The front pages
January 2014
Friday 31 January, 2014
170,000 mutilated girls and women
- and not one prosecution in 29 years
Putting an attractive woman on the front page is a tried and tested formula - as the Times knows. It has done so again today. What is unusual, however, is that its cover girl is neither famous nor white. But she is the ideal person for what is the most important story affecting women today.
The extra-large portrait of Nimco Ali accompanies Sean O'Neill's splash about police failure to tackle honour killings, domestic violence, female genital mutilation and forced marriage. The Chief Inspector of Constabulary has called for a national investigation into the handling of such under-reported crimes.
Ali features in Lucy Bannerman's excellent sidebar on genital mutilation and, as founder of the Daughters of Eve organisation that campaigns against the practice, she is the ideal person to talk about the subject.
Ali was subjected to the procedure on a family holiday to Somalia when she was seven. She thought that she was an isolated case until her early twenties, when she was invited to give a pep talk to Somali teenagers at a school in Bristol. One of the girls asked about FGM and it turned out that most of the class were 'survivors'.
'I was completely shocked. It was really scary there was this whole population I wasn't aware of.'
A huge population. It is estimated that 170,000 girls and women in this country have been mutilated - three times as many as ten years ago. This is in spite of the fact that FGM has been illegal since 1985 and it is also against the law to take anyone abroad for such a procedure.
In 29 years there has not been one prosecution.
Ali reported what happened to her when she returned to her primary school in Manchester. The teacher hadn't a clue about the importance of what she was being told. That was 23 years ago, and Ali is concerned that the Education Department is still not doing enough. One Cabinet minister once asked her if she could experience orgasm. Instead of being affronted, she told the Times, she wished that Michael Gove would be so bold:
'I'd gladly talk to him about my vagina if it made him do something...Gove really needs to grow a pair. This is actual child abuse gone mainstream.'
Spend your £1.20 and read this. It matters.
There is a distinctly feminine feel about all of the fronts today with the verdict in the Meredith Kercher murder retrial, more activity in the McCann investigation and the growing gender gap at university.
It's instructive to compare the splash heads in the old-school Telegraph and the down-with-the-kids i. The former sees it as 'boys' being left behind; the latter as 'women' racing ahead. In fact nobody's ahead or behind. It's about the number of applications, not achievement (although girls' superior attainments at GCSE and A level obviously have an impact on the number choosing to continue their studies). Read more here
The Guardian and Mail are also concerned about women students - in this case Amanda Knox, who was yesterday convicted for the second time of murdering her flatmate Meredith Kercher in Perugia six years ago. In the immediate aftermath of the killing Kercher was portrayed as a good little British girl while Knox was
The extra-large portrait of Nimco Ali accompanies Sean O'Neill's splash about police failure to tackle honour killings, domestic violence, female genital mutilation and forced marriage. The Chief Inspector of Constabulary has called for a national investigation into the handling of such under-reported crimes.
Ali features in Lucy Bannerman's excellent sidebar on genital mutilation and, as founder of the Daughters of Eve organisation that campaigns against the practice, she is the ideal person to talk about the subject.
Ali was subjected to the procedure on a family holiday to Somalia when she was seven. She thought that she was an isolated case until her early twenties, when she was invited to give a pep talk to Somali teenagers at a school in Bristol. One of the girls asked about FGM and it turned out that most of the class were 'survivors'.
'I was completely shocked. It was really scary there was this whole population I wasn't aware of.'
A huge population. It is estimated that 170,000 girls and women in this country have been mutilated - three times as many as ten years ago. This is in spite of the fact that FGM has been illegal since 1985 and it is also against the law to take anyone abroad for such a procedure.
In 29 years there has not been one prosecution.
Ali reported what happened to her when she returned to her primary school in Manchester. The teacher hadn't a clue about the importance of what she was being told. That was 23 years ago, and Ali is concerned that the Education Department is still not doing enough. One Cabinet minister once asked her if she could experience orgasm. Instead of being affronted, she told the Times, she wished that Michael Gove would be so bold:
'I'd gladly talk to him about my vagina if it made him do something...Gove really needs to grow a pair. This is actual child abuse gone mainstream.'
Spend your £1.20 and read this. It matters.
There is a distinctly feminine feel about all of the fronts today with the verdict in the Meredith Kercher murder retrial, more activity in the McCann investigation and the growing gender gap at university.
It's instructive to compare the splash heads in the old-school Telegraph and the down-with-the-kids i. The former sees it as 'boys' being left behind; the latter as 'women' racing ahead. In fact nobody's ahead or behind. It's about the number of applications, not achievement (although girls' superior attainments at GCSE and A level obviously have an impact on the number choosing to continue their studies). Read more here
The Guardian and Mail are also concerned about women students - in this case Amanda Knox, who was yesterday convicted for the second time of murdering her flatmate Meredith Kercher in Perugia six years ago. In the immediate aftermath of the killing Kercher was portrayed as a good little British girl while Knox was
...and a taste of the comment pagesPhilip Collins (Times)
thinks David Cameron is now nothing more than the not-Ed Miliband candidate. Polly Toynbee (Guardian) says that the more the young and the poor think Westminster isn't on their side, the less they will vote. Fraser Nelson (Telegraph) thinks Tory rebels have stopped worrying about a Labour government; some just loathe Cameron and want him gone, others are fantasising about being in Boris Johnson's cabinet. Chris Roycroft-Davis (Express) asks why almost 800,000 immigrants struggle with English. How do they think they’re going to live a full life in their new home? Mark Steel (Independent) says Nick Clegg's problem is that once you’ve broken your word so blatantly, you can’t expect to be trusted next time. Serial adulterers face the same dilemma. Digest from Editorial Intelligence. Read more on their website here |
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'Foxy Knoxy' - the nickname she used on MySpace - a good-time American girl who smoked pot, had sex and cuddled and kissed her boyfriend as police investigated the crime scene.
