Taking the Blair bait
Alas, I fear my indefatigable colleague John Rentoul is correct when he remarks that not many people read leading articles. But I don’t think its fair of him to dismiss the evidence I so painstakingly assembled (thanks Google!) quite so casually.
Notwithstanding their disappointing readership, leading articles are a pretty close representation of a newspaper’s political and ideological standpoint. They tend to be the product of close consultation between senior editors and the comment/leading writing team. And those same senior editors, of course, oversee not just the comment pages, but the news and features sections too.
So my question is this: if “most” British newspapers are infected with “the Blair-hating world view”, as John argues, why would so many leading articles be immune from the sickness?
I don’t deny that several newspapers, not to mention lots of commentators, have it in for Blair. And much of the criticism is grossly over the top. But I also feel that, just as John suggests that those who overestimate the numbers killed in Iraq undermine their own case, he overdoes it when he accuses the British media, as a whole, of being biased against Blair.Tagged in: leader articles, media, newspapers, tony blair
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