The front pages
Saturday 26 April 2014
The Independent is the only paper to examine the failure of the latest Palestinian negotiations on the front - but it chooses to do so through a commentary piece by Robert Fisk rather than the rather excellent straight reports from David Usborne and Ben Lynfield. To some Fisk is the epitome of what a foreign correspondent should aspire to be. To others he is the reverse, a liability rather than an asset. It's a pity that, as the one paper to address the situation with a splash and spread, the Indie has led on a highly opinionated commentary rather than on telling the news.
The Guardian, too, leads on a picture byline piece - Decca Aikenhead on Nigel Farage. We can guess the paper's opinion of the Ukip leader without ever having read a word it has published on the subject, but Aikenhead is fair in her interview. She doesn't make judgments about the party's policies, which would be difficult, given that the thrust of the piece is that he won't disclose any. She recognises his success in setting our political agenda even though, as the splash head says, his party has no MPs and no declared policies. And she concludes that it must be down to more than luck. But, like so many before her, she can't pin him down and find out exactly what's going on in his head. It's still an engaging read.
The prospect of Oasis reuniting to headline at Glastonbury is an unusual splash for the Star. With all due respect, it's not the sort of story you'd expect from a paper that generally deals in creatures even more unsavoury than Liam Gallagher. Ah. Here's yesterday's Daily Mirror with the rumour as a page lead, and here are Metro, the Guardian, the NME and half the world reporting that all bets on the reunion are off. The frenzy started on Thursday Gallagher spelt out O-A-S-I-S in separate tweets.
But today the one person who really knows trumped the five letters with five words:
The Guardian, too, leads on a picture byline piece - Decca Aikenhead on Nigel Farage. We can guess the paper's opinion of the Ukip leader without ever having read a word it has published on the subject, but Aikenhead is fair in her interview. She doesn't make judgments about the party's policies, which would be difficult, given that the thrust of the piece is that he won't disclose any. She recognises his success in setting our political agenda even though, as the splash head says, his party has no MPs and no declared policies. And she concludes that it must be down to more than luck. But, like so many before her, she can't pin him down and find out exactly what's going on in his head. It's still an engaging read.
The prospect of Oasis reuniting to headline at Glastonbury is an unusual splash for the Star. With all due respect, it's not the sort of story you'd expect from a paper that generally deals in creatures even more unsavoury than Liam Gallagher. Ah. Here's yesterday's Daily Mirror with the rumour as a page lead, and here are Metro, the Guardian, the NME and half the world reporting that all bets on the reunion are off. The frenzy started on Thursday Gallagher spelt out O-A-S-I-S in separate tweets.
But today the one person who really knows trumped the five letters with five words:
@TheToneWill oasis aren't playing this year.
— Emily Eavis (@emilyeavis) April 26, 2014Eavis was replying to a tweet from Tony Willmott to confirm that the band wouldn't be appearing. This was an important request as returned festival tickets go on sale first thing tomorrow morning. There will be quite enough of a scramble without hordes of Oasis fans adding to the scrum. Strangely, none of the papers and websites reporting Gallagher's game mentioned the timing of it.
But we mustn't judge the Star too harshly. The Times splash is a version of the Mail's lead from last Tuesday; the Mail, without a hint of irony, is taking credit for inspiring people's generosity towards a young man dying of cancer; neither the Sun nor the Express can claim to have a "story" on their fronts - and why in heaven's name is everyone giving so much space to Susanna Reid? Haven't we been told everything we needed to know and more about Strictly, the broken love affair, the desertion of the Beeb, the £1m salary?
The Mirror and Sun both have "exclusives" and there are inside stories all over the place. Yes, the new programme starts on Monday. Are the papers now giving free advertising to ITV - presumably their biggest commercial rival? Or maybe the news executives are taking note of the negative vibes coming from behind the scenes. Beware the sympathy, Susanna. They may very well be building you up to knock you down.
Best read of the day comes from Janice Turner in the Times on the media silence - or apathy - surrounding the kidnapping of more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls two weeks ago. Sobering stuff.
Happy Saturday.
But we mustn't judge the Star too harshly. The Times splash is a version of the Mail's lead from last Tuesday; the Mail, without a hint of irony, is taking credit for inspiring people's generosity towards a young man dying of cancer; neither the Sun nor the Express can claim to have a "story" on their fronts - and why in heaven's name is everyone giving so much space to Susanna Reid? Haven't we been told everything we needed to know and more about Strictly, the broken love affair, the desertion of the Beeb, the £1m salary?
The Mirror and Sun both have "exclusives" and there are inside stories all over the place. Yes, the new programme starts on Monday. Are the papers now giving free advertising to ITV - presumably their biggest commercial rival? Or maybe the news executives are taking note of the negative vibes coming from behind the scenes. Beware the sympathy, Susanna. They may very well be building you up to knock you down.
Best read of the day comes from Janice Turner in the Times on the media silence - or apathy - surrounding the kidnapping of more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls two weeks ago. Sobering stuff.
Happy Saturday.
Friday 25 April, 2014
The Telegraph has been focused on Christianity for most of the week and today the Times joins it in leading on Nick Clegg's suggestion that Church and State should be separated. It isn't an idea that goes down well with the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Prime Minister or either paper. The Telegraph is also sticking with Mark Shand - the Duchess of Cornwall's brother, who has just died - on its front, as are the Express, Mail and Sun. The latter leads on the lover's description of the moment of death. Very touching, but to be brutal, how many of us want or need this level of coverage? However jolly, raucus or derring-do his life, would we be seeing all this in the front of the book if he were not the Prince of Wales's brother-in-law?
Another Coronation Street star was in court yesterday - this time it was Barbara Knox (aka Rita Fairclough or Tanner, depending on when you last watched) accused of driving in a supermarket car park when just over the drink-drive limit. The trouble with all these cases is that papers don't know whether to trust their readers to know the real from the fiction, so we have Corrie Ken, Corrie Kev, Corrie Rita. Funnily enough, it's generally the actor rather than the soap opera character who is on trial. So well done to the Express for having the courage to use her proper name (on the front, at least).
Another Coronation Street star was in court yesterday - this time it was Barbara Knox (aka Rita Fairclough or Tanner, depending on when you last watched) accused of driving in a supermarket car park when just over the drink-drive limit. The trouble with all these cases is that papers don't know whether to trust their readers to know the real from the fiction, so we have Corrie Ken, Corrie Kev, Corrie Rita. Funnily enough, it's generally the actor rather than the soap opera character who is on trial. So well done to the Express for having the courage to use her proper name (on the front, at least).
The commentators...on Ukraine
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Philip Stephens (FT) Ukraine should have been a wake-up call for Europeans about the returning threat to the security and freedom they have come to take for granted. The opinion polls suggest it has been otherwise. War – cold or hot – against Russia is not an answer. Nor, though, is an assumption that jaw-jaw can do the job. A tough rejoinder to Mr Putin should sit alongside an approach that offers genuine partnership to a Russia that plays by the rules. Much depends on Mr Obama.
Edward Lucas (Mirror) Like it or not, the problems in Ukraine are our problem. We should impose hard sanctions to stop Putin's war machine. But we must not expect them to be painless. Nicholas Kristof (International New York Times) It may be too late to deter Putin in Moldova, but, whatever happens, we should back Moldova’s plucky government. The US can help by supporting infrastructure for Moldova to import natural gas and electricity from Romania, making it harder for Putin to freeze Moldovans into submission. |
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...and Cornwall
Petroc Trelawnay (Telegraph) We are not on the road to Cornish passports, nor indeed any form of devolution. But it is welcome none the less, for commercial reasons, and for the sense of fresh pride that will be enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of Cornish. To use a popular Cornish phrase, "proper job". Michael Morpurgo (Guardian) I feel Cornish enough to be delighted by the minority status recognition the county has been given this week by the European Union and by the support the government is giving to the Cornish language. This is about recognition, but the really important thing is that it is about the struggle to find a sense of belonging, which we all need. Jethro (Sun) Being recognised as a minority group will not make a big difference but it's nice. It pays tribute to our history. |
Thursday 24 April, 2014
Three strong human interest stories dominate, two of them of abiding interest to the Express. The paper responds by ditching the conventional puff in favour of a clean split and headlines that tell it straight. If there's a quibble, it's that the second Madeleine subdeck is more important than the first. Its front outperforms the Mail, which overcrops the picture of Camilla and brother and give undue prominence to the Richard Kay puff. We wanted to read what he has to say about "the Diana I knew"; the "Mark Shand I knew" is not such a hot selling point, since most of us hadn't heard of him until this morning. The Times headline fails because the cause of death is more important than Camilla's devastation.
On to Madeleine. The three devotees, Express, Mirror and Star, naturally splash on the story. But the disclosure that another British girl was assaulted in Praia da Luz two years before Madeleine disappeared, possibly by a paedophile linked to a string of attacks in the Algarve, has made everyone sit up. The story makes page leads all over the place, and even gets a good show in the most sceptical papers. For some reason the Mail - which, surprisingly, places the story as far back as page 12 - feels it necessary to underscore the word "five" in its headline. SubScribe is going to start keeping score on the underscores.
