The Guardian’s X Factor miss

A newspaper is an argument on the way to a deadline.

So says the ex-editor of The Times and Sunday Times Harold Evans in his brilliant, compelling autobiography My Paper Chase. And he should know.

Fast forward to now and I wonder just what the argument was on the way to The Guardian’s front page this weekend.

Under the headline ‘Celebrity culture fuelled the riots, says Duncan Smith’, the paper reports the work and pensions secretary’s claim that a “get rich quick” celebrity culture is creating an unbalanced society.

Part of the blame, he says, is that shows such as The X Factor celebrate luck over hard work.

He is quoted as claiming: “Kids are meant to believe that their stepping stone to massive money is The X Factor. Luck is great, but most of life is hard work.”

So far, so predictable. Unfortunately, slap bang above the front-page masthead in bold red print is a trail banner for a Suzanne Moore article on pg 44. It reads: ‘How my daughter taught me to love The X Factor’.

I can almost hear the subs saying ‘ouch!’.

Of course awkward juxtapositions of stories and messages are a fact of newspaper life, but especially on the front page they are fair game for a gentle dig.