Comments on: Polly Today

By: Squander Two

Squander Two — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:03:47 +0000

Oo, nice typo, John.

> “gays are disgusting and should be looked up”

Couldn’t agree more.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:05:20 +0000

I think that’s a little unfair. The papers do contradict themselves every day, but most readers don’t pay attention to a lot of that and buy it for other reasons (sport/gossip/crosswords).

I for one read, if do not buy, the Daily Mail, most days and think I could manage a serious debate on those two issues, at least until you brought up the panacea of Land Value Taxation.

By: Mark Wadsworth

Mark Wadsworth — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 11:38:54 +0000

What John B says. The Mail & The Express are quite terrifyingly awful. They completely contradict themselves all the time just to pander to the lowest common denominator on any random topic of the day.

But if you try to imagine having a serious debate on e.g. free trade or gay equality, with some moron who actually buys these papers…

By: john b

john b — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 11:28:47 +0000

“The BBC doesn’t follow the centre/right-wing press enough – that’s the problem.”

On the contrary, there’s very little difference between the BBC’s editorial agenda and that of the Times. It’s less right-wing than the Telegraph; less left-wing than the Guardian; and less gibberingly insane than any of the comics.

Polly almost has a point here – the tabloids obviously pander to their readers’ politics, but they also pander to the worst side of human nature (specifically, our tendency to come up with simple and entirely wrong solutions based on prejudice. That isn’t a left-wing or a right-wing question – “free trade is taking our jobs” is just as much an example as “gays are disgusting and should be looked up”).

Most people are capable of, to some extent or other, overcoming that tendency. Education helps to diminish it, but tabloid sloganeering reinforces it.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:45:03 +0000

Do you think newspapers play no role in shaping their readers’ opinions? That no-one has ever read this site and changed their mind on something? Ok I’m not helping my case there – but I think it’s pretty obvious that newspapers can affect public opinion, look at the Mail and MMR.

By: dearieme

dearieme — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:16:17 +0000

What’s the point of the bloody Guardian paying for this woman’s private medicine if she keeps forgetting to take the tablets?

By: Letters From A Tory

Letters From A Tory — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 09:33:42 +0000

The BBC doesn’t follow the centre/right-wing press enough – that’s the problem. If the BBC was more balanced in the first place, the issue would be killed off.

http://lettersfromatory.wordpress.com

By: Serf

Serf — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 09:12:52 +0000

Instead of breaking away, the dominant voices of the blogosphere often echo and intensify this pessimism and malice

No doubt Guida & Dale are also controlled by Murdoch (or giant lizards).

Is it not possible that the relative success of the Right/Liberal spectrum of the Blog World is due to demand?

We get enough lefty crap from the BBC.