SubscribeDaily Mail Watch is on the lookout for contributors after running short of steam fairly early on. This is a shame because I think there’s definitely a market for a blog like that. Of course in Manchester we have the Evening News, which often makes the Daily Mail look oh-so-moderate.
The M.E.N. was on the paedophile trail long before the nationals, publishing names and addresses in first editions and getting photos of the angry mob in time for that day’s final. Less informed readers may have thought it was following the Mail’s lead last Saturday with its own condemnation of Primrose (wife of mass murderer Harold) Shipman’s pension. But the M.E.N. has always gone further. On Harold’s suicide the paper printed numerous photos of the family and made sure anyone who might be interested knew where they live, his son’s university and other stuff for the misguidedly vengeful.
Yet the Manchester Evening News is not what it was. There was a time when its profits kept the Guardian going, but now its name’s gone from the company letterhead (Guardian & Manchester Evening News is now Guardian Media Group). Circulation’s failing as it concentrates on the curmudgeonly older reader: complaining daily about young people, public art and that things ain’t-wot-they-used-to-be (thank goodness). It’s a shame for such a youthful and forward looking city to be saddled with such a mouthpiece.