Knox and the boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were found guilty of murder in 2009 but freed on appeal two years later. That appeal was overturned and the retrial that ended yesterday was held without either defendant present. Sollecito was today detained near the Austrian border while Knox is at home in America, where she was interviewed by Simon Hattenstone of the Guardian a few days ago. She told him that she would not 'williingfully' return to Italy and go to jail for something she says she didn't do. It remains to be seen whether America's extradition treaty with Italy stretches to returning her to complete her sentence. It is a case that satisfies no one. The Kercher family can take little comfort from the verdict, even though they said it was the 'right one'; questions are being asked about the Italian police and justice systems and about Rudy Guede, a young man from Ivory Coast convicted of the killing and jailed for 16 years after a 'fast-track' trial. Why one system for a black man and another for a pretty white woman and her handsome white lover? Some cases are never resolved satisfactorily, as we see with the renewed investigation into Madeleine McCann's disappearance in the Algarve. A British police team has gone to Portugal with three suspects in mind. The story makes the splash in both the Mirror and the Express, which have both repeatedly predicted for months that arrests were imminent. The two papers tell essentially the same tale: the police want to look into bank accounts and search the homes of three people who worked in the Warner hotel complex when the McCanns were there. The Mirror's 'exclusive' is that there was a spate of burglaries from holiday flats in the weeks before Madeleine's disappearance and that the three men might have been involved in them. The paper speculates that they may have disturbed the little girl while raiding the McCanns' flat and snatched her in panic. The Express is sticking to the view that Madeleine was probably kidnapped to order and that any extra money in the three men's bank accounts was payment in advance. |
Saturday 25 January, 2014
Today's mishmash has inspired the SubScribe four-point readworthiness test for our printed friends.
Saturday papers are tricky. Friday tends to be a slow news day as Westminster evacuates, leaving a vast empty shelf in the news supermarket. So, like the Sundays, the papers need special projects. But, unlike the Sundays, most reporters don't have all week to work on their stories. Fridays can therefore be fraught and the next day's offerings variable to say the least. Read more here
Some thoughts on pictures. Today's were pretty uninspiring: a couple of silhouettes, a file shot of Cameron, a file shot of Nigella (for a story everyone covered yesterday), a file shot of Kylie, a file shot of Sam Faiers, a file shot of Rebekah and Charlie Brooks (at least from this week), a couple of tubs of pills.
There were only two live pictures in the whole bunch: Francois Hollande with the Pope and Grayson Perry flanked by two Beefeaters.
The notion of an (alleged) adulterer and a celibate discussing family life is intriguing and amusing. The Pope's headmasterly look and Hollande's naughty boy demeanour are caption competition gold. But a picture of two men of a certain age standing two columns apart will never set the news stands on fire.
Perry in his 'mother of the bride' hat after collecting his CBE insignia was undoubtedly the picture of the day. There were several to choose from, all equally charming. But a transvestite? On the front page? Too scary for all but the Guardian. A pity.
Everyone did use a picture somewhere, though, but mostly with just a caption. The Express went further with a story about Prince Charles having trouble getting the ribbon over Perry's hat. The potter says that his first thought on hearing of the offer was 'what shall I wear' and that he designed his outfit himself. Good, then, to know that the Palace's verdict was:
"His attire was entirely appropriate."
Finally, have you noticed how many of the women on our front pages are dressed in red? SubScribe is starting a count. Today's tally is three.
Saturday papers are tricky. Friday tends to be a slow news day as Westminster evacuates, leaving a vast empty shelf in the news supermarket. So, like the Sundays, the papers need special projects. But, unlike the Sundays, most reporters don't have all week to work on their stories. Fridays can therefore be fraught and the next day's offerings variable to say the least. Read more here
Some thoughts on pictures. Today's were pretty uninspiring: a couple of silhouettes, a file shot of Cameron, a file shot of Nigella (for a story everyone covered yesterday), a file shot of Kylie, a file shot of Sam Faiers, a file shot of Rebekah and Charlie Brooks (at least from this week), a couple of tubs of pills.
There were only two live pictures in the whole bunch: Francois Hollande with the Pope and Grayson Perry flanked by two Beefeaters.
The notion of an (alleged) adulterer and a celibate discussing family life is intriguing and amusing. The Pope's headmasterly look and Hollande's naughty boy demeanour are caption competition gold. But a picture of two men of a certain age standing two columns apart will never set the news stands on fire.
Perry in his 'mother of the bride' hat after collecting his CBE insignia was undoubtedly the picture of the day. There were several to choose from, all equally charming. But a transvestite? On the front page? Too scary for all but the Guardian. A pity.
Everyone did use a picture somewhere, though, but mostly with just a caption. The Express went further with a story about Prince Charles having trouble getting the ribbon over Perry's hat. The potter says that his first thought on hearing of the offer was 'what shall I wear' and that he designed his outfit himself. Good, then, to know that the Palace's verdict was:
"His attire was entirely appropriate."
Finally, have you noticed how many of the women on our front pages are dressed in red? SubScribe is starting a count. Today's tally is three.
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Friday 24 January, 2014
Bieber mugshots, GM fish food and cross ex-girlfriendsThe Times and the Mail take a twin approach to appeal to both ends of the age spectrum - a splash on cancer treatment (or non-treatment) of the elderly and pictures of Justin Bieber. The Mail wins by a mile in terms of headline. The Times misses the point: its head could refer to blunders or mistakes in treatment rather than rationing it to the under-75s.
