A New Paper

So it has survived its first week and is returning on Monday on a supposedly more permanent basis. Is it a good thing? There has been lots of criticism from those on the other side of the referendum divide, saying that a deliberately biased newspaper cannot succeed. But we all know about the politics of existing newspapers, generally pandering to the political prejudices of their readers. So is this any different? Perhaps it is just a cynical attempt to capture a section of the market that are not well-served by existing titles. I guess it will take longer than a week to see how it pans out. But it does seem reasonable to have a paper that comes from a different direction from most of the others. That is what a wide-ranging press looks like. The trick that so many right-wing papers seem to manage is portraying themselves as 'apolitical' or 'sensible', when they are based on fundamental political assumptions just s biased as those that underpin a paper like the Morning Star, or The National. Pointing out that bias by admitting their own is perhaps the best thing about it. Everyone has a bias, the important thing is to identify it before they start speaking.