Paul Dacre, the editor of the Daily Mail,
has replied to the paper's critics over its labelling of Ed Miliband's father
as "the man who hated Britain." And he's complained about the
"full-scale war" that he says has been waged by the BBC and the left
against the Mail.
He described the Mail as a paper that
"constantly dares to stand up to the liberal-left consensus that dominates
so many areas of British life and instead represents the views of the ordinary
people who are our readers and who don't have a voice in today's political
landscape and are too often ignored by today's ruling elite."
So here are some facts, taken from a report
published by the media regulator Ofcom last month, which might help provide
some context.
On a chart calculated by asking people which
news sources they use and how frequently they use them, TV came top with 47 per
cent of references, followed by the internet (21 per cent), radio (18 per cent)
and newspapers (13 per cent).
The BBC accounted for 56 per cent of the TV
references, 64 per cent of the radio references, and 27 per cent of internet
references.
Across all media platforms, the BBC came
top with 44 per cent, followed by ITV, commercial radio, Sky, social media --
and the Mail with 4 per cent.
All of which casts a somewhat different light on
who really "represents the views of the ordinary people".
2 comments:
I am not sure that any media organisation "represents the views" of anyone except their paymasters. Surely they exist to feed potential views to their consumers.
I read your blog, various parts of BBC News internet site, Telegraph online and a whole load of regular and occasional blogs and publications. To be presented only with my existing prejudices would be dull beyond dullness.
Your blog represents your views. That is how it should be and most readers will understand.
Anyone who claims to be 'the voice of the silent majority' (which are usually tabloid newspapers) are in reality just a very vocal opinion of a minority. They are a minority for a reason.
Post a Comment