The paper scores, however, with its treatment of the Bieber pictures. Everyone loves to see the mugshots after a celebrity arrest and we want both of them in the stark side-on, full-face format. These baffle GG, though. Why isn't he holding a placard with a number on it? And why is he smiling? Aren't suspects were required to stare blankly, passport style, at the official photographer? But perhaps 99.9% of them scowl simply because they're ashamed or miserable, whereas for J-Beebs it was just another publicity shot. The Independent sisters are also dressed as twins today: same splash, almost the same heading, same misinformation. Superfoods? Well, yes - for fish. To be grown? Well, yes - if the scientists get permission after a three-month consultation period and an official inquiry. It's all a bit naughty. But still interesting. The scientists have copied fatty acid genes from the natural algae that fish eat and pasted them into a plant grown for seed oil. The modified plant should then produce a new source of omega-3 to feed to farmed fish - which might eventually be eaten by us. But not this year. The Mirror and the Sun are in no mood for forgiveness today. The Mirror is outraged that the singer Ian Watkins is exercising his legal right to appeal against his 35-year sentence for paedophile offences. Or at least the paper is reflecting the outrage of his ex-girlfriend, who has concluded from this routine response of anyone sent down for a long time that Watkins thinks that he is the victim of the case. Not sure about that reasoning. Jo Mjadzelic is equally cross that Watkins has been moved to a prison closer to his mother, who is said to be seriously ill after a kidney transplant. Hmm. Whisper it softly, but it is quite normal for prisoners to serve their sentence near to their families. He is the criminal, not his mother. Why should she be punished with a longer journey to visit him? |
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The Sun, too, is taking the ex-girlfriend's side. This time in the newsprint spat between Ulrika Jonsson and Stan Collymore. Yesterday Ulrika (a sometime Sun columnist) raged against Collymore's complaints about racist abuse and death threats directed at him on Twitter. Having been on the receiving end of Collymore's temper she accused him of hypocrisy. He responded by reopening his Twitter account to deny that he had punched or kicked her. He had 'hit her once with an open hand' - he didn't use the word 'only'.
'A pro athlete, kicking and punching wildly with aggression. Why no knock out? No bleeding? No bruising? No pictures? Why?'
The Sun and Ulrika are aghast at his audacity, with Miss J saying that his attitude is beyond belief.
'There were at least 20 witnesses there who know it certainly was not one hit with an open hand. He kicked me in the head three times.'
Who said time was the great healer?
The Star is also wearing its outraged bikini. This is because there has apparently been a secret fix to ensure that someone called Sam wins Celebrity Big Brother. It goes without saying that the said Sam features on the front in skimpy swimwear and again on the spread on pages 4 and 5, where the nature of the plot is revealed to us by none other than intrepid reporter Liz Jones, she of the Daily Mail.
Ms Jones, who was evicted from the house yesterday, says that the show's producers want Sam to be the goodie-goodie golden girl. That means that when she showers in a bikini (?) with the door open, the sequence is edited out. Sam also apparently wants to be liked by everyone and stays out of arguments (an inexplicable attitude to life for a trained combatant like Liz Jones) and has anyway been quiet because she has been ill.
So this is the fix? That Sam is really nice. That she thinks she should try to be naughty. But that doesn't work because the powers-that-be want her to be nice. Right. Have we all got that? A 'source' explains:
'It's a fact that good people win. Anyone who has misbehaved, caused outrage or trouble never gets crowned the champ...the bosses want people to see Sam in a good light, not like Jasmine. They don't want her labelled the same as those other girls, so it's better to promote a more wholesome image.'
Ah, now I understand...and this is presumably why the Star - owned by Richard Desmond, who also owns the BB franchise - is promoting Sam's wholesome image not only on pages 1 and 5 but also on page 3, where she is seen wearing a bikini with the top half missing.
They'll have to do better than that. With just under a week to go, slinky TOWIE girl Sam is 15-2 third favourite to win, while paunchy old comic Jim Davidson, who for some reason doesn't feature much in the Star's coverage, is so far ahead at 5-4 on that some bookies have stopped taking bets.
On to more serious fare from the Guardian and the Telegraph and our mysterious economy in which everyone except the wealthiest is apparently better off by some government yardstick, yet the queues at food banks are still growing. The Telegraph reports that the Prime Minister is cautiously celebrating a 'recovery for all' and is to tell the World Economic Forum in Davos that companies will be lured to Britain by low energy prices fuelled by the fracking revolution. Low energy prices? Like those we enjoyed after the discovery of North Sea gas and North Sea oil? Excellent.
Incidentally, bad luck on the theatre pic. Simon Russell Beale playing King Lear under the direction of Sam Mendes should be a shoo-in for a 5* review. Sadly Charles Spencer (and other critics) failed to oblige. Ah well, it's still good to see live arts being given respect on the front.
The Guardian is more concerned with interest rates. The Governor of the Bank of England, also in Davos, says that there is no need for rates to rise just because the unemployment rate has dropped to 7.1%. Why does he need to say this? Because in August (five months ago), he offered 'forward guidance' to give business the stability and confidence to plan ahead: he would not consider raising interest rates until the jobless rate fell below 7%. At the time it stood at 7.8% and the Governor's view was that it would take probably until the year after next to drop those eight percentage points.
I wonder who he is predicting will win Celebrity Big Brother.
