In 1937, the Mail's chief war correspondent, George Ward Price, to whom Mussolini once personally wrote in support of him and the newspaper, published a book, I Know These Dictators, in defense of Hitler and Mussolini. On October 1, 1938, Rothermere sent Hitler a telegram in support of Germany's invasion of the Sudetenland, and expressing the hope that "Adolf the Great" would become a popular figure in Britain. Rothermere visited and corresponded with Hitler on many occasions. The Mail's consistency regarding this controversial stance has lasted to the present day, a remarkable feat regardless of one's political persuasion. During this period it was the only British newspaper to consistently support the German Nazi Party. Rothermere was a friend and supporter of both Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, which influenced the Mail's political stance toward them up to 1939. Rothermere wrote an article, "Hurrah for the Blackshirts," in January 1934, in which he praised Mosley for his "sound, commonsense, Conservative doctrine," although after the violence of the 1934 Olympia meeting involving the BUF, the Mail withdrew its support for Mosley. In early 1934, Rothermere and the Mail were sympathetic to Oswald Mosley and the British Union of Fascists (BUF). Since that incident, the paper has been referred to as "The Forgers' Gazette" in some Labour circles. It was widely believed that this was a significant factor in the defeat of Ramsay MacDonald's Labour Party in the 1924 general election, held four days later. In 1924, the Daily Mail published the forged Zinoviev Letter, which indicated that British Communists were planning violent revolution.
#THE DAILY MAIL FULL#
In 1922, when Lord Northcliffe died, Lord Rothermere took full control of the paper. His successor, David Lloyd George, asked Northcliffe to be in his cabinet, hoping it would prevent him criticizing the government. The paper then campaigned against Asquith, and Asquith resigned on December 5, 1916. When Kitchener died, the Mail reported it as a great stroke of luck for the British Empire. Asquith accused the paper of being disloyal to the country. 1,500 members of the London Stock Exchange ceremonially burned the unsold copies and launched a boycott against the Harmsworth Press. Kitchener was considered a national hero, and overnight the paper's circulation dropped from 1,386,000 to 238,000. On May 21, 1915, Northcliffe wrote a blistering attack on Lord Kitchener, the Secretary of State for War. Northcliffe created controversy by advocating conscription when the war broke out. The paper was accused of warmongering before the outbreak of World War I, when it reported that Germany was planning to crush the British Empire. Punch thought the idea preposterous and offered £10,000 for the first flight to Mars, but by 1910, both the Mail's prizes had been won. In 1906, the paper offered £1,000 for the first flight across the English Channel, and £10,000 for the first flight from London to Manchester.
From the beginning, the Mail also set out to entertain its readers with human interest stories, serials, features, and competitions (which were also the main means by which the Harmsworths promoted the paper). Controlled editorially by Alfred, with Harold running the business side of the operation, the Daily Mail from the start adopted a vigorously imperialist political stance, taking a strongly patriotic line in the Second Boer War, leading to claims that it was not reporting the issues of the day objectively. Soon after its launch it had more than half a million readers. It cost a halfpenny at a time when other London dailies cost a penny, and was more populist in tone and more concise in its coverage than its rivals. The Daily Mail, devised by Alfred Harmsworth (later Lord Northcliffe) and his brother, Harold (later Lord Rothermere), was first published on May 4, 1896, and was an immediate runaway success. A roughly opposite stereotype to " Daily Mail reader" is the " Guardian reader" (denoting left-wing self-proclaimed intellectuals) this epitomizes the conflict between the classic right- and left-wing viewpoints in British middle-class society. The stereotypical Daily Mail reader is characterized as an insular, aspiring middle-class conservative who lacks the intelligence to read the broadsheet equivalent, The Daily Telegraph, and is stuck in the past. " Daily Mail reader" has become something of a phrase in its own right in the UK.
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