I really struggle to consider the Mail a "good" newspaper. I will admit that it has good elements to it. It's done a good job of holding its own in the move to online media, and its website is one of the most visited news websites in the UK (and it's done a good job generating revenue in the US market). I don't agree with the paper's political view, but I'd agree that it is generally consistent.
That's about all the positives I can really say about the Mail.
The editorial stance of the paper is frankly disgusting many areas. The attitude towards asylum seekers by the Mail is, of course, well documented. It echoes of the Mail's views in the 1930s about
Jewish people fleeing Nazi Germany. There's near daily articles insulting me as a Scottish person based on my nationality. The Mail's reaction to the Junior Doctor's strike was to point out that some junior doctors even
go on holiday sometimes. (In the interest of fairness, The Sun ran a similar article). Mail columnists routinely claim that Climate Change doesn't exist, and have also claimed that Stephen Gately's death was linked to his sexuality (
Jan Moir), and that Japanese victims of the 2011 tsunami do not deserve our condolences because of WW2 (
Richard Littlejohn), to take just a small sample of the despicable views published in the newspaper.
The Daily Mail has every right to publish this bile as far as I'm concerned. They, quite rightly, point to the freedom of the press. I'll use similar freedom of speech to criticise the newspaper. And I would like to point out that any newspaper has the same rights, and that every one of us has the same rights to criticise all of them.
What I find more concerning is the paper's tendency to publish utter lies. And they get away with it. For example, shortly before Romanian and Bulgarian citizens were entitled to work in the UK (on 1st Jan 2014), the Daily Mail made a specific claim that every flight and bus between these countries and the UK was fully booked by migrants coming to work in the country on or after the 1st of January. The reality was far from the truth - demand had not significantly increased, airlines had not increased their flight schedules, and the vast majority of people traveling were not new migrants! (
Source). Amongst other lies told include the saga about the Liverpool Care Pathway, the majority of articles about this published by the Mail being simply fallacious. However, the frankly ludicrous article regarding
sick babies being euthanised (now removed, but I can't find a retraction) has to be the pinnacle of their nonsense. I could go on. It appears to be commonplace that the Mail manipulates and fabricates facts to support its journalistic standpoint. Again, recent examples include the junior doctors' strike. Claims of an 11% pay rise are utter lies, as it's been well documented that this is on the background of a pay cut and increase in antisocial working hours! As are claims that the strike is about providing 24/7 service - as any junior doctor will tell you, they already provide 24/7 service!
Now, of course the Mail is not alone in this practice. Journalists on a whole have shown little to no interest in self-regulation. But the Mail seems to be particularly prone to making up it stories.
The quality of articles on the Mail's website are dire. A quick look at today's selection of trash includes:
Maths "Magic!"
Can YOU spot the panda in the zig-zags?
"Proof" that men do nothing at the weekend
The only explanation for the continued existence of the Express as far as I can see is the dementia market. Their health "articles" are almost always "aspirin causes/cures Alzheimer's", and people with dementia don't remember reading the same article last Tuesday.
