I was at the Tate Britain art gallery this afternoon, which is obviously replacing the Groucho Club as the in-place to meet media types. On the steps outside, a BBC News crew was interviewing someone. Inside, a film crew was shooting footage for some Channel 4 arts programme. And, when my friend and I were looking at a Damien Hirst painting of spots, we got asked our opinions on modern art in general and Damien Hirst in particular by a reporter for the Mail on Sunday.
He told me that, usually, he had to apologise for being a Mail reporter which doesn’t surprise me as the very name Daily Mail is like a blue rag to a left wing bull.
And why?
Perverse, pseudo-intellectual liberal airheads with superiority complexes, that’s why.
It’s not reverse snobbery.
It’s simple, straight, uncomplicated and very nasty snobbery.
In January this year, the Daily Mail’s average net daily circulation was 2,136,568.
The Guardian’s circulation in the same period was 279,308.
The Independent’s was 185,035.
The Mail on Sunday’s average circulation? – 1,958,083.
The Observer? – 314,164.
The Independent on Sunday? – 152,561
So why deride the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday?
Because ordinary people read them. People who did not go to Oxbridge and do not live in Islington. The sort of ordinary people the Oxbridge Islington wankers look down on. The sort of ordinary people the Oxbridge Islington wankers make increasingly crass TV shows for. They wouldn’t be caught dead watching the TV programmes they make because they think they are better than that.
And the ratings are falling for these entertainment shows.
Britain’s Got Talent and The X Factor are made by people who understand popular culture. Increasingly, though, TV entertainment shows are made by people who don’t; they are made by people with superiority complexes and a contempt for their audiences.
They are made by people who look down on Daily Mail readers as mental and cultural inferiors.
But who is out of step with reality? Who is out of step with what the majority of people in this country think?
From the circulation figures, people who write for and read the Guardian and the Independent.
(More on this topic HERE.)
SO IT GOES - John Fleming's blog 