The third story of universal interest is the detention of a 42-year-old graphic designer over the deaths of three of her children, all of whom suffered from the genetic condition spinal muscular atrophy which left them severely disabled. Her husband had taken their fourth child, a daughter who does not have the condition, on holiday to South Africa to celebrate her eighth birthday. The reports all mention the £1m (or £2m) house in Surrey that had undergone a total renovation, including the installation of lifts and ramps, to cater for the children's needs. We also learn that the father is a successful investment banker, a director of Investec. A picture of him with the twin boys who were among the dead is the most widely used image. There are also shots of the house, with a small bunch of flowers on the drive.
What a desperately sad story. And how interesting that a series of straight facts can create a picture in the reader's mind and provoke compassion. Writers and subs please take note.
Editor's blog Redtops on a roll
On to Madeleine. The three devotees, Express, Mirror and Star, naturally splash on the story. But the disclosure that another British girl was assaulted in Praia da Luz two years before Madeleine disappeared, possibly by a paedophile linked to a string of attacks in the Algarve, has made everyone sit up. The story makes page leads all over the place, and even gets a good show in the most sceptical papers. For some reason the Mail - which, surprisingly, places the story as far back as page 12 - feels it necessary to underscore the word "five" in its headline. SubScribe is going to start keeping score on the underscores.
The third story of universal interest is the detention of a 42-year-old graphic designer over the deaths of three of her children, all of whom suffered from the genetic condition spinal muscular atrophy which left them severely disabled. Her husband had taken their fourth child, a daughter who does not have the condition, on holiday to South Africa to celebrate her eighth birthday. The reports all mention the £1m (or £2m) house in Surrey that had undergone a total renovation, including the installation of lifts and ramps, to cater for the children's needs. We also learn that the father is a successful investment banker, a director of Investec. A picture of him with the twin boys who were among the dead is the most widely used image. There are also shots of the house, with a small bunch of flowers on the drive.
What a desperately sad story. And how interesting that a series of straight facts can create a picture in the reader's mind and provoke compassion. Writers and subs please take note.
Editor's blog Redtops on a roll
The commentators...on British politics
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Tim Montgomerie (Times) Without courage on taxation, Labour risks going into the next election without a credible plan to relieve the pressure on public services. If it promises to increase taxation Mr Miliband risks looking as if he will add to the pressures on the "squeezed middle" whom he promised to champion.
Stephen Glover (Mail) The spectacle of the Chancellor preening himself in public, and of Boris Johnson openly calculating the best route to No 10, is alarming. Can’t they leave their machinations until after the election? In discussing his prime ministerial ambitions a year ago, Boris conceded that ‘if the ball came loose from the back of a scrum’ it would be ‘a great, great thing to have a crack at it’. So it might |
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be. One day the ball will squirt out of the scrum. But in the meantime Boris should be seen to be doing his bit — keeping keep his head down, and cheerfully pushing.
Peter Oborne (Telegraph) The political class that governs Europe has made a spectacular mess. Next month's elections may not amount to a revolution, but we will certainly see the greatest rebellion yet against a politically bankrupt system. Rod Liddle (Sun) Nigel Farage is the spectre who has shaken up the cosy Westminster consensus and who connects with the ordinary voters - outside central London - in a way in which the three main parties are unable to do. |
Wednesday 23 April, 2014
The Sun and Mirror are on cracking form, some of the others less so. Why is it a shock for violent crime to drop (Times)? Every general election for the past goodness knows how many years has been declared the "dirtiest" at some stage before, during or after the event (Independent and i). And if you are a professional headline writer you should be able to make your point without recourse to underscores (Mail - twice). The Moyes story occupies acres in the news, comment and sports pages; good to see the redtops recognising that the business story is the best angle of the day. Apart, that is, from the Star. Why is everyone making so much fuss about Ryan Giggs playing away? That was ages ago. Oh yes, there was that super-injunction thing. The Press has a long memory when it suits; he's not in for a happy time. The Express asks how long he'll be in charge. Bless. Doesn't it understand that he's a caretaker?
The commentators...on David Moyes
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Dominic Sandbrook (Mail) You don't have to know or care anything about football to appreciate the tragic resonance of his fate. What business experts call ‘succession planning' is vital not just to the fates of clubs and corporations, but to the future of entire countries. Like David Moyes, John Major never really succeeded in winning over hard-core supporters and was widely seen as a grey, insubstantial figure after the charismatic fireworks of the Thatcher years.
