I say another go as I have tried with the Sunday Times in the past. I have tried and tried and tried. And it always seems to end with me hurling it away, exhausted at the tedium and disgusted with the shallow content.
Anyway, this time I decided I would work out why I don’t like the Sunday Times. Is it me or is it them? Or is it just an ingrained dislike of (the idea of) Rupert Murdoch that is preventing me from seeing the publication objectively?
On page two of the Sunday Times, below the Contents, the newspaper flags up its USP: “The Best Writers.” Also on the panel is an out-of-date tagline - the Sunday Times is your Sunday Papers. It’s a confident assertion of quality by one of the leading newspaper brands in the country (in the world in fact).
But is it true?
The five “best writers” listed are: India Knight, Rod Liddle, Rosie Millard, AA Gill, and Minette Marrin.
India Knight was educated at Wycombe Abbey (which has a high reputation for English). Her article on Mick Jagger contained clichés (“howls of derision” “adding to the nation’s gaiety” “lords of misrule”), sweeping generalisations (what is her justification for saying “Jagger’s baby-boomer generation has completely reinvented old age”?), and an odd condemnation of elderly demographics who are “wearing cardigans and waiting for death” (India Knight’s by-line photo showing her wearing a cardigan and the sort of floral print dress favoured by my late grandmother). This article didn’t tell me anything.
Rod Liddle was formerly editor of the Radio 4 Today programme (one of the most erudite of news programmes). He shared a page with socialite Tara Palmer-Tompkinson. In his half-page he poked fun at dwarves (done before, most memorably by Ricky Gervais), recycled the disappearing canoeist (done to death as a news item), told us about yet another loony council with bullying petty officials, recycled the (cheaply titillating) Max Mosley item, and produced a corner paragraph that had the sub-text: I hate Labour leaders (without telling us why, which might have been interesting).
Rosie Millard was formerly a BBC arts correspondent. Her article was an interview with the “gay bishop” Gene Robinson. Mildly sneering in choice of language (“holy beanfeast” “goad the boycotting bishops” “he’s even got Jesus backing him”). Mildly racist (African bishops are homophobic). Mildly funny camp portrayal of men in purple frocks getting in a tiswas. Such lazily stereotypical journalism you half-expected the Vicar from Dad’s Army to make an appearance in the article, saying Oh you silly man!
AA Gill is the author of a thinly-disguised autobiography The Angry Island. His self-hatred is externalised by a superficially brilliant (luminous, dazzling, shining) prose style that is ultimately depressing because he hasn’t got anything good to say about anyone or anything. Even when he appears to be saying something nice (for instance, a review of The Wire) if you read the piece again you see he is being nasty in an ironic way.
Minette Marrin is a popular journalist (shortlisted for Columnist of the Year at the 2004 Press Awards). Her article was a polemic advocating disestablishmentarianism masquerading as an attack upon Islamo-fascism. She used a mishmash of statistics (“only a tiny minority” “a startlingly large proportion” “four out of 10 Muslim students in Britain” “almost a third” “40% said they felt” “nearly a quarter do not think” “a quarter of Muslim students” “57% said they should and a further 25% said they were not sure” “more than half” “a third don’t think or don’t know” “a third said they were” “more than half” “these are large minorities” “one can hardly doubt the findings of the YouGov survey” “fully 42% said they weren’t sure” “one in five wasn’t sure” “one in six” “while three in 10”).
The Sunday Times is edited by John Witherow with weekly interventions by Rupert Murdoch (and presumably James Murdoch).
“You MUST read…” - I suppose this sums up what I feel about the Sunday Times. It is a publication that is continually telling you what to do and what to think. Without explaining any reasons why.
3 comments:
Try The Observer next time. Good writing.
I often get the Observer Anna. But the village shop only has about ten copies and when they are gone they are gone.
I agree with you about AA Gill's vacuous, mean-spirited writing. When they can hail such a petty, small-minded snobbish racist as AA Gill as one of their best writers, that tells you all you need to know about the Sunday Times.
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