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Saturday 16 August, 2014
More on Cliff Richard, with the Telegraph raising valid questions about what the BBC was doing with a helicopter hovering overhead while the police searched the singer's flat. Yes, media coverage encourages people to come forward, but that doesn't mean that television cameras need to be on the scene of what Richard has described as a "fishing expedition". The BBC may have had the tip from its own sources, and once it was confirmed it naturally went ahead and covered the raid. But the police might have done better to deploy the words "No comment".
See the rest of the week's papers here Friday 15 August, 2014
Thursday 14 August, 2014
Was it good news or bad? Out celebrating or indoors poring over the clearing sites? A-level results used to be a shoo-in splash for everyone; today they make only the Mail and the i which seem to offer diametrically opposite approaches. For the Mail, a new resit regime will make life even more difficult for those who don't make the grade; for the i, more will do better than expected and the universities will be trying to lure them. The Times also goes for this line, although in common with the Guardian, Independent and Telegraph, it splashes on Iraq. The Sun's front is extraordinary: we've become used to ever-growing puffs, but this is of a completely new order. The paper's regular comparison of the cost of a shopping basket of staples - bread, eggs, milk etc - bought at Morrison's or Waitrose is a source of delight in the SubScribe household; this is a logical extension. But, my word, what a monster puff that is. The Guardian follows up on the death of Robin Williams with a look at the way we treat people with depression. SubScribe is uncomfortable with the choice of the verb "driven" in the Telegraph and Express with regard to the man who killed his wife and then himself, since it suggests he had no option. Not quite as bad as "forced", but not far off. And as for the Mail: would this have been acceptable behaviour if the victim had not come from the "perfect family"?
SubScribe A levels a cause for celebration See what the commentators have to say about Iraq here Wednesday 13 August, 2014
Congratulations, Fleet Street, we've done it again. SubScribe Robin Williams and suicide reporting See what the commentators say about Robin Williams here Tuesday 12 August
An interesting Twitter debate this morning about how slow newspapers look when they lack big stories that have been on the internet for hours. The case in point is the death of Robin Williams, with the news breaking after midnight - and hence after print offstone times. At least four papers ended up with the story on their fronts, and probably more, but out in the sticks we don't get sight of some later editions. Congratulations to the Sun, Times and Telegraph for getting it onto the main run - and particularly to the Times, since the balance of the two stories on its front is exactly right and would still have been right if there had been no time pressure.
A pity the Mirror surrendered its striking cover in the update. I'd have junked Maloney Day 3 puff and put Robin Williams there. Monday 11 August, 2014
The plight of the Yazidis trapped by Islamic State forces in Iraq - and particularly reports that 500 of them had been buried alive - is the dominant issue of the day. The Independent and i splash on the massacre report, which also earns a small slot on the Mail and Sun fronts, while the Times goes for the British political angle with Tories pushing for air strikes. The Guardian and Telegraph both go for first-person pieces, the former reporting that at least 20,000 Yazidis had escaped from Mt Sinjar, and the latter offering the first report from the mountain top. This did not, however, merit the splash, the Telegraph preferring to lead on plans to make wealthy people suspected of investing in aggressive tax avoidance schemes pay inheritance tax "up front". The headline is a mite scaremongery for an initiative that may turn out to affect "tens of thousands", but which may equally turn out to worry only the likes of Gary Barlow. The paper does, however, avoid the trap that caught the Guardian and Times: the photograph of people on the Wobbly Millennium Bridge being buffeted by the winds of ex-hurricane Bertha is striking, but sits most unhappily alongside stories about people fleeing for their lives. The Mirror naturally splashes on day two of its Kellie Maloney scoop, matched by the Sun, which shows some smart catch-up skills.
Maloney baloney Special commentary by Katherine O'Donnell on the Mirror's exclusive Editor's blog Why did Sunday Telegraph throw away its world exclusive? Sunday 3 August, 2014
The Mirror is clearly proud of its exclusive and SubScribe thinks it is sensitively told - but Katherine O'Donnell begs to differ in a special post here
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