Jasper Rees (Telegraph) No one will be watching the fallout of the Ferguson succession more closely than the board of Arsenal Football Club, where Arsène Wenger, Sir Alex’s most durable rival, is about to complete his 18th season in charge. Whoever comes after Arsène should study the vexed history of inheritance, including David Moyes’ press cuttings. |
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Matthew Norman (Independent) When a fearsomely dominant force leaves any venture, as the Conservatives learned from their post-Thatcher travails, rancour, failure and often chaos ensue. Only a coaching Gulliver - Pep Guardiola, Guus Hiddink, the limitlessly repellent Jose Mourinho and a few others – would have had a prayer of sustaining United’s domestic supremacy without several intervening years of mediocrity. Moyes has confirmed himself as one of the Lilliputians.
Daniel Finkelstein (Times) Moyes was in charge for only nine months. Any reasonable statistical analysis suggests you need to look at results over four or more seasons in order to be confident that you are measuring quality rather than just witnessing the random ups and downs of luck. |
Tuesday 22 April, 2014
The Easter goodies have all but gone and it's time for leftovers as we head back to work and school. News editors fly around for weeks trying to fill the pantry for the Easter weekend - five papers to fill and nothing in the diary - cajoling reporters who are trying to write for the edition to come up with something that will feel fresh a couple of weeks later. Senior executives vanish like the politicians, leaving the second, third and fourth in command to steer the ship.
By Monday night most of the stock will have been used - unless a big story breaks - so Tuesday's papers will always be a mixed bag. Thankfully, they are usually small - unlike at Christmas when there is page upon page, courtesy of the Boxing Day sales ads.
For today's papers, two sad farewells came to the rescue: the funeral of Peaches Geldof and the sacking of David Moyes - which hadn't happened when the papers were put together.
Pensions and mortgages are reliable standbys. And, of course, surveys. Today's says that thousands of people die of kidney failure in hospital because they are not given enough to drink. This is obviously unacceptable, But figures such as these (variously interpreted as 1,000 a week, 3,000 a month and 40,000 a year) are never set in context. Nobody sane would suggest that healthy people are being "killed", the Telegraph's verb of choice. Half of patients who die in hospital have acute kidney injury, a condition that too often goes undetected.
The failure to keep patients hydrated is an issue that has needed attention for many years, and is also linked to the misunderstanding and misuse of the Liverpool Care Pathway for the terminally ill. In other words, to put it brutally, many of these people were probably dying anyway. This doesn't excuse lack of care, but it does make the headlines a little less scary.
Editor's blog: Fleet Street ahead of the game on Moyes
By Monday night most of the stock will have been used - unless a big story breaks - so Tuesday's papers will always be a mixed bag. Thankfully, they are usually small - unlike at Christmas when there is page upon page, courtesy of the Boxing Day sales ads.
For today's papers, two sad farewells came to the rescue: the funeral of Peaches Geldof and the sacking of David Moyes - which hadn't happened when the papers were put together.
Pensions and mortgages are reliable standbys. And, of course, surveys. Today's says that thousands of people die of kidney failure in hospital because they are not given enough to drink. This is obviously unacceptable, But figures such as these (variously interpreted as 1,000 a week, 3,000 a month and 40,000 a year) are never set in context. Nobody sane would suggest that healthy people are being "killed", the Telegraph's verb of choice. Half of patients who die in hospital have acute kidney injury, a condition that too often goes undetected.
The failure to keep patients hydrated is an issue that has needed attention for many years, and is also linked to the misunderstanding and misuse of the Liverpool Care Pathway for the terminally ill. In other words, to put it brutally, many of these people were probably dying anyway. This doesn't excuse lack of care, but it does make the headlines a little less scary.
Editor's blog: Fleet Street ahead of the game on Moyes
The commentators...on secular Britain
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Charles Moore (Telegraph) I hope Mr Cameron will think more deeply about how the Christian heritage he holds dear is under attack. Until quite recently, Christians in Britain could assume the goodwill, if not the active belief, of the powerful in society. That assumption can no longer be made. Our beliefs are under attack from influential and militant atheists on the one hand and Muslim extremists on the other. To defend them, we have to work out much more carefully what they actually are.
