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Originally Posted by Enoch Root
Absolutely. Though I would certainly like to hear people's input on the Walmart case and that of the Rampaugh Indians.
I know nothing of tabloids. In fact, I'm not sure I know what they are--save perhaps for those ridiculous things that claim Clinton has met with alien ambassadors and Bat Boy or some such. Neither was I aware of the tabloids' reputation for "speaking for the people" which is now exposed as a lie. Yes you may begin there. The part about the more explicit class distinctions of England is of particular concern for me as well.
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The word "tabloid" when describing a newspaper is first a description of its size. So, strictly speaking of size, those supermarket rags to which you refer are tabloids and
The New York Times (I presume you are familiar with its size) is called a "broadsheet." Lots of mainstream newspapers are tabloid size, including
The Independent in England, which is one of the nation's most highly respected newspapers.
"Tabloid journalism" when used to describe mainstream newspapers or other media outlets (e.g.,
New York Post being "mainstream" and
The National Enquirer being not mainstream) generally refers to the focus of the coverage on sensationalized stories about celebrities, crime, gossip, and with coverage of politics and economics that is typically either highly partisan, hysterically presented (often with too-clever headlines), or both.
Tabloid journalism in mainstream outlets typically goes to the limit of slander, libel, defamation -- call it what you will -- whereas in the supermarket rags tabloid journalism involves wholesale fabrication ... unless you actually believe that aliens visited Bill Clinton when he was in the White House, or that a woman has given birth to a baby who is half boy, half bat. When it comes to political coverage, though, the "mainstream" tabloid journalism outlets are prone to making things up, because they can get away with it, or in the case of Fox News Channel, "accidentally" running incorrect information on the crawl or beneath a picture of someone being covered, letting it sink in subliminally with the viewer, and then "apologizing" for it later.