Escort Girls And Semi-Naked Male Celebrities (The Daily Record)

Name: kenjohn

Hello doyoo user, You have to be logged in to use these functions... Login or register Close window

Send message to member

Product:	The Daily Record
Date:	06/07/01 (647 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: See opinion

Disadvantages: See opinion

~ ~ As a fairly newly qualified journalist myself, (August, 2000) I thought I’d start to have a wee look at some of the daily newspapers on offer to the public, and give you my opinion on how I think they shape up.
I have already posted one opinion in this category, on the “Sunday Times”, but as this is a newspaper that I truly love, and which supplies me with enough good reading material to last me nearly the whole week, it wasn’t too hard to give it a glowing reference.

~ ~ This morning, while buying my usual morning newspaper the “Irish Times”, I happened to notice a copy of one of the best selling Scottish papers on the shelf, the “Daily Record”.
Since I can recall this newspaper from when I was a boy at home in Scotland, and since it was priced at only 45p (Irish), when most (decent) daily papers here in Ireland cost at least a pound, I decided to buy it and have a gander.

~ ~ First off, I checked out exactly where it was now published, as I could vaguely recall there being a bit of a “hoo-ha” a few years back, when it was supposed to have moved its main offices from Glasgow to Manchester. (I think it was Manchester??)
I don’t know where its main news offices are now based, but it is published from an office in Central Quay in Glasgow, printed by a company called Century Newspapers in Belfast, and is part of the large Mirror Group of newspapers generally.

~ ~ So how does it shape up?
It’s front page headline was “HAIR RAGE” in big, bold headlines, a story of how the convicted Lockerbie bomber,Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, has had his very own hairdresser flown from Scotland to his prison cell in Holland on at least two occasions to tend to his hair. Naturally enough, indignant outrage is expressed at the dreadful waste of taxpayer’s money on a convicted killer.
At the top of the page is a small story about Coronation Street
actor, Nigel Pivaro, who plays villain Terry Duckworth in the long-running soap, being stopped by a security guard at a Dover ferry while wearing what appeared to be a shoulder holster replete with sidearm.
Again, a somewhat “sensationalist” headline is used, “ARMED CORRIE STAR ON RUN FROM THE COPS”.
Only later do we learn that this is not strictly accurate, and that the actor claims the gun was a replica, and that far from being on the run, a police spokesman simply said, “We are dealing with an incident.” So not quite the “Bugsy Malone” type incident the headline would lead you to believe.
A full quarter of the page is taken up with a colour photograph of pop singer Madonna, (yawn) on the opening night of her World Tour at Earl’s Court in London.
And finally, the front page has a couple of banners linking to stories in the Sports section, about soccer star Zidane’s £48 million transfer deal, and a plan for the Scottish national football squad to use the new state-of-the-art training facilities at Glasgow Ranger’s ground at Ibrox in Glasgow.

~ ~ Now when you consider that these stories have relegated a far more important piece of news (in my opinion) to page two, namely Prime Minister Tony Blair’s new proposals to have recipients of State Disability Benefit tested on a regular basis to see whether or not they are fit to work, this will give you some sort of idea of the way the editors of this newspaper go about trying to sell their publication.
Everything about the newspaper is treated in a somewhat “sensationalist” fashion, with stories about a Dutch “streaker” in Fort William being arrested by a traffic warden. (who just happened to be old enough to be his granny) An appropriately “posed” photograph is provided to titillate public curiosity even more!!

~ ~ There are all the usual type of “stories” tha
t I remember from my youth about major, minor, and aging celebrities.
A Scottish former “escort” girl, who took a taxi from Edinburgh to Cheshire to break into football star David Beckham’s luxury flat. She was arrested and detained under the Mental health Act (I’m not surprised!!) after the taxi-driver complained to police about not being paid. (Just as well she didn’t get into MY taxi, otherwise she would never have got as far as Cheshire; “cash up front” on a job of this kind for me. I reckon she found a “real” mad cabby, and that the police should have detained HIM under the Mental Health Act as well!!!)
And a photo shoot of male stars of today and yesteryear posing in their swimming trunks. (Just as well I’d finished my breakfast)

~ ~ Page three no longer has the “bare boobed” starlet that it had in my youth.
But it still carried a fairly provocative photo of supermodel Gisele Bundchen (who???) in a skimpy swimsuit. (She’s engaged to Leonardo DiCaprio, he of “Titanic” fame)
And the centre pages carried yet another story, along with the pre-requisite provocative photos, of how chain store Marks and Spencers have engaged the services of an American model called Molly Sims to model their new range of sexy ladies underwear. (ho-hum, yawn)

~ ~ In fairness, there are some fairly good hard news stories interspersed with all this titillation.
One is about a fairly serious child abuse case in the High Court in Edinburgh, and yet another about how Scot’s MSP’s (politicians) are making vast profits (again at taxpayer’s expense) by selling on their properties in Edinburgh, bought with loans from the Scottish Parliament.
There are also some good human-interest stories about how Karl Marx was a noted boozer and womaniser during his time as a student in Germany, (I didn’t know that!) and another about how the manuf
acturers of the famous Scottish soft drink “Irn-Bru” are in trouble with advertising watchdogs about their latest provocative poster advertising campaign. (I thought it was fairly clever, and harmless enough)

~ ~ The telly guide was…… well…..it was the telly guide, although it did give a listing for the Irish TV Channels, that some of the British newspapers don’t.

~ ~ One section that I found outstanding was the Sports coverage.
For this alone, the newspaper was worth what I paid for it.
They covered the Wimbledon Tennis in depth and in full over six pages, with good interviews, reports on the top matches, all the results, and some top quality photography.
Likewise with their golf coverage of the European Open that began today here in Dublin at the K-Club in Straffan. Comprehensive and well informed reporting, all be it with a distinctly “Scottish” slant, but being a Scot myself, and given it is a Scottish daily newspaper, then this is what I would expect.
Boxing also gets coverage, as does football, both in Scotland and in England.

~ ~ So how would I rate the newspaper overall?
If I were giving a “dooyoo type” rating it would certainly merit a “useful”, but I would leave a comment asking them to give us a bit more in depth coverage of actual news, and then I would return and upgrade my rating to “very useful”.
This isn’t a bad newspaper by any means, and while not on a par for news coverage with the likes of the “Scotsman” or “Glasgow Herald”, the two quality Scottish broadsheets, it does give you decent value for money, (it’s 30p in Scotland) and is a light and easy read, without you having to stretch the old brain cells too much.
I personally wouldn’t buy it on a daily basis, but would get it occasionally if I were looking for something easy to read to pass away a half hour o
r so.

Summary: