4 ms·

Can you explain stereotypes of the Guardian? The article is pretty over the top, but as an American I am not intimately familiar with them like, say, the Journa

Can you explain stereotypes of the Guardian? The article is pretty over the top, but as an American I am not intimately familiar with them like, say, the Journal.

matthewmacleod 9y ago
The Guardian is generally a mildly left-ish, middle-class-ish kind of paper. I would say in the UK it tends to conjure up an image of a well-meaning, slightly naïve, hand-wringing sort of readership, though of course it’s base is likely wider than that. What particularly makes it stand out is it has quite an open comments policy; it quite often publishes fairly ludicrous points of view from a variety of commentators. I’d say on the whole that’s quite a good thing, though it does tend to result in some absolutely preposterous headlines from time to time.
- dazc 9y ago
  Except, post Brexit and post Trump, it has become something of a parody of itself. The headlines seem to be intentionally troll-baity of late?
  - dazc 9y ago
    Sigh
- confounded 9y ago
  It's also sometimes referred to as The Grauniad, as it has traditionally had the worst reputation of a UK newspaper for copy-editing. They also occasionally take articles from Richard Stallman and Cory Doctrow, often about free/open-source software, DRM, etc. https://www.theguardian.com/profile/stallman-richard https://www.theguardian.com/profile/stallman-richard https://www.theguardian.com/profile/corydoctorow https://www.theguardian.com/profile/corydoctorow
  - dmurray 9y ago
    > It's also sometimes referred to as The Grauniad, as it has traditionally had the worst reputation of a UK newspaper for copy-editing. This was mostly undeserved. Print newspapers have several printings each day, mostly with the same content. The early editions are less polished than the later ones. Because the Guardian was printed in Manchester, while the other major national papers were based in London, readers in the south would get the early mistake-ridden printing.
- pacaro 9y ago
  Somewhat ironically given today’s political climate there was a minor scandal in the mid 90s when a prominent Guardian journalist was found to have accepted money from the KGB [1] To a Telegraph reader the Guardian looks very left wing (in british political terms) but it’s probably only about as left as Tony Blair, which is to say that it’s basically centerist. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Gott https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Gott
- MarkMc 9y ago
  Although usually mild-left, they sometimes publish articles which are pretty crazy-left. Here's an example[1]: You have a university professor citing research saying that the 'acting white' phenomenon exists in integrated schools, plus her own black students tell her they suffered from the 'acting white' stigma. Yet she somehow concludes that belief in the phenomenon is not just wrong but 'intellectually dishonest'. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/22/acting-white-theory-dear-white-people-college https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/22/acting...
  - dragonwriter 9y ago
    > You have a university professor citing research saying that the 'acting white' phenomenon exists in integrated schools ...in the course of arguing that it's image as a feature of all-black communities is false. (Integrated is very different from all-black.) > plus her own black students tell her they suffered from the 'acting white' stigma. What sdoes is relate that the “bullying essay” is a well-known archetype of freshman comp essay, and the common subtype of that type of essay she sees is one conforming to a particular form of the “acting white” narrative. Freshman comp essays from people who don't have stories they want to share reflecting the author inserting themselves into narratives from the common folklore of their community instead of actual personal experience is a rather well-known phenomenon.
jimnotgym 9y ago
The Guardian is rather unique in British newspapers in that it is owned by a trust. The rest of the British press is pretty right wing and is usually pushing the line of it's owners pretty strongly. Brexit for example was disproportionately supported in the press. The Guardian often seems left-ish in comparison, but it would have been hard to imagine another paper publish the Snowden papers. They have been publishing stories about the links between CA/Facebook/Brexit/Trump for over a year. I used to subscribe to The Times (owned by Murdoch) but canceled after it's complete failure to challenge The Snoopers Charter[0] [0]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investigatory_Powers_Act_2016 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investigatory_Powers_Act_2016
- alva 9y ago
  "Brexit for example was disproportionately supported in the press" Not according to the most comprehensive research [0]. This is a Remain meme. " eight endorsed Leave: the Sun, the Daily Mail, the Daily Express, the Sunday Express, the Daily Telegraph, the Sunday Telegraph, The Sunday Times, and the Spectator. Eight supported Remain: The Times, the Guardian, the Observer, the FT, the Independent, the Mail on Sunday, the Mirror, and the New Statesman. Buzzfeed, HuffPo UK, Vice UK, and the Star (Daily and Sunday) did not formally endorse either side, though the editorial perspective of the first three lent towards Remain, while the Star strongly favoured Leave." [0] https://www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/policy-institute/CMCP/UK-media-coverage-of-the-2016-EU-Referendum-campaign.pdf https://www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/policy-institute/CMCP/UK-media-co...
  - isostatic 9y ago
    Balance that by copies sold.
handojin 9y ago
British papers as explained by the Right Honourable James Hacker MP: The mirror is read by people who think they run the country. The guardian is read by people who think they ought to run the country. The times is read by the people who actually run the country. The mail is read by the wives of the people that run the country. The morning star is read by people who think the country ought to be run by another country. And the telegraph is read by people who think it already is.
- SmellyGeekBoy 9y ago
  The Mail is read by people who think the EU and immigrants run the country...

Can you explain stereotypes of the Guardian? The article is pretty over the top, but as an American I am not intimately familiar with them like, say, the Journal.

matthewmacleod 9y ago

The Guardian is generally a mildly left-ish, middle-class-ish kind of paper. I would say in the UK it tends to conjure up an image of a well-meaning, slightly naïve, hand-wringing sort of readership, though of course it’s base is likely wider than that. What particularly makes it stand out is it has quite an open comments policy; it quite often publishes fairly ludicrous points of view from a variety of commentators. I’d say on the whole that’s quite a good thing, though it does tend to result in some absolutely preposterous headlines from time to time.

dazc 9y ago
Except, post Brexit and post Trump, it has become something of a parody of itself. The headlines seem to be intentionally troll-baity of late?
- dazc 9y ago
  Sigh
confounded 9y ago
It's also sometimes referred to as The Grauniad, as it has traditionally had the worst reputation of a UK newspaper for copy-editing. They also occasionally take articles from Richard Stallman and Cory Doctrow, often about free/open-source software, DRM, etc. https://www.theguardian.com/profile/stallman-richard https://www.theguardian.com/profile/stallman-richard https://www.theguardian.com/profile/corydoctorow https://www.theguardian.com/profile/corydoctorow
- dmurray 9y ago
  > It's also sometimes referred to as The Grauniad, as it has traditionally had the worst reputation of a UK newspaper for copy-editing. This was mostly undeserved. Print newspapers have several printings each day, mostly with the same content. The early editions are less polished than the later ones. Because the Guardian was printed in Manchester, while the other major national papers were based in London, readers in the south would get the early mistake-ridden printing.
pacaro 9y ago
Somewhat ironically given today’s political climate there was a minor scandal in the mid 90s when a prominent Guardian journalist was found to have accepted money from the KGB [1] To a Telegraph reader the Guardian looks very left wing (in british political terms) but it’s probably only about as left as Tony Blair, which is to say that it’s basically centerist. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Gott https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Gott
MarkMc 9y ago
Although usually mild-left, they sometimes publish articles which are pretty crazy-left. Here's an example[1]: You have a university professor citing research saying that the 'acting white' phenomenon exists in integrated schools, plus her own black students tell her they suffered from the 'acting white' stigma. Yet she somehow concludes that belief in the phenomenon is not just wrong but 'intellectually dishonest'. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/22/acting-white-theory-dear-white-people-college https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/22/acting...
- dragonwriter 9y ago
  > You have a university professor citing research saying that the 'acting white' phenomenon exists in integrated schools ...in the course of arguing that it's image as a feature of all-black communities is false. (Integrated is very different from all-black.) > plus her own black students tell her they suffered from the 'acting white' stigma. What sdoes is relate that the “bullying essay” is a well-known archetype of freshman comp essay, and the common subtype of that type of essay she sees is one conforming to a particular form of the “acting white” narrative. Freshman comp essays from people who don't have stories they want to share reflecting the author inserting themselves into narratives from the common folklore of their community instead of actual personal experience is a rather well-known phenomenon.

jimnotgym 9y ago

The Guardian is rather unique in British newspapers in that it is owned by a trust. The rest of the British press is pretty right wing and is usually pushing the line of it's owners pretty strongly. Brexit for example was disproportionately supported in the press. The Guardian often seems left-ish in comparison, but it would have been hard to imagine another paper publish the Snowden papers. They have been publishing stories about the links between CA/Facebook/Brexit/Trump for over a year. I used to subscribe to The Times (owned by Murdoch) but canceled after it's complete failure to challenge The Snoopers Charter[0] [0]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investigatory_Powers_Act_2016 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investigatory_Powers_Act_2016

alva 9y ago
"Brexit for example was disproportionately supported in the press" Not according to the most comprehensive research [0]. This is a Remain meme. " eight endorsed Leave: the Sun, the Daily Mail, the Daily Express, the Sunday Express, the Daily Telegraph, the Sunday Telegraph, The Sunday Times, and the Spectator. Eight supported Remain: The Times, the Guardian, the Observer, the FT, the Independent, the Mail on Sunday, the Mirror, and the New Statesman. Buzzfeed, HuffPo UK, Vice UK, and the Star (Daily and Sunday) did not formally endorse either side, though the editorial perspective of the first three lent towards Remain, while the Star strongly favoured Leave." [0] https://www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/policy-institute/CMCP/UK-media-coverage-of-the-2016-EU-Referendum-campaign.pdf https://www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/policy-institute/CMCP/UK-media-co...
- isostatic 9y ago
  Balance that by copies sold.

handojin 9y ago

British papers as explained by the Right Honourable James Hacker MP: The mirror is read by people who think they run the country. The guardian is read by people who think they ought to run the country. The times is read by the people who actually run the country. The mail is read by the wives of the people that run the country. The morning star is read by people who think the country ought to be run by another country. And the telegraph is read by people who think it already is.

SmellyGeekBoy 9y ago
The Mail is read by people who think the EU and immigrants run the country...