And finally to a first (I think) for the Express. A combination of a diabetes cure AND Madeleine McCann. SubScribe doesn't recall seeing that mix before. Today we are told to expect the first arrests in the McCann case. That's good, because we've been waiting since July 6, when the paper promised 'Maddy arrests within weeks'.
But let's be fair. Sometimes things turn out even better than expected. Last May the paper told us that a daily jab would beat diabetes. Now there's already a cure to end the misery of that breakthrough injection.
But I still reckon most people would prefer Monday's chocolate remedy.
'A pro athlete, kicking and punching wildly with aggression. Why no knock out? No bleeding? No bruising? No pictures? Why?'
The Sun and Ulrika are aghast at his audacity, with Miss J saying that his attitude is beyond belief.
'There were at least 20 witnesses there who know it certainly was not one hit with an open hand. He kicked me in the head three times.'
Who said time was the great healer?
The Star is also wearing its outraged bikini. This is because there has apparently been a secret fix to ensure that someone called Sam wins Celebrity Big Brother. It goes without saying that the said Sam features on the front in skimpy swimwear and again on the spread on pages 4 and 5, where the nature of the plot is revealed to us by none other than intrepid reporter Liz Jones, she of the Daily Mail.
Ms Jones, who was evicted from the house yesterday, says that the show's producers want Sam to be the goodie-goodie golden girl. That means that when she showers in a bikini (?) with the door open, the sequence is edited out. Sam also apparently wants to be liked by everyone and stays out of arguments (an inexplicable attitude to life for a trained combatant like Liz Jones) and has anyway been quiet because she has been ill.
So this is the fix? That Sam is really nice. That she thinks she should try to be naughty. But that doesn't work because the powers-that-be want her to be nice. Right. Have we all got that? A 'source' explains:
'It's a fact that good people win. Anyone who has misbehaved, caused outrage or trouble never gets crowned the champ...the bosses want people to see Sam in a good light, not like Jasmine. They don't want her labelled the same as those other girls, so it's better to promote a more wholesome image.'
Ah, now I understand...and this is presumably why the Star - owned by Richard Desmond, who also owns the BB franchise - is promoting Sam's wholesome image not only on pages 1 and 5 but also on page 3, where she is seen wearing a bikini with the top half missing.
They'll have to do better than that. With just under a week to go, slinky TOWIE girl Sam is 15-2 third favourite to win, while paunchy old comic Jim Davidson, who for some reason doesn't feature much in the Star's coverage, is so far ahead at 5-4 on that some bookies have stopped taking bets.
On to more serious fare from the Guardian and the Telegraph and our mysterious economy in which everyone except the wealthiest is apparently better off by some government yardstick, yet the queues at food banks are still growing. The Telegraph reports that the Prime Minister is cautiously celebrating a 'recovery for all' and is to tell the World Economic Forum in Davos that companies will be lured to Britain by low energy prices fuelled by the fracking revolution. Low energy prices? Like those we enjoyed after the discovery of North Sea gas and North Sea oil? Excellent.
Incidentally, bad luck on the theatre pic. Simon Russell Beale playing King Lear under the direction of Sam Mendes should be a shoo-in for a 5* review. Sadly Charles Spencer (and other critics) failed to oblige. Ah well, it's still good to see live arts being given respect on the front.
The Guardian is more concerned with interest rates. The Governor of the Bank of England, also in Davos, says that there is no need for rates to rise just because the unemployment rate has dropped to 7.1%. Why does he need to say this? Because in August (five months ago), he offered 'forward guidance' to give business the stability and confidence to plan ahead: he would not consider raising interest rates until the jobless rate fell below 7%. At the time it stood at 7.8% and the Governor's view was that it would take probably until the year after next to drop those eight percentage points.
I wonder who he is predicting will win Celebrity Big Brother.
And finally to a first (I think) for the Express. A combination of a diabetes cure AND Madeleine McCann. SubScribe doesn't recall seeing that mix before. Today we are told to expect the first arrests in the McCann case. That's good, because we've been waiting since July 6, when the paper promised 'Maddy arrests within weeks'.
But let's be fair. Sometimes things turn out even better than expected. Last May the paper told us that a daily jab would beat diabetes. Now there's already a cure to end the misery of that breakthrough injection.
But I still reckon most people would prefer Monday's chocolate remedy.
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Thursday 23 January, 2014
Burning issues for picture eds and puffersDramatic pictures of the violence in Ukraine dominate three of the four 'serious' papers, with a suspected potential suicide bomber completing the quartet. Yet none of the pages has the desired impact. The Independent's stark image would have worked better on any of the other three papers - and vice versa.
It all comes down to puffs. The Telegraph has given its picture the best chance by separating it from the puff by a hamper splash. But even though the subject matter is |
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entirely different - Paris fashion - there's something about the tone of the puff images that makes if feel as though they belong with the main photograph and that the models have been decapitated in the fighting below.
The Times has the same picture and the opposite problem. The juxtaposition of the vivid pink puffery and the blazing city, with Miriam Gonzalez Duartez perched on top of a burnt-out coach, leaves you wondering where to look. (By the way, Ms G D prefers to go by her own name rather than her husband's - so it would be a courtesy for a newspaper promoting her views on 'how to get ahead as a woman' to respect that wish rather than turn her into an appendage).
The Guardian has a different photograph and in close-up it may seem the better choice - the flames in the background plus the striking figure of a riot officer in sharp relief to the smoke. In print on the newsstand, however, it comes across as just so much grey. The password puff word 5tRoNg is brilliant - but does it refer to the man in the big picture? The tricolour puff has no theme and the Tom Daley blue jars with the Kieve photograph and with the horizontal ad at the foot of the page.
The Independent, with the most restrained puffs in Not Fleet Street, could have accommodated either of the Kiev pictures with ease. The woman in the pink veil doesn't convey a sufficiently powerful message. She looks more a victim than a murderer, so it needs a headline along the lines of 'Find this woman, she's out to bomb the Olympics'. And there we run into a further difficulty. No one is quite sure whether she is. Ruzana Ibragimova, the widow of a militant, features on leaflets distributed by the police, but there appears to be no evidence of her involvement in a plot, nor even of any plot at all. Do love the phrase on the inside page 'Russian authorities are conducting a manhunt for three women...'
The Times and the Mail both examine the case of Tallulah Wilson who jumped under a train at St Pancras station after becoming addicted to self-harming and suicide websites. The ballet student had a fantasy alter ego as a cocaine-taking anorexic and posted pictures Tumblr of her cutting herself. As with the death of Daniel Spargo-Mabbs yesterday, Tallulah's mother produced the killer phrase at the inquest: 'She was in the clutches of a toxic digital world where we could no longer reach her.' The inquest jury called for a better understanding of online media and the coroner is to send a 'prevention of further death' report to the Government.
Stan Collymore has also been railing against online media, complaining to Twitter about abusive tweets directed at him after he accused the Liverpool player Luis Suarez of diving.
'In the last 24 hours I've been threatened with murder several times, demeaned on my race, and many of these accounts are still active. Why?' he tweeted.
'I accuse Twitter directly of not doing enough to combat racist/homophobic/sexist hate messages, all of which are illegal in the UK.'
'Several police forces have been fantastic. Twitter haven't. Dismayed.'
But his concerns didn't cut much mustard with his former girlfriend Ulrika Jonsson who pops up in the Sun to remind us all that Collymore kicked her in the head in 1998.
't must be horrendous to be vilified for your beliefs, your colour or your sexuality. In no way do I agree with trolling or abuse on Twitter. The people that do it are pathetic cowards.
'But Stan is too. He is actually one of the people he’s criticising… If Stan is so against death threats, why was he so insistent on making many death threats against me?
'In a public place, Stan shoved my face to his and said at least twice he would ‘f****** kill’ me. But now he’s the poster boy against threats online.
'No one should give this man a platform to claim he is a victim. With his history of violence, it’s beyond ironic.'
Fifteen years is a long time. Collymore may have grown up and changed. And is it hypocritical to denounce one type of bad behaviour because you have been guilty of another in the past? Cue debate on pots, kettles and redemption. He's on a loser, of course. Everyone loves Ulrika and lots of people hate Stan. No wonder he's retired hurt from Twitter.
From vile to evil - the Mirror is in a twist because Ian Brady was given speedy hospital treatment after falling over and cracked his hip. There's a battalion of people ready to complain about how wrong it was that such a monster should go to the front of the queue. Er, shall we stop and think about this a moment. First, Brady didn't jump the queue, the people in charge of him did. And second, does anyone seriously believe that it would have been a good thing to have him sitting in a public waiting room for hours?
Away from the struggling health service, happy days are here again for the Express and the i, with positive economic news and the fall in unemployment making the splash for both. The i falls into the trap of the 'serious' quartet, with a picture of a factory line that is clear only on close inspection, whereas the Express lights up the newsstand with its photograph of Abbey Clancy at Tuesday's television awards. Yes, she's there as eye candy. But she is fully clad and it is rare for the Express to produce the brightest front, so let it have its day. Shame about the garbled copy inside, which couldn't make up its mind whether it was a fashion report or a rundown of award winners.
The Star, on the other hand, continues its mission to turn page one into page three. This issue really should be on the top shelf. Oh, and in case you're wondering, the Corrie Kev street robbery is a plotline, not a real news event.
The Times has the same picture and the opposite problem. The juxtaposition of the vivid pink puffery and the blazing city, with Miriam Gonzalez Duartez perched on top of a burnt-out coach, leaves you wondering where to look. (By the way, Ms G D prefers to go by her own name rather than her husband's - so it would be a courtesy for a newspaper promoting her views on 'how to get ahead as a woman' to respect that wish rather than turn her into an appendage).
The Guardian has a different photograph and in close-up it may seem the better choice - the flames in the background plus the striking figure of a riot officer in sharp relief to the smoke. In print on the newsstand, however, it comes across as just so much grey. The password puff word 5tRoNg is brilliant - but does it refer to the man in the big picture? The tricolour puff has no theme and the Tom Daley blue jars with the Kieve photograph and with the horizontal ad at the foot of the page.
The Independent, with the most restrained puffs in Not Fleet Street, could have accommodated either of the Kiev pictures with ease. The woman in the pink veil doesn't convey a sufficiently powerful message. She looks more a victim than a murderer, so it needs a headline along the lines of 'Find this woman, she's out to bomb the Olympics'. And there we run into a further difficulty. No one is quite sure whether she is. Ruzana Ibragimova, the widow of a militant, features on leaflets distributed by the police, but there appears to be no evidence of her involvement in a plot, nor even of any plot at all. Do love the phrase on the inside page 'Russian authorities are conducting a manhunt for three women...'
The Times and the Mail both examine the case of Tallulah Wilson who jumped under a train at St Pancras station after becoming addicted to self-harming and suicide websites. The ballet student had a fantasy alter ego as a cocaine-taking anorexic and posted pictures Tumblr of her cutting herself. As with the death of Daniel Spargo-Mabbs yesterday, Tallulah's mother produced the killer phrase at the inquest: 'She was in the clutches of a toxic digital world where we could no longer reach her.' The inquest jury called for a better understanding of online media and the coroner is to send a 'prevention of further death' report to the Government.
Stan Collymore has also been railing against online media, complaining to Twitter about abusive tweets directed at him after he accused the Liverpool player Luis Suarez of diving.
'In the last 24 hours I've been threatened with murder several times, demeaned on my race, and many of these accounts are still active. Why?' he tweeted.
'I accuse Twitter directly of not doing enough to combat racist/homophobic/sexist hate messages, all of which are illegal in the UK.'
'Several police forces have been fantastic. Twitter haven't. Dismayed.'
But his concerns didn't cut much mustard with his former girlfriend Ulrika Jonsson who pops up in the Sun to remind us all that Collymore kicked her in the head in 1998.
't must be horrendous to be vilified for your beliefs, your colour or your sexuality. In no way do I agree with trolling or abuse on Twitter. The people that do it are pathetic cowards.
'But Stan is too. He is actually one of the people he’s criticising… If Stan is so against death threats, why was he so insistent on making many death threats against me?
'In a public place, Stan shoved my face to his and said at least twice he would ‘f****** kill’ me. But now he’s the poster boy against threats online.
'No one should give this man a platform to claim he is a victim. With his history of violence, it’s beyond ironic.'
Fifteen years is a long time. Collymore may have grown up and changed. And is it hypocritical to denounce one type of bad behaviour because you have been guilty of another in the past? Cue debate on pots, kettles and redemption. He's on a loser, of course. Everyone loves Ulrika and lots of people hate Stan. No wonder he's retired hurt from Twitter.
From vile to evil - the Mirror is in a twist because Ian Brady was given speedy hospital treatment after falling over and cracked his hip. There's a battalion of people ready to complain about how wrong it was that such a monster should go to the front of the queue. Er, shall we stop and think about this a moment. First, Brady didn't jump the queue, the people in charge of him did. And second, does anyone seriously believe that it would have been a good thing to have him sitting in a public waiting room for hours?
Away from the struggling health service, happy days are here again for the Express and the i, with positive economic news and the fall in unemployment making the splash for both. The i falls into the trap of the 'serious' quartet, with a picture of a factory line that is clear only on close inspection, whereas the Express lights up the newsstand with its photograph of Abbey Clancy at Tuesday's television awards. Yes, she's there as eye candy. But she is fully clad and it is rare for the Express to produce the brightest front, so let it have its day. Shame about the garbled copy inside, which couldn't make up its mind whether it was a fashion report or a rundown of award winners.
The Star, on the other hand, continues its mission to turn page one into page three. This issue really should be on the top shelf. Oh, and in case you're wondering, the Corrie Kev street robbery is a plotline, not a real news event.
Wednesday 22 January, 2014
Three-day-old foal skips home in easy win over F1 legend
Health issues dominate today, from one schoolboy apparently killed by an Ecstasy tab to thousands of cancer patients apparently refused drugs that could extend their lives because of where they happen to live.
The two Independent titles concentrate on a Kings Fund report that suggests patient care may be harmed by low morale among NHS staff - with the i stepping out to a greater degree than its big sister, both on the front and inside. The Express's daily magical cure is for once tangible - a box that sounds a bit like a TENS machine which sends magnetic pulses to the brain to ease pain. It has been cleared for use on the NHS for the treatment of chronic migraine from today and is also available for rent.
Not that official approval for NHS treatments guarantees that pateints who need it will get it, according to the Telegraph. It splashes on a report that availability of some drugs is - here it comes - a postcode lottery. An endemic and dangerous postcode lottery at that. In some areas one in three cancer and Motor Neurone Disease patients were not getting drugs that would ease their conditions.
The Mail leads on a boy who told his parents that he was off to a party and then went to a rave. Daniel Spargo-Mabbs, 16, subsequently suffered a heart attack and died on Monday. The Mail reports that Daniel had taken his first Ecstasy tablet at the rave, although of course there is no way of knowing this, and points to the growing danger of the drug whose death toll 'increased fourfold' in two years - from four in 2010 to thirty-one in 2012. Daniel's fate may be every middle-class parent's nightmare, but it is hardly symptomatic of a great national menace. The key point, of course, is the headline (as it should be), the routine farewell phrase cruelly turned on its head to haunt forever.
The Mirror is also gloomy about one man's fate - Michael Schumacher is still in the coma induced by doctors after his skiing accident a month ago. This is a standard 'what's the latest?' follow-up built into a splash from nothing. The fading hopes are based on a quote from a doctor uninvolved in his case based in Bordeaux, more than 250 miles away from the hospital in Grenoble where the driver is being treated, and speculation on an Austrian website. And, to be honest, what they say only reinforces what many already think. Not the most informative piece of journalism.
The two Independent titles concentrate on a Kings Fund report that suggests patient care may be harmed by low morale among NHS staff - with the i stepping out to a greater degree than its big sister, both on the front and inside. The Express's daily magical cure is for once tangible - a box that sounds a bit like a TENS machine which sends magnetic pulses to the brain to ease pain. It has been cleared for use on the NHS for the treatment of chronic migraine from today and is also available for rent.
Not that official approval for NHS treatments guarantees that pateints who need it will get it, according to the Telegraph. It splashes on a report that availability of some drugs is - here it comes - a postcode lottery. An endemic and dangerous postcode lottery at that. In some areas one in three cancer and Motor Neurone Disease patients were not getting drugs that would ease their conditions.
The Mail leads on a boy who told his parents that he was off to a party and then went to a rave. Daniel Spargo-Mabbs, 16, subsequently suffered a heart attack and died on Monday. The Mail reports that Daniel had taken his first Ecstasy tablet at the rave, although of course there is no way of knowing this, and points to the growing danger of the drug whose death toll 'increased fourfold' in two years - from four in 2010 to thirty-one in 2012. Daniel's fate may be every middle-class parent's nightmare, but it is hardly symptomatic of a great national menace. The key point, of course, is the headline (as it should be), the routine farewell phrase cruelly turned on its head to haunt forever.
The Mirror is also gloomy about one man's fate - Michael Schumacher is still in the coma induced by doctors after his skiing accident a month ago. This is a standard 'what's the latest?' follow-up built into a splash from nothing. The fading hopes are based on a quote from a doctor uninvolved in his case based in Bordeaux, more than 250 miles away from the hospital in Grenoble where the driver is being treated, and speculation on an Austrian website. And, to be honest, what they say only reinforces what many already think. Not the most informative piece of journalism.
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The Sun's splash is also a bit of something and nothing. Roman Abramovich's white girlfriend Dasha Zhukova is photographed sitting on a sculpture chair in the shape of a topless black woman. The picture, taken as part of a photoshoot for an online magazine, upset all sorts of people who found it racist and demeaning. Ms Zhukova - who doesn't look exactly comfortable - apologised and said she regretted posing for the photograph, and the website cropped the picture. The chair itself was designed by the Norwegian Bjarne Melgaarde and is virtually the same as one of a white woman created by Allen Jones and shown in the Tate in 1969. No one has suggested the artworks are racist. The photoshoot was unthinking and shallow - but the lead to the country's biggest selling paper? Hmm.
The picture doesn't even make the top three of the images on the newsstands today. A newly shaven Prince Harry is bound to captivate, and Miriam Gonzalez Duarantez strides across the Telegraph in style, but nothing can beat the three-day-old bay filly on the front of the Times. But that's only to be expected. The foal is Frankel's daughter. |
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Finally, the Daily Telegraph lost its editor yesterday lunchtime. The fact makes a page lead in the Guardian, a short picture story in the Independent and a nib in the Times. But I'm blowed if I could find it anywhere in the Telegraph. Odd that. Maybe I just wasn't looking hard enough. Happy to be corrected.
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Tuesday 21 January, 2014
Rennard outfoxes Clegg with 'I'm the victim' defianceTen lords a'leaping the song says - into the abyss, if the likes of Hanningfield and, now, Rennard have anything to do with it. You'd think they'd been hired by the Labour Party to discredit the entire second chamber.
The Telegraph has been persistent with its coverage of the LibDems' inquiry into their groping peer, but as the party gets into more of a tangle over whether or not he is a disgrace, others have pricked up their ears. Rennard's assertion that he intended to return to the Lords was bad enough, but his claim that he, not the women he pestered, was the victim and that he 'thought about self-harming' as a result, has had the most fuddy-duddy misogynists gasping in disbelief. The result is that he makes five of the day's front pages and the splash in four. The Independent shines with a well-matched picture and heading, complemented by a grey, but detailed, spread inside. The IMF catches the eye of the i, with its positive report on the health of the economy - a story that also makes the fronts of the Independent, Times and Telegraph. The Mirror is fascinated by the picture of Joanna Dennehy with a ferocious knife. Dennehy hacked three men to death on a road trip through East Anglia last year and then spoilt the papers' fun by pleading guilty on her first appearance in court in November. Now her alleged accomplices have gone on trial, this picture has surfaced and the Mirror is making the most of it. The Sun also has death on its mind - in this instance the possibly suicide of a man in his seventies who was once married to the mother of Prince Harry's girlfriend. Richard Kay made it the lead to his diary in the Mail, which seems about the right weight for the story. The arts provide the pictures for the Times and Guardian. A 5-star review for Natalia Osipova's performance in the title role of the Royal Ballet's Giselle provides more than the usual figleaf of newsworthiness to justify her position on the front page of the Times. It is also a stunning photograph. The Guardian goes for a man in a suit. But what a man. This is Claudio Abbado, musical maestro, who has died aged 80. As ever, the Guardian is the only paper to appreciate the passing of a public figure who doesn't feature in a soap opera or on a sportsfield. It pays tribute to the conductor on page 3 and carries a full obit further back. The Telegraph,, the Times and Independent all accorded him an obituary, but none ran to a clear page. The rest couldn't be bothered. After all, how could a renowned classical musician compete with a bit of weather, a Big Brother star in a basque or some runaway teenagers getting what-for from their parents? |
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Monday 20 January, 2014
Selling our secrets. Is this a good or bad idea?A touch of irony for the Guardian It reports that medical records gathered from GPs, hospitals and clinics could be stored in one place, complete with patients national health numbers, and made available to drug companies to help in research. A good idea because it may save lives? A bad idea because of privacy issues? It would be interesting to see what this newspaper would make of such information if it got its hands on it.
Both Independent titles put Sir Christopher Chataway at the top, but the choice of splash demonstrates their different markets - the i is the one paper that is appealing to new newspaper buyers and the survey about the pressure on teenagers will strike a chord. The more staid elder sister goes with the politics of unemployment, as does the Mail in its inimitable way - complete with an article from Theresa May and Iain Duncan Smith inside. The Sun raids a dating site for a stunning picture of Rosie and Mikaeel Kular and reproduces some of Ms Kular's posts, while the Mirror picks up on the Sunday Times splash about the royal job share (if you can really call it that). The Telegraph and Times return to pet subjects and there's no let-up from BB for the Star. The Express scores four out of four on the favourites chart with simple cure, SAS killed Diana, weather and a picture of Dame Helen Mirren. Back-slapping all round for the Sunday editor. Funny how dated that football picture looks on the Guardian. Time was that every Monday paper would have a footie picture every week. |
Sunday 19 January, 2014
Leveson and the Met's links with News InternationalA refreshing dose of compassion from the Express, even if it comes in the guise of an attack on our old friend Edwina. She doesn't approve of food banks, generalsing that users would rather spend what money they have on feeding their dogs or get a tattoo than buy food for themselves..
