You know this argument that she regularly trots out? That we\’re all rabid lefties really, concerned with equality, relative poverty, egalitarianism and the rest, we\’re just mislead by those rapacious press barons who thrust vilely right wing opinions down our throats?
That PollyLand is what we really desire, we\’re just suffering from false consciousness brought on by our reading habits?
Today in The Guardian in defence of their highly anti-Boris coverage just before the elections:
British newspapers are by nature, habit and tradition partisan; in leaders and opinion pieces, writers wear their hearts on their sleeves. It follows that readers choose newspapers that reflect their own views: "Every newspaper … is calculated for a particular set of readers only; so that if each set were to change its favourite publication for another, the communication would produce disgust and dissatisfaction to all," said John Walter in 1785, in the inaugural edition of the Times or the Daily Universal Register as it was then known.
Slightly torpedoes Poll now, doesn\’t it?
Newspapers chase the prejudices of their readers, not cause them.
Hey, if it works as a defence for the Guardian, it works for everyone else, right?
Yup, so now compare circulation figures, and tell us again the British are closet Guardianistas, Polly.
Personally I prefer the term “Graundiads” to describe the chattering classes 🙂
“British newspapers are by nature, habit and tradition partisan”
Get the New York Times to admit that this occurs on both sides of the Atlantic and we’re getting somewhere.