Daily Mail’s new ‘pro-Remain’ helmsman

What difference can a newspaper Editor make? Britain’s tabloids have often been credited — either by themselves or others — with having an extraordinary sway over public opinion. The Sun ’s claim that it had swung the 1992 general election towards a surprise victory for the Conservatives continues to be held up as an example of the political power wielded by individual press institutions. The role of the tabloids was also seen as influential in the run-up to and aftermath of the 2016 Brexit referendum. Among the ‘Leave’ campaign’s most vociferous advocates was the Daily Mail , Britain’s second most popular newspaper after The Sun with a print readership of around 1.2 million. “We’re Out!” exclaimed the newspaper on June 24, 2016, following the shock result, with a beaming image of Nigel Farage. “After 43 years, U.K. freed from shackles of EU.” In the months that followed, the newspaper angrily pursued those it saw as standing in the way of what it and other tabloids began referring to as the “will of the people” — the “hardest” version of Brexit. In a particularly controversial piece, the paper labelled three judges — who ruled that the government would need Parliament’s consent prior to triggering Article 50 — as ‘Enemies of the People’.

Source : https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-international/daily-mails-new-pro-remain-helmsman/article24959151.ece