Paper Monitor
12:23 UK time, Friday, 6 February 2009
A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.
Her Majesty's Press would seem to be in a bit of a pickle about whether it is happy or not that Tony Blair was the first foreign statesman to be welcomed to the Obama White House.
What line to take? Is it good because he's British? Bad because he's Blair? Good because he's not French? Good and/or bad because he's not Gordon Brown? Bad because he talks about religion with the President? Good because he talks about religion with the President? Oh it's all so confusing.
For the Indie it's this: "There IS an afterlife: religion does have its uses after all. After you have left office, it gets you to the front of the line of foreigners queueing up to meet the new President."
For the Express: "Tony Blair eclipsed his old rival Gordon Brown again yesterday...."
For the Mirror: "Tony Blair beat European leaders yesterday..."
The Guardian seems hardly able to bring itself to report it at all, putting it on page 20 with just a picture caption reading: "Tony Blair, the closest world leader to George Bush, yesterday beat Gordon Brown...."
For the Daily Telegraph it's about Brown's humliation, for the Daily Mail it's a about religion: "So Blair *does* do God (31 times in once speech)", even describing his speech archly as a "sermon".
It's all an indication perhaps that Blair remains box office, and there's no sign of that changing.
Moving on, as it's Friday, that means it's time for Lembit Opik's column in the Daily Sport. Again it is accompanied by a pair of breasts unaccompanied by any over- or indeed under-clothes. Choice quote: "Do you like beer as much as this guy I know? His name's Greg Mulholland and he's an MP from Leeds. He's so devoted to beer that he shouted at me for ordering a bottle of Magners cider on Wednesday. I respect that." Surely that's a sausage as large as the Humber Bridge?
We shouldn't let today pass without recording some cheer amid the gloom. Not particularly cheer for the economy, but cheer for the Daily Express which is able to run this headline (right) just as if it were old times.
And perhaps a final observation re the Carol Thatcher story (or as the Daily Telegraph has it today, the "golliwog imbroglio")... Interesting to note that the Mail is giving away a DVD of the Dam Busters tomorrow. At least two versions of the classic film have been broadcast in recent years - one in which s dog has his original moniker and one in which it is omitted in the interests of . Will be worth seeing which version the paper distributes. (If you have no idea what Paper Monitor is talking about, it's really a bit difficult to explain here. Maybe all will become clear.)
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