Mikaeel is still the hot topic for the People and Sun (shame about the lingerie-clad two fingers at the page 3 campaigners). The Telegraph and Sunday Times both retrieve the glam shot of Mrs Kular used on the Mail front yesterday. Conventional showbiz from the other two redtops, while there's a feeling of deja vu from the Mail and the Observer. I'm sure I' ve seen that Mail headline before, and the preview of Dame Janet Smith's report on Jimmy Savile is important, but no longer shocking. We know it's a disgrace, but we are losing the capacity to be surprised by the figures thrown up by these investigations. The Independent has the most interesting story - more shuffling of papers behind the scenes at the Leveson inquiry. This time a 'bombshell' report about links between the Met and News International that the inquiry apparently didn't want to read - rather like those about all the other businesses indulging in phone hacking. Saturday January 18, 2014
Sun's late team wins the night as Mikaeel's body is foundA good old-fashioned late-night change for the Sun with the discovery of Mikaeel Kular''s body. The paper, in common with the i, was already leading on the search for the child, so it was relatively simple - but it still looks impressive in comparison with the rivals (including the Scottish papers).
The Guardian and Independent use the same moody picture of the search. The photograph sits happily over the splash heading 'A call of duty', which is about charities asking Cameron to help Syrian refugees, but the overline kicker 'The longest day...' is lame. The picture tells the story of a community answering not a call of duty but of compassion. In the hands of a sub with some imagination - and time - the two heads could have been turned sweetly to work together. The Mail has a glamorous shot of the boy's mother - who has now been detained by police - above what some may regard as an ironic heading 'Mother's agony as fears grow for missing boy,3' . There is a spread inside with two more photographs of Rosie Kular and the stunning information that a couple of years ago she tweeted 'I'm good slightly hungover lol but nothing I can't handle'. As though that was relevant to anything. The hunt made a little puff in the Mirror, but the other four shunned the one live story of the day. The Telegraph continued its focus on the LibDems and the Times harvested an interview with Tom Winsor in which he says minority communities are policing themselves and never call on the local constabulary. The royalist Telegraph and Express use file pictures of new mum Zara Tindall and the Mail boasts an exclusive about the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge setting up companies to market themselves - or more likely to prevent other people profiting from them. The Guardian is obviously delighted with President Obama's pronouncement on surveillance in the light of the Snowden papers and the Times, suffering from something of a First Lady mania, is equally pleased to celebrate Michelle Obama's 50th birthday. The Express looks gloomily at the rain and the Star has only one concern at the moment. Friday January 17, 2014
An extraordinary birth, a too-ordinary death The Mirror and the Independent put aside their troubles to produce the best front pages of the day. Osborne scores a hat-trick with his hint on the minimum wage, and the Mail has a proper splash on family courts. The Guardian, Express and Star are all in default mode with their pet subjects.
You have to hand it to the Sun. When it gets it wrong, it does so spectacularly. Thursday January 16, 2014
Wednesday January 15, 2014
Five sex scandals and a pop star on the edge
The trio of ageing stars on trial for alleged sex offences dominate six front pages and make pictures or a puff in three others.
The Mail and the Express have the same idea - but the Mail hammers home its superiority in the execution. The puff is truncated, the pictures more dramatic and the page is not diluted with text. The headline is iffy - yes vile crimes if they took place, but these trials will not be about offences that are known to have been committed by someone, they will be about whether they happened at all. The Express cannot be parted from dementia or the tantalising offer of a free cup of tea or coffee at BHS - quaintly described as a 'hot drink', so it has less room to play with. The photographs are squashed and the headings leaden. Not as leaden, however, as the Times's. Hampered by a huge count and not much to say, it comes up with 'TV entertainers', which conjures up the wrong image. Morecambe and Wise were TV entertainers; DLT is a disc jockey and Roache is a soap actor. The photograph of Rolf Harris would be good if he were the only one in court yesterday. But it was the fact that three household names were on trial on one day that set this story apart, and that was what needed emphasising (as the Mail does) if it was going to work as a splash in a serious paper. The Mirror and the Star both focus on the Roache case, which is now getting into the detail of the allegations. Here we can see how much classier the Mirror is than the Star. It opts for the more interesting of the two stories aired in court and finds room for the other two cases as insets above the splash heading. The heads are all good and the page is unencumbered by anything other than a modest puff alongside the titlepiece. Just as the Express is wedded to its diseases of the elderly, so Celebrity Big Brother is obligatory for its redtop stablemate. At least it had the sense to use a picture of a woman with clothes on - and the splash head is fine. The Telegraph's triptych points to modest coverage on page 4, and the Independent limits the trials' front-page presence to a puff. The Guardian stays aloof, looking instead at another sex scandal - that of M Hollande across the Channel. The Sun thought that an out-of-focus picture of Liam of One Direction posing on a ledge 360ft up made the better splash. I'm not sure. 1D are certainly more likely to appeal to its young audience and it deals with the court trio neatly in column one. You can hear the case being argued in the conference room: 'We knew they'd been accused, people are tired of old men and child abuse, this is much fresher.' The two Indies triumph over everyone, however, by going their own way with an investigation into sex-selection abortions - with far more compelling results. The Independent's heading and scan picture win the day. |
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