[News] Daily Express

[blue-shifted]

Just out of curiosity, is The Express lying? Has Priti Patel not in fact warned people about breaking the restrictions? Just asking ........................

They knew the photo was taken before the lock down and they knew it would give the impression that the lock down was being totally flouted. It would have been easy to find a photo taken last weekend if they wanted to. It was wilfully misleading.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

I've been down there (I think) three times during the lockdown. The transformation from 'the norm' is extraordinary. The police are also present, and would never have allowed that to happen. So, hopefully, one or two people that read The Express will recognise that they are lying to their readers.

Just out of curiosity, is The Express lying? Has Priti Patel not in fact warned people about breaking the restrictions? Just asking ........................

Think about it. If you were one of the people recognisable in that picture, which wasn't taken recently, but have been labelled Selfish Lawbreakers?

 

[Eeyore]

The papers published a picture taken outside a Hove ice cream parlour. It had clearly been taken in such a way as to suggest people were not 'safe distancing'. A quick look at Google Maps shows that the photo was crafted in such a way as to compress the buildings next door.

The parlour says that two pictures were available through the agency- the original one and the crafted one. Guess which one the Metro chose.

 

[GT49er]

Think about it. If you were one of the people recognisable in that picture, which wasn't taken recently, but have been labelled Selfish Lawbreakers?

I'd have cut it out and kept it.

 

[loz]

https://youtu.be/0yaRhWB7p6U

 

[blue-shifted]

I'd have cut it out and kept it.

Moving away from such hilarious comments, are you prepared to defend the use of this photo on the front page, the other photos which have portrayed Brightonions as ignoring the lockdown and the Daily Expresses approach to journalism generally?

 

[Thunder Bolt]

The papers published a picture taken outside a Hove ice cream parlour. It had clearly been taken in such a way as to suggest people were not 'safe distancing'. A quick look at Google Maps shows that the photo was crafted in such a way as to compress the buildings next door.

The parlour says that two pictures were available through the agency- the original one and the crafted one. Guess which one the Metro chose.

It is manipulation, or to use another word, propaganda.
Never mind the NHS is on its knees trying to help patients, it's all the selfish public's fault.

 

[blue-shifted]

It is manipulation, or to use another word, propaganda.
Never mind the NHS is on its knees trying to help patients, it's all the selfish public's fault.

And it's dangerous. The more people believe the lock down is being routinely ignored, the easier it will be for them to think, "well if nobody else is doing it, why should I?"

 

[blue-shifted]

These tabloids have an endgame, like they had with the EU, like with the BBC. The lockdown is going to hurt their proprietors interests over and above how we're all going to be affected economically.

After this is over and we're looking for ways to pay the debt mountain back, the tax havens which so benefit the proprietors are going to come under a lot more pressure.

The papers can't come out and say it now, because of public support for the NHS etc, but you'll see the normal MO come into sight in the coming weeks, of gradually more and more trying to undermine the lockdown.

 

[GT49er]

Moving away from such hilarious comments, are you prepared to defend the use of this photo on the front page, the other photos which have portrayed Brightonions as ignoring the lockdown and the Daily Expresses approach to journalism generally?

No, I don't think much of the standard of journalism in The Express. Just amused by the amount of frothing at the mouth induced by an article and headline which appear to be wholly accurate.
The picture is of a crowded promenade, which is exactly what we are told we must not do. Would a picture of broad acres of empty beach been appropriate to the article?

 

[blue-shifted]

No, I don't think much of the standard of journalism in The Express. Just amused by the amount of frothing at the mouth induced by an article and headline which appear to be wholly accurate.
The picture is of a crowded promenade, which is exactly what we are told we must not do. Would a picture of broad acres of empty beach been appropriate to the article?

But there wasn't a crowded promenade, so there's no story. To run that picture and the other similar ones outside Marocco's etc has made entirely innocent people look as if they are breaking the law and made us as a city look like we're not taking this seriously, when we are.

 

[Official Old Man]

I was working on Brighton seafront Saturday (25th April) and was astounded at the amount of people there. My tourist shops are closed and I'm painting outside with ladders and rope as barriers to keep people away and yet still they tried to come in!!!!
There are three chip shops open and all doing a roaring trade with people walking up to a counter and talking to someone inches away and then paying in cash before sitting on the beach eating their meal.

 

[Lincoln Imp]

Just out of curiosity, is The Express lying? Has Priti Patel not in fact warned people about breaking the restrictions? Just asking ........................

The Express set out to give a blatantly misleading impression, rather like Cummins and his bus. I'm surprised you didn't call them lying bullshitters.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

They knew the photo was taken before the lock down and they knew it would give the impression that the lock down was being totally flouted. It would have been easy to find a photo taken last weekend if they wanted to. It was wilfully misleading.

