Paper Monitor
12:39 UK time, Wednesday, 8 November 2006
A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.
Forget the mid-term US elections, the voters are clamouring for information on the latest line-up of I鈥檓 a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! And the papers oblige with partisan profiles of the contestants.
The Daily Mail and the Sun both have full-colour runners and riders guides. But it鈥檚 the Sun that is much more crushing in its profiles. In the Mail, David Gest is billed as the "Minelli Mister鈥, while the Sun calls him 鈥渕ad bloke who was married to Lisa Minnelli鈥.
The Mail demurely describes Jan Leeming as 鈥渢he news headliner鈥, while the Sun pitches in with 鈥減osh bird who used to present the news鈥.
And the Mail can鈥檛 resist the political spin for Lauren Booth, billing her as 鈥渢he PM鈥檚 nemesis鈥, while the Sun opts for 鈥淐herie Blair鈥檚 much less famous sister鈥.
The Times takes another bite at the racist poem story, following up the 鈥渟ome of my best friends are Asian鈥 defence used on such occasions. The paper spoke to one of the real-life Asian friends of the Tory councillor and found him to be unamused.
The Times also has an intriguing survey on its front page about the huge gap between our public commitment to green issues and the very different way we behave in practice. And it has the ring of truth about it.
For instance, almost two-thirds of us claim to buy energy-saving light bulbs, but in practice, only one in five bulbs sold is energy saving. A worthy 54% 鈥渕ake a conscious effort to take fewer flights鈥 and, yep, airline passenger numbers rose by 27% last year.
But will it stop the rising tides of eco-stories? No, these have already become a staple news diet. Even if we鈥檙e not going to do anything about the solution, the problem makes for a riveting read.
The 
