Why do some people regard the Daily Mail as an “evil” paper?
I wondered about this for a while – I actually read the Daily Mail. It often irritates me – is a picture of Tony Blair in his bathing trunks really worth putting in a newspaper? I am middle aged, I suppose, not wealthy. I like to spend no more than 30 minutes on a newspaper, which is why I read the Daily Mail. The broadsheets take too long to read. I’ve decided they sneer at the Daily Mail because the more downmarket newspapers are just so far below par it isn’t considered sporting to have a go at them. The Daily Mail is more middle class and so considered fair game. The Guardian, Independent, Times etc consider themselves to have a particular audience, but the Daily Mail is just us average Joes. No particular group, no particular political influence, no financial clout, not particularly educated. But a cut above naked women and sex stories.
I wouldn’t go as far as to say evil! basically, the Daily Mail is a tabloid, like any other. It’s style is sensationalist, often at the expense of the facts and it’s contents tend to be orientated around popular culture, rather than more serious issues. The Sun, Star and Mirror are targeted at the lower end of the market, whereas the Daily Mail and the Express cater for the slightly less “chav” variety of “average Joes”. Consequently, the Mail likes to consider itself respectable, but accessible, although it is just as poor in terms of journalistic merit as the Sun. Traditionally, the Mail has always been the paper of the tory – although New Labour types have somewhat blurred these boundaries and of the major nationals, only the Guardian maintains any pretence of having left wing sympathies. This has lead to a readership of Royal loving, middle aged, lower middle class types of below average intelligence who are interested in Cliff Richard and Cilla Black’s lives rather than any actual
Evil is a bit strong, but it irritates many people because it is alarmist, right-wing and obsessed with defending a version of Brtiain that died off in the 1960s. Many of the points the Daily Mail makes are actually quite astute, cutting through the political correctness that leads papers like the Guardian to be intellectually dishonest. However, its reputation as a reactionary rag, obsessed with asylum seekers, house prices and Princess Di, leads people to dismiss it out of hand.
