The Daily (Irish) Mail
From MyWiki
Saturday 11th November 2006
Essay
The Raw Notes on this paper are now available on the wiki. This represents the full paper, as opposed to the Irish Times graph below, which only covers the Home News pages for Friday.
You’ll see that the graph on the right appears to have a considerable slice of actual journalism shown. Don’t forget that this makes no distinction between good and bad journalism.
The numbers here are flattered by the reliance of the Mail on stories of the ‘Isn’t it awful’ school, all of which I have included. And they are awful, and real stories. But the relish that they bring to their coverage is distasteful. If there’s a mother of a dead child to be milked for tragedy, or a mourning community to be paraded, the Mail are fearlessly to the fore. In addition I have classed Opinion columns as journalism for the purposes of this graph.
Journalism of actual originality and value is rather more scarce. In this edition, I would say there were two stories in news and then some on gardening at the back.
Note also that large red wedge, missing entirely from the Irish Times’ pie. This represents a number of articles which were nothing more than adverts for one commercial product or service or another.
UPDATE: I’ve rebaked the pie chart. Opinion now is broken out from journalism. I also broke out reprints of stories that appeared elsewhere. If you’d like to see the original pie chart referred to above, you can go to here
Raw Notes
Pg 1 Robocop II Report on police attack on Shell to Sea protester in car. Schizophrenia displayed in subheader, which strains to suggest that the attack was the protester's fault for being there.
Pages 2& 3 Paris Hilton- infotainment/ad for perfume & Brown Thomas/ PR
Page 4 Diet another day.. Pierce's slimline Mrs. - infotainment/ PR
Stamp duty dodgers to face inquiry- Picking story off the ground, derived from Public Accounts Committee testimony
Page 5 Sarah shoots for queen of the WAGs title- infotainment/ PR
Last person to see Meg alive was one of her two lovers- Garda leaks about ongoing investigation. No sources cited.
Terry Keane 'is in great form'- Ad for T. Keane/ Social & Personal magazine
Page 6 Systematic abuse but HSE says 'no one can be blamed'- Isn't it awful. Otherwise a decent report.
Flying Fingers earn accordionist world record- PR/ colour story. Not bad of its sort.
Page 7 Murder probe as victim of bungled vigilante dies- Isn't it awful.
The Blonde's new baby- PR of a revolting sort. For example the paragraph "And though she is barely showing, she wore a demure empire line dress to hide her dress" appears verbatim in another paper, making me think that the entire story is derived from a PR designed to distract attention from the legal questions surrounding her boyfriend Sean Dunne's plans, which are first described in PR terms, before being briefly and confusingly alluded to in the final paragraphs. "The four day hearing came to a close yesterday with the judge saying he would reserve judgment in the case."
Page 8 Mourner's gather for stab victim- Isn't that awful.
Labour Court snubs nurses- Court Report.
Children's campaigner dismisses amendment- Original journalism.
Page 9 Sloshed Spice- Infotainment.
A marriage hitch for Cruise and Katie- Feels like a press release/ wire story.
Pages 10 & 11 Outsiders came to stir trouble. Subhead: First baton charge by Garda Since the May Day riots in 2002. (Inaccurate. See Love Ulster March on youtube for details)
Despite the unsourced claim in the headline, a comprehensive and balanced report by an on the spot reporter. Good Journalism.
Page 13 The cynical mob got just what they hoped for. - Re Rossport. A farrago of unsubstantiated, and unsourced, claims, slurs, assertions. From someone not on the spot, but writing, presumably, from Dublin. Me, I'll look for my analysis from people who might know something- like the journalist from Pages 10 & 11.
Pages 14 & 15 The biggest star in the Jungle- David Gest related infotainment.
Page 16 Editorial: Rossport has now become a test case- Repetition of claims, slurs and assertions from page 13.
Pages 16 & 17 A licence to Snatch Children- John Waters opinion article. Who reads John Waters?
Page 19 A bloody nose for Bush but his brutality goes on- Eamon Dumphy opinion article re foreign affairs.
Pages 20 & 21 The man who loved beautiful women, the high life... and very ugly buildings- Obituary of Sam Stevenson. A decent piece of work.
Pages 22 & 23 Like Mother, Like Daughter- Isn't it awful?/ PR
Page 25 Gossips said he had run off, but I knew he loved me too much...- Isn't it awful?
Pages 26 & 27 The Vouge Hot list- Ad. Feature. Isn't shopping brilliant?
Page 28 The Unlucky Horseshoe- Seems to be largely a reprint from Friday's Times.
Page 30 Staff are shown pictures of their children and told they are in danger...- Isn't it awful? What's with the trailing dots a the end of a headline, by the way? Did the sub-editor die half way though composing a longer one?
Page 31 20 st woman who'll slim with a chip in her stomach- Ad for private hospital
Back to jail as murder appeal fails- Court Report
Pages 32 & 33 Colin Whelan held my hand knowing he has murdered by daughter. One day he'll be free- my pain is for my life- Isn't it awful. Prurience at its most base.
Page 34 The jab that gives the hope of a cure to hay fever suffererss- The day the Irish Times offers us a special supplement on the Pharmacutical industry, an ad for drug companies vapour-ware.
Page 35 Westlife star to pump €30m into apartment development- Ad for apartment development.
Irishman in bid for Hungary's top airline- Reprint from Irish Times. PR
Pages 36 & 37 The Real Dr. Strangelove- Actual piece of journalism.
Page 38 & 39 Is this Jacko's new wife?- Infotainment/ isn't it awful.
Page 40 Roll up, Roll up... the Joe O'Reilly circus is at court- Court Report.
Page 41 Out of Iraq- Seems to be a round up of things you could read sooner, more deeply and better written on the web.
Pages 42 and 43 In search of Miss Moneypenny- Ad for Casino Royal, but on the other hand a perfectly acceptable feature story. Unreadably laid out though.
Pages 44 & 45 We all know the perils of clingfilm and tinfoil but what but the last taboo?- Feature.
Pages 46 & 47 Don't mention the Toupee- Ad for new CD
Pages 48 & 49 & 50 Tommy the Wild Man- Ad/ Feature
Pages 54 & 55 Gardening features. Perfectly respectable.
The rest seems to just be a mix of compromised travel features
