The Liberal Media

You can read our reviews of other British newspapers in Read All About It! (the tabloids), the Daily Extremists (the Daily Mail and the Daily Express) and Size Doesn’t Always Mean Quality (the Times and the Daily Telegraph).  For the Independent and the Guardian, we looked at the papers from 4, 10 & 15 January with particular attention to the features in the latest of the three editions.

THE INDEPENDENT

The Independent was launched in October 1986 with the slogan “It is. Are you?”  Along with the Independent on Sunday (IoS), it’s owned by Independent News & Media plc.  The paper has average daily sales of over 254,000* or about only 2% of the UK daily newspaper market (the IoS has a slightly lower 233,000* or less than 2% of the slightly bigger Sunday paper market).

The paper has a reputation for creative single issue front covers, but recently this space has been partially sacrificed to ads for its own glossy handouts.  On 15 January the front cover is dedicated to a story with the headline “Big Brother”, analysing the state of civil liberties in Blair’s Britain.  Its impact is seriously weakened by a big top banner publicising a free glossy guide, “30 ways to boost your memory”.  The front page theme is welcome but unsurprising as the paper has gained a reputation for its coverage of the erosion of civil liberties (as well as environmental issues – the cover on 10 January dealt with the likely effects of global warming on Europe).

Inside, there is a short opinion piece written by Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty.  She once considered the government to be complacent and then careless about civil liberties, but now believes it’s showing contempt for our rights.

Presumably to deflect criticism about taking itself too seriously, page three is dedicated to the ‘news’ that Sylvester Stallone, in Britain to promote Rocky 246 (about a boxer who batters his opponents to death with his zimmer frame), went to watch Everton play Reading because his mate is a major shareholder.  No irony then in the fact that the scarf he’s holding aloft in the picture says “Everton – the people’s club”.

Pushing further into the paper, there are stories about a Manhattan brothel, British soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, an anti-hunger hormone (to help fight against obesity) and a review of Norah Jones’ opening night in London.  There’s also an enlightening and provocative interview with the novelist Martin Amis.  Despite a few snippets about other journalists and a piece on Kylie Minogue’s cancelled shows, on the whole the paper appears to have resisted the temptation to “dumb down” for the sake of some much-needed extra sales.

The paper is giving space to young talent and alternative views

In terms of international news, there’s coverage of the upcoming French elections, the prosecution of old Nazis by the Italians, Bush’s plan for more US troops in Iraq and the environmental threat to the Hindu’s sacred River Ganges.  There is a mercilessly brief note and relatively small photo of Victoria Beckham’s arrival in Los Angeles.  The Independent Extra section dedicates its cover and four more pages to a look at some of the potential candidates for the US Presidential Elections in 2008.

The editorial features continue the erosion of civil liberties story, weigh up the pros and cons of Nicolas Sarkozy becoming the next French President and compare the most unfair soccer exchange (David Beckham for Sylvester Stallone).  Refreshingly, Johann Hari’s opinion piece shows balance in questioning knee jerk liberal reactions to every government measure concerning civil liberties.  I don’t have to agree with everything she writes, I just like the fact that the issue is being given some serious thought and is open for debate.  Similarly, I disagree with the overall message of private schoolboy Tom Greene’s extremely well written opinion about education policy, but I’m pleased it’s there.  The paper is giving space to young talent and alternative views.

So far, so good.  The problem which I have with the Independent is this.  Its pages are liberally (ha ha) splattered with advertisements.  Even that’s not the real problem.  It’s the fact that the paper accepts advertising money from - and promotes the sales of – companies which contribute generously to one of the problems it regularly addresses – environmental damage.  Not just the traditional airlines like KLM, but a whole page ad for the budget airline Monarch (“expect more, pay less” – oh please, no more short term, substandard Walmartesque slogans) and a smaller one for Expedia flogging cheap ski holidays.  Not content with pushing its readers towards these companies, the paper also has its own Reader Offers for trips to Spain and Italy including short haul flights.  After that lot, I fail to get wound up by further ads for the likes of Sky, NatWest, Tesco (pet insurance!) and HSBC.

It has good sports writing but, like almost every other paper, its football coverage extends little beyond the wealth and glamour of the Premier League and minority sports are often relegated to the small print of the fixtures and results section.

