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March 26, 2008

What we REALLY think about the UK’s newspapers

By Dave Lee STD

British editors:Want to know what students really think of your newspaper?

Take at look at these gems, plucked from the Facebook-o-sphere. You may remember Axe Grinder’s look at the reputations of journalists on Facebook — we all hate Piers Morgan, apparently — a while ago, but let’s take a look at the newspapers themselves.

If you’re a tabloid editor, look away now.

“The Daily Mail really are a bunch of f****** t****” has, at the last count, 7,268 members. That’s some serious hate right there. I looked for a positive Daily Mail group, but the friendliest I could find was this: If I see someone reading the Daily Mail, I assume they’re a bit thick.

Right up there with the Daily Mail is The Sun who, with the group “I f****** hate The Sun newspaper”, achieves an impressive member tally of 5,882. Not bad. I wonder if such a group would be allowed to exist if ol’ Rupert ever gets his hands on the social-networking giant.

As you would probably expect, the Daily Express has taken a bit of a Facebook-hammering since its recent apology of the McCanns. Plenty of groups about that. In the interest of balance, how about this group: “I read the Daily Express and I’m proud of it!” 17 members. Ah well, it’s the taking part that counts.

On to the broadsheets. The Guardian seems to be free from too much vitriol, but one plucky chap named Chris addresses one of the problems all Guardian readers have with his group: “I read the Guardian/Observer and am not a snob.”

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Just time for one more: the Daily Telegraph.

Our friends down under don’t seem to like their Daily Telegraph, but the English one survives well intact. In fact, 556 people have joined the group “Daily Telegraph readers”. Bravo.

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