Newspaper nicknames

[junediamanti]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "davewitley" 
<dfrankiswork at n...> wrote:
> Tim Regan wrote:
> > 
> > In the olden days, many of these papers had different names, 
e.g. 
> > The Guardian was The Manchester Guardian. Some also have nick-
> names, 
> > e.g. The Guardian was known as The Grauniad becase of its 
terrible 
> > spell checking.
> > 
> 
> and for a while there were separate London and Manchester 
editions.  
> Also Gradian, Guardina, etc.
> 
> I associate the nicknames with 'Private Eye', though whether they 
> were invented there I can't say:
> 
> Telegraph: Daily Torygraph because of its general support for the 
> Conservative Party; Daily Hurleygraph because of its propensity to 
> find excuses to put pictures of prominent female celebrities on 
its 
> front page, with only the flimsiest excuses and clothing.
> 
> Independent: Indescribablyboring.  My favoured paper, but I do see 
> what they mean at times.
> 
> Sunday Times.  The Sundry Trends, though I think that's fallen 
into 
> disuse.
> 
> The Times: The Sun.  Because it is, in disguise.  Murdoch is 
> Murdoch, wherever he is.
> 
> Daily Express.  Daily Getsworse.  Because it does.
> 
> Daily Mail.  Daily Mail.  Because there is no worse insult.
> 
> David, glad to see Neil is around

This provoked a number of thoughts which I set out below - probably 
the Private Eye refs.  Private Eye is Britain's most scurrilous 
satirical magazine by the way.

Fleet Street (former area where all the newspaper offices were 
situated - even though most have now relocated to more suburban 
areas, Fleet Street is still the generic name for the press) is 
known as "The Street of Shame" in Private Eye

At one point the hq of the Express was known as "The Black Lubyanka" 
in Private Eye.

Here is the definition of all the English national newspapers 
according to who reads them: 

The Times: 
Read by the people who run the country. 
Daily Mirror: 
Read by the people who think they run the country. 
Guardian: 
Read by the people who think they ought to run the country. 
Morning Star: 
Read by the people who think the country ought to be run by another 
country. 
Daily Mail: 
Read by the wives of the people who own the country. 
Financial Times: 
Read by the people who own the country. 
Daily Express: 
Read by the people who think that the country ought to be run as it 
used to be. 
Daily Telegraph: 
Read by the people who think it still is. 
The Sun: 
Their readers don't care who runs the country as long as she has big 
tits. 

I found the full quotation in this website, which might be of 
interest to anyone who wants a guide to the maze of English usages, 
and references.

http://www.hps.com/~tpg/ukdict/ukdict-8.html

June

(Lifelong Grauniad reader)