Daily Hate

I think that the only way to understand the Daily Telegraph's war against the BBC is to bear in mind that it is currently desperately auditioning for potential new owners, with various suitors having already been blocked because they would involve foreign ownership of a British newspaper.  (Which never seemed to worry anyone when Australian turned American Rupert Murdoch was allowed to own the Sun, News of the World and later The Times and Sunday Times).  So, bearing in mind that these days newspapers and non-public service media are only owned by billionaire extreme right-wingers or billionaires who seek to cravenly pander to extreme right-wing politicians in order to further their other business interests, it is only natural that the Telegraph should seek to establish its extremist credentials by trying to trash the UK's main public service broadcaster.  Because, by any standards, its recent campaign against the BBC has been truly extraordinary, culminating with the perverse situation of a UK based newspaper effectively encouraging a fascist-lite dictator masquerading as the US president, to sue the UK's flagship, publically funded, broadcaster.  Particularly bearing in mind Trump's antipathy to all media, print or broadcast, that refuse to act as propagandists for his demented regime.  You'd think that any newspaper which would want to cling to some vestige of integrity and quality in its reporting would be steadfastly anti-Trump.  Unless, that is, it is looking for a new sugar daddy who is likely to be steadfastly pro-Trump.  In which case ethics go out of the window.

Now, it isn't as if the Telegraph has ever been a hot bed of liberalism, but I'm old enough to remember a time when it was simply a right-of-centre broadsheet which reported the news with a degree of objectivity, albeit always retaining a broadly conservative perspective.  As such, it was a well-respected heavyweight on Britain's newsstands.  But nowadays, it feels like a parody of its former self, with screaming headlines that seem to be trying to compete with the Daily Mail and Daily Express to see who can come up with the most unhinged and hateful takes on the news.  When it isn't attacking the BBC, the Telegraph is pursuing some of the most frothing at the mouth reactionary takes on Labour policies, trying to paint the current government as a manifestation of the Anti-Christ.  It's really quite embarrassing.  It also doesn't seem to be doing much for sales.  I often buy a newspaper late in the day and what I've noticed is that while I often find it difficult to get a copy of The Guardian, having to visit multiple newsagents and supermarkets to find one that hasn't sold out, all of them still seem to have stacks of unsold editions of the Telegraph (and Daily Mail).  Now, I know that this isn't a particularly scientific study and you have to take into account that The Guardian has a much smaller daily print run than even the Telegraph, plus bear in mind that Crapchester may well not be representative of overall UK newspaper reading habits, but nonetheless, it makes you think.  Overall print sales of newspapers may well be in decline in the UK, but my unscientific survey would seem to suggest that it is right-wing titles which seem to be suffering most.  Perhaps this down to the fact that those inclined to read such things can now get their daily dose of hate and misinformation in more convenient and easily digestible form via the web or the proliferation of right-wing broadcast options, or it could be an indication that the sort of hateful bile they peddle is nowhere near as popular as they'd like us to believe.