Paper Monitor
12:06 UK time, Tuesday, 19 June 2007
A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.
Has Paper Monitor been shirking on its duties, or is the Daily Express's "crusade for the truth" about Diana a new development? No matter. The Express, which for a while seemed to have cooled on its Diana campaign, has ramped it up with a branded box on the front page, which appears again on page five. Crucially, the word "Diana" is written in a reverentially swirly font… or is it typeface… or type family?
Given its contempt for all things politically correct, it's surprising that the Express doesn't give more prominence to the death of Bernard Manning, the first mention of whom is relegated to page 10.
No such reticence in the Mail, which gives the late comedian a front page spot and recites some of his risqué jokes on the inside pages. But how does the Mail handle this Salman Rushdie story… beyond just picturing him alongside his easy-on-the-eye wife, Padma Lakshmi?
While the fallout in Pakistan and among many prominent British Muslims over Rushdie's knighthood is guaranteed to rile champions of free speech, Rushdie's appetite for glitz and glamour has disappointed some at the more fusty end of the literary spectrum. Cue an opinion piece by a fellow author. "I would die in a ditch to defend Rushdie's right to offend. I just wish the self-pitying darling of the literati would show some gratitude."
There's an easier ride for Rushdie in the sort of papers your average literatus would be happy to be seen with. The real test for the Guardian and Independent is what they make of Manning.
The Indy resurrects a 17-year-old interview with the comedian conducted by the then little-known arts journalist Mark Lawson. Guardian readers, meanwhile, need to turn to the obituary pages for their paper's view of the man. And characteristically it lays much of the blame for his reputation at the door of society itself. Dismissed as "fat" and "ugly" by the politically correct crowd, these crass insults said more about the level of debate than the man, who, the obit points out, was a member of a "minority group – the socially deprived northerner".
Are the literati feeling a tad guilty?
The 
