Soft porn? No not really (The Star)

Member Name: mikeb

Product:	The Star
Date:	18/02/01 (217 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy read, Dominik Diamond, free TV guide.

Disadvantages: Mainly celebrity & trivial news, page 3 girls.

I usually buy the Daily Star on a Saturday, along with the Mirror, mainly because it’s an easy read which isn’t too taxing on the brain. I have seen this paper described as nothing short of soft porn on Dooyoo. I can only review it by giving an a balanced opinion based on my experience of reading it, normally only on a Saturday, but I’ve certainly not found it any worse than the Sun in recent times and, for what it’s worth, would not describe yesterdays issue as soft porn.


I think it’s fair to say that the Star is probably nearest to the Sun in terms of its style and content. You can usually rely on the Star to come up with the most sensational headline of all the papers, which can be quite comical when there is something heavy going on in the world. If there was an asteroid heading for Earth it would probably be on page 8, replaced by some showbiz stars drugs problem on the front page. This Saturday (17/02) the front page was a full page picture of Geri Halliwell with the married boss of her record company on holiday in Miami. Although written as an apology for the Star’s previous days story, they were still using the picture to imply there may be something going on between them.

Contrary to popular belief, the Star does still cover the news, with stories such as the possible release of Jamie Bulger’s killers and the recent Baghdad bombings getting a half page each. These two items were written in a fairly matter of fact way and were not sensationalised or trivialised. There were also reports of the Leeds footballers on trial and Puff Daddy’s problems inside the paper, but if you’re looking for in depth news reports buy another paper. The inside front page also contained the obligatory things like a weather forecast, currency exchange rates and lottery news. The rest of the stories tended to be celebrity based or more light-hearted stories from around the world. There were a few more p
hoto’s of stars currently in the news

One of the main reasons I buy Saturdays Daily Star is the regular column by Dominik Diamond, best known for being the host of Gamesmaster a few years ago. His column is a wittily/sarcasticly written selection of items about things that have either been in the news recently, like the Dome, or his observations on something that has happened to him. It could be said that he does attack soft targets, like Posh and Becks, but it’s still usually very funny.

Other things in the paper included a double page of showbix related stories, featuring the likes of Stereophonics and Atomic Kitten, Mike Ward’s Soapbox review of what is happening and what is going to happen in the top TV soaps and star interviews. Saturday also has a pull-out 8 page guide to the days horse racing for anyne that’s interested. There were also the traditional cartoons, competitions and crossword pages and a page each for horoscopes and problems. After the holiday guide there were 15 pages dedicated to sports coverage, which covers everything from football, cricket and rugby to snooker, superbikes and even fishing.

A serarate 50 page TV booklet was included in Saturdays paper which gives a fairly comprehensive guide to the weeks programmes including all terrestrial and major Sky satellite/Ondigital channels.

Overall not a bad buy at 35 pence, although there are quite alot of adverts in both the paper and TV guide. I have read the Star during the week but find that there is alot less in it midweek. It is not trying to compete with papers like the Express or Mail but is OK as an alternative to the Sun/Mirror.

Even the young lady on page 3 wasn’t topless on Saturday, which would please the people who are, understandably, offended by this.

Summary: