The British Press - thread drift from Guardian article

[Cartman]

The comments about the press and newspapers in the Sweeney board thread on the Guardian article has prompted a rant!

As we said, The Guardian is just pretentious rubbish which looks for "gender issues" in stuff like Thomas The Tank Engine and is concerned about the rights of vegetables not to be eaten (made that up, but it wouldn't be a big shock!)

At the opposite extreme we have the Daily Mail, which is virtually full on fascist, basically, the purple faced, apopleptic, spluttering outrage of Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells in print form.

Of the others, I think The Daily Express is possibly the most stupid, aimed at the Mrs Brady Old Lady market, ee in't Weather shocking, ee, all them forriners...its website is a joke, full of UFOs, monkey pigs, Elvis seen in a chippy in Uttoxeter type stuff.

The Sun is just horrible, full of malicious lies and smut, The Independent is boring,  means well but really just a series of essays, The Star is a semi porn mag, The Telegraph is like listening to retired colonels in a billiard room in the 1920s, that just leaves The Mirror, which is just about OK

The sad thing is people read, and are influenced by, this tripe

No wonder on line news sites are growing in popularity

[Del Boy]

This about sums up the issues with the daily newspapers and I'm personally tired of their biased agenda based look at news stories. 
I'm more than happy with the Metro for a light bit of reading on a train journey. Yes it is fairly poor often having day old stories but
it gets the job done. The sport section is also more than adequate.

I have a news app that takes stories from a large variety of sources and I find that I use this the most to consume current affairs.

[Arthur Pringle]

It would be nice to avoid the news altogether. I don't buy newspapers but there's still the tv & online 'news' to contend with. I envy isolated people who don't have access to it, I'm sure they're happier living in ignorance. Most of what passes as news is information we can do without or have no control over & is invariably negative.

The 'stories' I find particularly objectionable are the ones of personal tragedy, 'newly wed couple die in accident during honeymoon', etc. No one other than the family need know about these incidents.

We live in an age of such misinformation & distortion that it's practically impossible to trust any news coverage. There are independent sources online but the bias is still there one way or the other. Burying your head in the sand it may be but there's nothing most of us can do to change things so why bother reading about them & getting depressed?

One thing I do take part in is signing online petitions if I think they're worthwhile.

[Charles Bronson]

Well said Arthur
I agree with every point you've made here.

Charles.

[Del Boy]

Yes good points Arthur. 
I go through periods of avoiding TV news. The bulletins can often be very dreary or trivial  anyway so it's good to give it a break.

[Steve Austin]

I never watch the news, they pick and choose what they want you to hear.  Carver Media I tells ya!!

[Cartman]

Todays Sun is just another illustration of the awfulness of the press, with its criticism of Raheem Sterling over this gun tattoo. I hate tattoos and one of a gun is in particularly poor taste, granted, but in about 2 weeks time it will be the start of the Sun's compulsory "sport our boys in Russia" campaign where it will be a requirement to wave St Georges flags, with the Sun's logo inserted, of course. Anyone not doing so will be denounced as a traitor or remoaner, a picture of Jeremy Corbyn not wearing an England shirt will be emblazoned on the front page, alongside ones of Michael Gove or Boris Johnson, superimposed on the England squad, and the heroes will be on course to win the world cup - stop giggling at the back!

When they lose to Panama and Belgium and crash out, they have a ready made scapegoat in - Raheem Sterling!! 

[Arthur Pringle]

I could never take The Sun seriously- page 3, what's that all about? 'I fancy having a J Arthur Rank whilst eating my cornflakes'    

The thing is that tabloids were never intended as serious newspapers, I think when they first appeared they were regarded as we might regard joke rags like The Sport. The gutter press has so much to answer for in terms of the public's attitudes & prejudices, you only have to look at the people behind them as epitomised by Rupert Murdoch to understand the harm they have done. I'm positive that the people of Britain would be better & happier without them & it's only force of habit that makes anyone buy or read them. Aren't most copies of The Mail given away free at places like airports? 

[Charles Bronson]

In my experience it's usually the Telegraph they give away at the Airport Arthur when you buy a bottle of water at an exorbitant price.

The Daily Telegraph is a dying newspaper,
I notice a graph of newspaper sales a few days ago, and sales for all papers are down. The Sun and The Mail are still the top selling papers.

I bought a paper for years till 2010 but I've learned a lot in the last eight years now I look at people carrying a paper on Sunday mornings, and I can't understand why they buy the garbage, especially older guys.

Charles.

[Sam Tyler]

May 30, 2018 14:45:26 GMT Arthur Pringle said:

I could never take The Sun seriously- page 3, what's that all about? 'I fancy having a J Arthur Rank whilst eating my cornflakes'     

<Wayne Winston Norris mode>

Arthur really? That's disgusting Arthur and totally unnecessary Arthur. I thought a man of your stature Arthur and status in the community Arthur would have progressed from cornflakes to something a bit more sophisticated Arthur even if it was only Frosties to accompany your J Arthur, Arthur.

</Wayne Winston Norris mode>

Sam.