Overall, the Independent must be one of the picks from what is admittedly an unimpressive peer group.  It has some good writers, a fair degree of balance and it raises issues which many other papers neglect.  The real test is whether the Independent can stand up and be counted by refusing to accept advertisements from the industries causing possibly irreversible damage to this planet and its people.

Bill O’Reilly once speculated that the paper “might be edited by Osama Bin Laden”  

THE GUARDIAN

Lovingly described by Private Eye as the Grauniad in honour of a history of regular typographical errors, the Guardian and its sister Sunday paper the Observer are owned by the Guardian Media Group.  The paper has average daily sales of over 380,000* or about 3% of the UK daily newspaper market (the Observer enjoys a slightly higher 487,000* or almost 4% of the slightly bigger Sunday paper market).  Bill O’Reilly, the outspoken right wing presenter of the O’Reilly Factor on the US Fox News Channel allegedly once speculated that the paper “might be edited by Osama Bin Laden”…..

It’s possible that the Guardian now has more sections than misprints.  Today, on 15 January, the paper comes with a separate sports section, a huge media supplement (with extensive jobs listing) and the G2 mini-paper.

Unlike the Independent, the Guardian goes for a scattergun approach for its front page.  There are lead stories on more dirty dealings involving BAE and continuing blunders at the Home Office, and snippets about a cholesterol drug scare, British explorers in the Antarctic, Sarkozy’s promise of a Thatcherite France and Marks & Spencer’s intentions of “going green”.  All topped off with teaser pictures of Peter Kay, Germaine Greer, José Mourinho, Sylvester Stallone and…..a toaster.

Inside, further UK stories cover such diverse subjects as the state of the British film industry, child trafficking into Britain, Gordon Brown’s vision for the future and Ken Livingstone’s apparent hypocrisy in accepting an invite to Davos for the World Economic Forum.

Nicolas Sarkozy’s choice as the French ruling party’s candidate for the Presidential Elections heads up the international section (as a complete tangent, in the main picture, he looks worryingly like Sylvester Stallone but without the Everton scarf).  There are also pieces on the escalating tension between the US and Iran, a satellite TV station urging resistance to the US in Iraq, and, most interestingly for me, one about people from the UK visiting Venezuela to see the socialist revolution first hand and to express their solidarity.  Unfortunately, having spent quite a lot of time in that country recently, I felt that the tone of the article was a bit condescending.  Good to have a whole page on Venezuela though.

a likely first choice for those favouring social justice and collective solutions over the market frenzy and the pursuit of individual prosperity

The Comment & Debate section has features on the IVF business (with its tension between desperate parents and very rich doctors), Roy Hattersley’s thoughtful journey towards vegetarianism, US plans for Iran, the myth of the migrant threat, the coming battle between Brown and Cameron, and a vicar letting off steam about “media atheists”.  The leaders cover the paper’s worries about Sarkozy, some ideas to reduce the huge gap between executives’ and employees’ pay, and a brief piece in praise of lifeboats.

To be honest, the separate sport section only encourages me to promote things like the latest transfer speculation and stories of our cricket team’s humiliation in Australia above the real issues of the day.  At the risk of sounding conservative (with a very small c!), I reckon that the sport section belongs at the back of any paper, not seductively and temptingly slipped between weightier if possibly less exciting matters.

The Guardian is still a relatively good paper and undoubtedly a likely first choice for those favouring social justice and collective solutions over the market frenzy and the pursuit of individual prosperity.  It does, however, entertain most of the unsavoury corporate advertising clients as the Independent (including a huge full back page plug for flybe.com) and offer to fly its readers around Europe for very reasonable rates.  If I was going to choose one paper day after day, it might be the Guardian, but I’m not going to.  I’ll probably continue to depend on some of the increasing number of high quality independent internet news sites, browse several mainstream newspapers online and buy the occasional paper as a treat when I’ve got time on my hands (and the strength to carry all of the supplements).

* Sales figures are for January to June 2006 courtesy of ABC.

This article was prepared to lots of music by bands beginning with M, providing a varied but sometimes worrying alphabetical mini-journey through my digital music collection.  What started off with the safe indie territory of Milburn soon found its way into the (recently) less-visited neighbourhoods which go by the names of the Monkees, Morrissey, Motorhead, Mott the Hoople, Muddy Waters, Mungo Jerry and Muse.  If only I pondered a bit more, I could have travelled as far as My Chemical Romance…