Guardian and the Mail

Quoted from jock dock tower

Were that true, then the Guardian wouldn't have backed the Liberal Party at the last election. Wake up Kipperheed! I don't have an intolerance to other newspapers, it's just the shitey stuff I can't stand...so you can take out the Sun, Star and Sport for starters. The Mail, Telegraph, and the Express - and you can't ignore it - are the playthings of media oligarchs who have an undue influence on both politics and free thinking in this country. Doesn't chime with my views on democracy KOTK, but hey, keep on rocking in the free world........

The Lib Dems are seen as centre-left more than they are centre-right. After 2010 they are also seen as power-driven and willing to surrender principles. You can't blame the Guardian for falling for their charms before the election...

And yes, all newspapers are playthings of rich men, otherwise they would all be gone. The Guardian is owned by a trust; does that make it a better newspaper? It may not have a Twiggy Rathbone in charge but it doesn't mean it doesn't follow an agenda; it is just an agenda decided by a committee of like-minded people rather than by an individual.

You criticise the likes of the Sun, Star and Sport for printing 'shitey stuff' but I'm afraid that is what the people like.  I'm with you, I don't like it, that is why I read the Times. I have no particular desire to know what Harry Thingy from One Direction is doing but plenty of people do. Therefore I have no desire to stop their thirst for knowledge of such things. I would love people to take a deeper interest in what matters but folk don't. The world has always thrived on gossip.

And this is nothing new. The last serious news-based left-wing paper for the 'working-classes', the Daily Herald, crashed and burnt in 1964 after losing out to a more populist 'working-class' paper called the Daily Mirror that was prepared to cover the lighter side of life. Ironically the Herald was sold, renamed the Sun and eventually rescued in 1969 by Rupert Murdoch. Given that the TUC once owned 51% of the Herald I wonder what they made of that?

Quoted from kingofthekippers

The Lib Dems are seen as centre-left more than they are centre-right. After 2010 they are also seen as power-driven and willing to surrender principles. You can't blame the Guardian for falling for their charms before the election...

And yes, all newspapers are playthings of rich men, otherwise they would all be gone. The Guardian is owned by a trust; does that make it a better newspaper? It may not have a Twiggy Rathbone in charge but it doesn't mean it doesn't follow an agenda; it is just an agenda decided by a committee of like-minded people rather than by an individual.

You criticise the likes of the Sun, Star and Sport for printing 'shitey stuff' but I'm afraid that is what the people like.  I'm with you, I don't like it, that is why I read the Times. I have no particular desire to know what Harry Thingy from One Direction is doing but plenty of people do. Therefore I have no desire to stop their thirst for knowledge of such things. I would love people to take a deeper interest in what matters but folk don't. The world has always thrived on gossip.

And this is nothing new. The last serious news-based left-wing paper for the 'working-classes', the Daily Herald, crashed and burnt in 1964 after losing out to a more populist 'working-class' paper called the Daily Mirror that was prepared to cover the lighter side of life. Ironically the Herald was sold, renamed the Sun and eventually rescued in 1969 by Rupert Murdoch. Given that the TUC once owned 51% of the Herald I wonder what they made of that?

I'm not sure they like it, just that there's precious little else out there that panders to both a celebrity based culture as well as news. I get the feeling that this attack on anyone and everyone who is on benefits will come back seriously to bite the government on the bum, and also maybe make folk seriously consider why they buy something that would be better served being sold in the comics section, that supports the government with it's austerity (and anti Leveson) agenda? I live in hope, and amongst highflying pigs.....

Quoted from kingofthekippers

Reflect or influence, couldn't the same accusation be levelled at all newspapers? Do left-wing newspapers reflect the views of its' readers whilst right-wing ones influence them?

I think you are over-estimating the power of the press in this area. Your argument assumes that everyone is an idiot and cannot make up their own minds. If the Mail (or indeed any newspaper) printed material its' readers did not agree with or sympathise with, it would soon be out of business. All newspapers pander to their given market otherwise they'd be long gone. Indeed some are going quicker than others; of the broadsheets the Guardian and its' Sunday stablemate, the Observer, have shown some of the biggest year-on-year declines (only the Independent has done worse), although all newspapers are losing readers.

You're quite right that the Daily Mail is a right-wing newspaper, in the same way that the Guardian is a left-wing one but they have one crucial difference. Most Mail readers wouldn't give a toss about the Guardian, whereas Guardian readers have an in-built horror of the Mail or any newspaper which doesn't follow their stance.

It has always struck me as odd that the left, given their ideological belief in equality and fairness, has a far greater intolerance to views that do not chime with theirs, a view you'd normally associate with the right.

true - most mail readers are too scared by all the other horrors in the world to be worried about the guardian - i mean all you read in the mail  is about those scary muslims, east europeans coming over here to take our houses/money/jobs/women, benefit scroungers trying to cheat 'hard working families', commies and socialists trying to ruin the nirvana that was the the 1950's U.K., cancer, spurious health scares, anti royalists and the big one - falling house prices!! it's a scary old world out there.....