Grace Dent (Independent) Cameron’s party policy on feeding people and his belief in the teachings of Jesus are utterly at odds. Perhaps the PM should volunteer for a week at a food bank, feeding the poor in a Christian manner, to shed some light on the dilemma? As an agnostic, I almost pray for a Second Coming of Christ, just to see Cameron have to face him and squirm. Stephen Glover (Mail) How can men of science solemnly declare that Christians are now in a minority in this country when by far the most authoritative |
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recent survey indicates that they remain, by a significant margin, in the majority? The only explanation I can think of is that some at least of the signatories are zealots who, despite their scientific training, can be far more emotional and extreme in their thinking than the religious believers whom they hold in contempt.
Francis Elliott (Times) Lynton Crosby will argue that it is possible to have Gospel Dave and Retail George. But which should you put on the campaigning leaflet cover? Ross Clark (Express) We can argue about the extent of the continuing influence of Christianity in modern life and to what extent to which Britain is still a religious country. But atheists might be a little more convincing if they were prepared to write their own letters to a paper. As a contribution to the debate on religion and national life David Cameron’s article was considerably more interesting than the round robin it inspired. |
Sunday 21 April, 2014
If it's Easter, it must be teachers. The unions all have their conferences over the weekend and papers are usually grateful to them, given that all the other usual sources go on holiday. The NUT voted on Saturday to strike in June, but that received scant coverage yesterday, apart from in the Independent. Today the paper and its little sister splash on how teachers are being subjected to digital abuse. This comes not only from pupils, who think nothing of posting taunts about competence or sexuality on Facebook or Twitter, but also from their bosses. Heads are apparently harassing their staff with late-night emails demanding action by first thing in the morning. This is, of course, unacceptable behaviour - but it issadly not unique to the teaching profession.
Glass half full-half empty for the Express and Mail today, which both splash on skin cancer. The bald facts are that the number of reported cases of malignant melanoma has risen from 1,800 cases in 1975 to 13,000 a year and that 2,000 people a year die as a result. For the Mail this is the deadly legacy of the annual rush to the sun. The Express, however, focuses on the point that eight out of ten sufferers now survive to turn it into a "good news" story.
Lots of royals around - in case you've lost track over the weekend, Prince George has now reached Sydney and yesterday he went to the zoo, where he met a bilby called George. He was a bit grouchy some of the time because he is teething. And, even though winter is approaching down there, he really should be wearing a sunhat.
Back home, his great grandma is celebrating her 88th birthday and David Bailey has taken a rather splendid mono photograph to mark the occasion - and help a government tourism and inward investment campaign.
Glass half full-half empty for the Express and Mail today, which both splash on skin cancer. The bald facts are that the number of reported cases of malignant melanoma has risen from 1,800 cases in 1975 to 13,000 a year and that 2,000 people a year die as a result. For the Mail this is the deadly legacy of the annual rush to the sun. The Express, however, focuses on the point that eight out of ten sufferers now survive to turn it into a "good news" story.
Lots of royals around - in case you've lost track over the weekend, Prince George has now reached Sydney and yesterday he went to the zoo, where he met a bilby called George. He was a bit grouchy some of the time because he is teething. And, even though winter is approaching down there, he really should be wearing a sunhat.
Back home, his great grandma is celebrating her 88th birthday and David Bailey has taken a rather splendid mono photograph to mark the occasion - and help a government tourism and inward investment campaign.
Sunday 20 April, 2014
Three shocking front pages today - the Observer reminds us about Syria, where the situation is becoming increasingly desperate; the Independent warns of a wheat crisis caused by a crop disease spreading from Africa to Europe; and the Sunday Mirror's lead on the delightful Josie Cunningham. Ms Cunningham is 18 weeks pregnant but has decided to have an abortion because negotiations for her to appear on Big Brother have broken down and she puts that down to her unborn baby.
If you thought Easter Sunday was for bunnies, think again. Today appears to be the day of the killer whale, orca and dolphins, including the splash (sorry) in the People. There is, however, a giant rabbit in the Mirror.
Kate makes only two front pages, but SubScribe predicts that dress will be flying out of the shops. The duchess doesn't need illusion to help with her figure, but most of us do and that is a most flattering design. It is by LK Bennett, comes in red and blue and costs £245. Too late! They've sold out.
If you thought Easter Sunday was for bunnies, think again. Today appears to be the day of the killer whale, orca and dolphins, including the splash (sorry) in the People. There is, however, a giant rabbit in the Mirror.
Kate makes only two front pages, but SubScribe predicts that dress will be flying out of the shops. The duchess doesn't need illusion to help with her figure, but most of us do and that is a most flattering design. It is by LK Bennett, comes in red and blue and costs £245. Too late! They've sold out.
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