大象传媒

Paper Monitor

11:52 UK time, Friday, 4 February 2011

A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.

Where should we start today? That's a rhetorical question of course. There is only one place to start and that's the Speaker's wife Sally Bercow posing "sexily" in nothing more than a sheet for a magazine shoot.

It gets a front page spot on the Times. And there she is on the Daily Mail. But the Sun screams: "I love bonking under Big Ben." It's all a bit much.

Turning to the very serious news from Egypt, and other pockets of instability in the Middle East, and there's no such silliness in the coverage. Or is there?

Both the Sun and the Mail delight in showing a shot of a protester in Yemen with bread rolls taped to his head, as a form of protection against projectiles. The Times also has a montage of Egypt protesters with headgear including plastic bottles, a cardboard box and a dustbin lid.

But if you do want serious discussion where else should you go than the Times's letters page. Today's big topic is unmarried couples' rights, but there's also a letters page classic, in defence of Esperanto.

It meets the remit of a newspaper set out by a letter to the editor in the first edition of the Times [then called the Daily Universal Register] in 1785.

"Though the usefulness and necessity of newspapers must be admitted; yet how incoherent and pernicious have several of them been? What heterogeneous mixtures have they set before the public? A newspaper may be considered as a political salmagundy [a salad featuring cooked meat, seafood, fruit, leaves and nuts] or a feast furnished to suit every palate."

At the other end of the spectrum today is the Daily Star's Text Maniacs. There is serious debate. Tony ov Cov says: "Re NHS, forces' penshunsm police cuts et: dictator Cameron n co shud luk at Egyp etc n c the UK duin the same 2. REBELLING!"

But the letter writers also cover social issues, such as Zoe, Preston saying: "Can you buy chocolate covered pretzels anywhere? Used to love them, but can't find them so have to improvise with pretzels and jar of nutella!"

And in one final note, there is much in the papers about Kate Moss marrying Jamie Hince. Paper Monitor is surprised to note that he is insufficiently famous to merit his own entry on Wikipedia.

Although that may not say much as Paper Monitor does not have its own entry on Wikipedia.