Taking Fayed seriously.
Not to go back to Flat Earth News yet again, but as I wrote in the review, Davies doesn't believe there's any evidence that advertisers either directly or indirectly influence the editorial line taken by newspapers.
Perhaps there is at least one example of this. It's widely known that Mohamed Fayed moved the advertising for his various interests from the Mail to the Express, for whatever reason there was at the time, and as the Guardian reported back when the Telegraph was up for sale, Fayed and Richard Desmond, owner of the Express, held talks about launching a joint bid for the paper. It also suggests that Fayed and Desmond discuss "business" on a regular basis.
Whatever the truth of the matter, while all the rest of the press have mocked Fayed's performance in the witness box at the Diana inquest yesterday, both the Express and the Star have been either deadly serious or respectful in their reports, with the Express even printing this pathetically craven sentence:
Of course, it might not be anything to do with Fayed's advertising in the paper at all, and rather be all to do with how the Express has milked the conspiracies surrounding Diana's death for all they're worth, and if that involves taking their chief architect deadly seriously, so be it. I don't think however it should be something to dismiss out of hand.
Perhaps there is at least one example of this. It's widely known that Mohamed Fayed moved the advertising for his various interests from the Mail to the Express, for whatever reason there was at the time, and as the Guardian reported back when the Telegraph was up for sale, Fayed and Richard Desmond, owner of the Express, held talks about launching a joint bid for the paper. It also suggests that Fayed and Desmond discuss "business" on a regular basis.
Whatever the truth of the matter, while all the rest of the press have mocked Fayed's performance in the witness box at the Diana inquest yesterday, both the Express and the Star have been either deadly serious or respectful in their reports, with the Express even printing this pathetically craven sentence:
But at other times Mr Al Fayed was highly emotional, at one point wiping away tears with a tissue, betraying how raw his grief at his son’s death still is, a decade on.
Of course, it might not be anything to do with Fayed's advertising in the paper at all, and rather be all to do with how the Express has milked the conspiracies surrounding Diana's death for all they're worth, and if that involves taking their chief architect deadly seriously, so be it. I don't think however it should be something to dismiss out of hand.
Labels: Diana inquest, Express-watch, Flat Earth News, Mohamed Fayed, Richard Desmond
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