If you're a photographer and your newspaper sends you out with a brief to photograph folks flouting the lockdown, you'd better come back with the goods. Blame the newspaper management and their narrative. Ditto film crews for news channels

 

[Thunder Bolt]

No, I don't think much of the standard of journalism in The Express. Just amused by the amount of frothing at the mouth induced by an article and headline which appear to be wholly accurate.
The picture is of a crowded promenade, which is exactly what we are told we must not do. Would a picture of broad acres of empty beach been appropriate to the article?

There is no frothing at the mouth, as much as you would like there to be, but genuine annoyance at the misleading article.
It isn't amusing.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

If you're a photographer and your newspaper sends you out with a brief to photograph folks flouting the lockdown, you'd better come back with the goods. Blame the newspaper management and their narrative. Ditto film crews for news channels

Sending a photographer out costs money. Just use any old stock photo from last year.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

I've noticed that several of the right wing papers are pushing an anti-lockdown agenda. They are pushing exagerated stories of people disobeying the rules, presumably in the hope that people will think "if other people aren't doing as they're asked why should I". I suspect part of this is the thatcherite de-regulation clique in charge of large parts of the press hate govt telling people what to do. But also I think they're desperate to get people to the shops and buying print copies of their propoganda rags as they're in the shit financially with all the oaps who still pay for papers stuck indoors.

 

[el punal]

Just wondering how you deduced that it is an old photo? What gave it away?

People queuing for admission to the West Pier.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

The Daily Expess is in the somewhat uncomfortable position of having been rabidly pro Tory/anti Europe for about the last 20 years. It is famous for its extreme front page " Splashes" on everything from the weather and making a mountain out of a molehill over bendy bananas or what is discussed in the EU Parliament.

This should have changed when taken over by Reach group, the company that evolved from Trinity Mirror, yes the owners of the left leaning Daily Mirror! So, it's VERY hard to trust a company that now puts out two very different viewpoints out in to the mainstream media in the manner of Yin / Yang.

So, this could have changed 2 years back but that would have meant that the Express would have been losing circulation at a high rate as all the Colonel Blimps and elderly ladies that thought the Express actually shared their " beliefs " jumped ship. So the Express continues on with its indignant foghorn headlines in order to cling on to its dwindling share of the market. Untrustworthy? Duplicitous most definitely.

Very good points.

The Mirror was once called The Daily Worker, was it not? Without checking it's history, it never struck me as much of a Labour supporting paper for reasons other than market share. Captain Bob bought it, but he was a 'socialist' for reasons of convenience only, and actually one of the shitter capitalist megalomaniacs of the day (for the benefit of younger readers). When Piers Morgan was editor they ran an Achtung! headline with a drawing of Stuart Pierce wearing a tin hat and carrying a gun just before an England Germany game. FFS. I can very easily see a company running a right wing and a left wing paper at the same time to corner the entire market of thickies who need their news infused with their colour of choice. The Evening Standard is another case in point - owned by the people who own the Daily Fail, but with content packaged to appeal to the metropolitan elite.

However. I don't object to government propaganda. If there is a real need to up the ante on social distancing (is there? I don't go out much these days) then why not manipulate us a bit? The problem here is that anyone with half a brain will know that Brighton sea front is not awash with happy holiday makers, and once the fakery has been rumbled it just makes the paper and their pal Patel look cheap and duplicitous. However, since it will make the paper and Patel look (etc etc) only to people who use social media or browse other outlets that might question the photo, jobza good 'un. Net curtain twitchers everywhere else in the UK will have their prejudices about debauched homosexualist Brighton reaffirmed, and will stay in doors with a sense of indignant and sanctimonious superiority. I have no real problem with that, oddly. But there again I am so used to being lied to (even in the scientific research journals I read) that its water off a duck's back to me now.

 

[Machiavelli]

All newspapers have an agenda . I remember having an e mail debate a couple of years ago with a Guardian journalist and whilst he didn’t deny that he was writing in a somewhat selective manner, he backed it up by saying that the Guardian has a certain view on this subject !

It’s not just the tabloids ! It’s just a bit more subtle in the Guardian.

As [MENTION=1890]blue-shifted[/MENTION] indicates, it's impossible to escape having a particular position on a subject. But that's entirely different from what's going on here, which is outright lying. The editor(s) will know that that wasn't a recent photograph, it is illustrative of how low newspapers (and especially those with the largest readership) will go in their attempts to gather their audience around a specific position. In other words, this isn't 'one bad apple', but it's indicative of a general policy practiced by large sections of the press.
The key question to ask is: why are they doing it?