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Is the Daily Telegraph undermining democracy?


NormanH

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[quote user="NormanH"]I am referring to this story

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/peter-oborne-resignation-senior-writer-dramatically-quits-telegraph-over-hsbc-allegations-10052314.html

[/quote]

I think that there are two answers:

1) they sincerely wish that they could ... but those pesky other papers put paid to that ...

2) the management seems to have made it perfectly clear that:

    a) they will interfere in editorial decisions (unlike squeaky-clean Murdoch ......) (where's the sarcasm emoticon?)

    b) advertisers are to be allowed an undue influence on editorial policy

Whatever, the Getelarph just saw its remaining credibility publicly and ritually slaughtered.

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He was interviewed on C4 News last night, interesting. I thought he was right and I would suggest when you look at whom HSBC aims its advertising at it needs the Torygraph more than the Torygraph needs it. I mean they have been slaughter from The Times to the DM and even as far down as the Sun and Mirror, they even got a mention in The Sunday Sport which is really scraping the barrel. So it did seem a bit strange that the Torygraph basically ignored it. As he pointed out it is not the first time this has happened.
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I had much respect for Oborne, in his earlier days; however, he then metamorphised into quite a lefty liberal.

Insofar as the once great bastion of right wing reasonable concise journalism be concerned, today, it has descended into a shallow pastiche of the Sun and Mail as an amalgam: long on louche celebrityism and endless football. Short on serious current affairs and worthy analysis.

Sir Max Hastings must be seriously dismayed.

The Independent likewise, has become mainly left liberal and joined the ranks of the Guardianistas: the Grauniad itself, well, not much can be said.

The once hallowed Thunderer, thanks to the appalling Murdoch, is now a sort of sententious up-market Sun, sans the naked scrawny pouting self-conscious images!

In order to carry out my own daily "News Junky" fix and in order to reach some basic conclusions, I now read various sources online, ranging from major US newsfeeds to news blogs and aggregators.

Still, today the majority have little if any interest in current affairs and more focus on sitcoms, football and so-called, reality TV.

Bread and Circuses........

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I agree with dismay about the descent of the Telegraph and it seems to have happened quite recently.

As you can imagine I often used to disagree with the opinions but I found it excellent for news and reviews. In the latter area it avoided the trendiness I abhor in the Guardian.

Unfortunately your summary is accurate; to which can be added a terrible decline in the style of written English.

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[quote user="NormanH"]I agree with dismay about the descent of the Telegraph and it seems to have happened quite recently.

As you can imagine I often used to disagree with the opinions but I found it excellent for news and reviews. In the latter area it avoided the trendiness I abhor in the Guardian.

Unfortunately your summary is accurate; to which can be added a terrible decline in the style of written English.

[/quote]

Try the Economist - worth the subscription even if you disagree with the underlying premise.

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[quote user="NormanH"]I agree with dismay about the descent of the Telegraph and it seems to have happened quite recently.

As you can imagine I often used to disagree with the opinions but I found it excellent for news and reviews. In the latter area it avoided the trendiness I abhor in the Guardian.

Unfortunately your summary is accurate; to which can be added a terrible decline in the style of written English.

[/quote]

Terrible decline in the style of written English?  Norman, you are but merely pointing out the trend in ALL written and spoken (and that includes TV) output!

I know and have heard EVERY argument about English being a changing language and how stupid and illogical rules and norms are.  Yes, EVERY argument but I have yet to be convinced that any of the arguments are of any great merit.

I think, to keep wages down and to ensure the newshounds are keen and eager, they employ ONLY young people fresh out of journalist school who are still wet behind the ears and have not lived anywhere long enough to have a long view and clear perspective on anything.

OK, rant over.........

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Unfortunately, since I write on political economy et al and professionally, carry out analyses of markets, trends and financial areas, I have, over the years watched the descent of the fourth estate into a polarized grouping who sycophantically support political parties and issues on a wholly partisan basis.

Instead of "News", they publish "Views", in order to effectively seduce the, increasingly, ignorant and illiterate, electorate.

This trend was exemplified, for myself, on the EEC referendum issue, many years back: where non-truth, calumny and party political spin, was published, daily, rather than cold, clear and concise factual evaluation.

Thus this is by no way a new phenomenon.

My normal daily "read", years ago, when I travelled quite a bit, was the international edition of the NY Herald Tribune, as it offered well written concise and sharp analysis of a range of current global matters, without obvious bias.

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or is it a case of the shareholders of newspapers are only interested in profit so chase readers and advertising to achieve this. To attract readers there is a need to publish what they want to read and to attract advertisers need not to antagonise them. Never let news get in the way of money.
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[quote user="PaulT"]or is it a case of the shareholders of newspapers are only interested in profit so chase readers and advertising to achieve this. To attract readers there is a need to publish what they want to read and to attract advertisers need not to antagonise them. Never let news get in the way of money.[/quote]

So what happened to Publish and be Damned?[6]

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We must remember that newspapers are no longer the first source of news for people. Nowadays people get their primary news from radio/TV and newspapers are bought either in depth analysis or just plain entertainment. Circulation is in general falling so we get sensationalism Oman attempt to keep readers
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[quote user="Rabbie"][...] newspapers are bought either in depth analysis or just plain entertainment.[...][/quote]

I think that the Torygraph and Times in particular have failed spectacularly regarding in-depth analysis. Even the Sundays are now full of poorly-written sensationalist pieces that demonstrate a worrying lack of knowledge of all fields.

On the TV side, having recently had the choice between all the German/Austrian channels, France 24, TV5 Monde, CNN, BBC World, NHK World, RAI, Russia Today and Al-Jazeera, I was pleasantly surprised by the general standards of Al-Jazeera amongst the English-language broadcasters. CNN would drive a goldfish insane within half an hour, BBC World might take slightly longer. NHK World is very interesting if you have even the least interest in Japan ... TV5 Monde was good in terms of the range of sources of news programmes (Quebec, Belgium, France, Switzerland), with all showing their own partialities. The news on the German channels was generally fairly seriously approached (as far as my German goes). RT was just a travesty in any language.

RAI's military-uniformed met man presenting the weather was always good for a bit of unintentional retro humour.

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