Paper Monitor
11:36 UK time, Friday, 15 December 2006
A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.
Where to start?
The first serving prime minister is questioned by the cops; another body identified in the Suffolk murders; the long-awaited report into Diana's death is published; 2,500 post offices to close; new runways to be built at Heathrow and Stansted...
On a normal news day, any one of these stories would be front-page material, so it's fascinating to see which are given prominence by which papers. Let's start with the most obvious – the Daily Express, and its claims that Lord Stevens' report into Princess Diana's death is a "whitewash".
No surprises here. Anything less would have been a tacit admission by the Express that its protracted Diana campaign had been utter bunkum. Paper Monitor faithful will be heartened to hear that while the "£4m Stevens report does not answer the key questions… the Daily Express won't stop asking them." So that's Monday's front pages sorted for 2007.
The Mail too leads with Diana, and gives even more space to it – 12 pages, dusting off a familiar name from the royal frame of the mid-1990s, Tiggy Legge-Bourke (which the Mail believes is the "other woman" Diana spoke of when she said she and Camilla would be "put aside" to make "the path clear" for Prince Charles to marry again).
Diana also dominates the front of the Sun, which plays a straight bat on the Stevens report, emphatically calling for an end to conspiracy speculation with the headline "Now Let Her Rest", although it too can't help stirring the pot by invoking Tiggy Legge-Bourke's name.
Rival red top the Mirror which, with the cooperation of Diana's one-time butler Paul Burrell, has been a thorn in the Royal Family's side for some time, seems almost weary of the story, relegating it to an inside spread which is little more than a trot through the Stevens findings.
The Telegraph and Metro tie Blair and the Diana announcement together, sniffing the work of spin doctors in the "burying" of bad news.
Perhaps the biggest surprise is the Independent, which might be expected to also go big on Blair (although certainly not Diana) but instead uses some creative layout to splash on the Suffolk murders story.
As for the Guardian… it snubs these news riches for another story altogether - that of the government calling off the Serious Fraud Office in the BAe-Saudi Arabia alleged corruption case.
Phew. Is it too late to mention that with all this news avalanche, the biggest story by far on the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ News website yesterday was the world's tallest man coming to the rescue of sickly two dolphins.
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