Re: Torygraph, schmoreygraph
Indeed, the Daily Telegraph (DT) has, increasingly noticeably during the past quarter-century, declined in stature as an organ for news, analysis, and opinion. At one time, the items of news the paper chose to publish were presented dispassionately, sometimes enhanced by a twist of humour. Similarly, analysis strove to be balanced, and clearly distinguished from reporting. Commissioned 'opinion pieces' were clearly delineated from news and analysis. Similarly, editorials could thunder to the delight of faithful readers without being mistaken for reportage.
All the historically 'broadsheet' newspapers have shifted away from an ethos of reliable gravitas: the DT and Guardian mostly so but in differing manners. Underlying causes are speculative, but likely are a mix of the following: (i) a changing commercial environment, (ii) decline in the number of potential readers of the previously anticipated educational/cultural level, and (iii) a concomitant match of the aforementioned decline in the pool of aspirant journalists, including those destined for editorial positions.
The DT's fall from grace has been exacerbated by increased reliance upon income from mail order goods and from sponsored 'content'. Inevitably, the target demographic has broadened. Crudely put, the DT at one time appealed to people with a bit of money and some taste, but now seeks anybody with disposable income who can be gulled by flighty pieces on 'lifestyle', 'celebrity', and conformity to what now has become 'influencer culture'.
In the past, the DT had appeal to people of a 'small c' conservative outlook, those not hostile to 'big C' Conservatism of the kind pertaining before Neoliberal economic and social policies were introduced during the 80s and subsequently embedded in all three major political parties. For some while, the DT appears aligned to policies emanating from the government in power, whether Con/Lib coalition, Con alone, or 'Newest' Labour.
The DT, and other media, knuckled-down to being handmaidens to Johnson's bizarre Covid-19 epidemic management orthodoxy and to NATO's ambitions based upon the USA 'Brzeziński doctrine': the era of MSM's enthusiastic participation in censorship and propagandising. The DT, perhaps other media also, stooped to going beyond censoring (i.e, deleting) readers' online comments and engaged in criminal deception by 'shadow-banning' some paying subscribers' comments. The State adopted a stratagem akin to that of Nazi Germany by attempting to forbid access to alternative news sources (e.g. RT). Records show that in comparison with recent times, the UK suppresses dissident opinion far more keenly than during WW2, perhaps a throwback to WW1.
It will be fascinating to watch how the DT and other 'loyal' media cope with the latest twist in the game of pillorying Russia now Mr Trump is in a hairsbreadth of making the EU/UK declare the USA a trade enemy rather than competitor.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
