal there is today will be forgotten tomorrow with a new one to take its place. I find ignoring them all and not getting myself wound up is the way to go. Likewise staying off twitter and other social media. I don't have a Facebook account or instagram or any of that, and I don't read online papers or watch/listen to the news.

There isn’t any impartial news though. You should always read/watch news with an awareness of the political and cultural bias of the producer. It’s probably better to read a range of sources as well if you can.

Exactly. Perfectly put.

The only paper that I genuinely miss is the Today. They hated all politicians equally, great paper.

And yet it didn't last. Which I suppose just goes to show that we prefer it when our newspapers tells us what we already think we know. We like impartiality in theory but clearly not in practice!

I only read it because their website is so much better laid out than others but I feel depressed every time I do read it and vow never again.

[quote LadyWithLapdog]@WorraLiberty the health articles are short and simple. I also read somewhere that clicking on articles or going via that donotclick thing doesn't make a difference. TBH I also enjoyed seeing Johnson getting a bit of a bloody nose for the past few weeks. But I know I should have some more self respect and desist. [/quote]
But I know I should have some more self respect and desist.

No, that's entirely up to you. I'm not judging you at all or anyone else for reading their newspaper of choice.

It just puzzles me why so many Daily Mail readers on Mumsnet don't hold their hands up to being a Daily Mail reader.

Instead they pull all sorts of 'reasons' out of the bag that they think makes them somehow different to all the other DM readers.

People should read/support/fund whatever they want, I just think they should stop kidding themselves.

@WorraLiberty I see what you mean. I think it's that I don't see myself as a DM reader as I don't identify with anything that's in that paper. I'm really, really not their demographic.