It is sometimes said that newspaper endorsements don't matter that much. Insofar as very few people are hugely influenced by the leading articles that appear inside newspapers that's probably true.
The editorial lines of newspapers really do matter, however, in how they affect news coverage and choices of topics/ front pages. This devastating front page of today's Sun is a case in point:
Incidentally those Sun readers who do get to the leader column will read this powerful attack on the Defence Secretary:
"While our politicians have been using the taxpayer's hard-earned cash to pay for bath plugs, duck houses and porn movies, the Ministry of Defence was launching an appeal against an increased payout for Corp Duncan and Royal Marine Matthew McWilliams, who got £28,750 for a broken thigh. While the Corporal was facing the enemy yesterday, Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth was "on leave" at a secret destination, which you can bet was NOT Helmand Province. Mr Ainsworth is the third man in a year to try and run the defence ministry - a department where penny-pinching bureaucrats turn a blind eye to the waste of BILLIONS on equipment that is often late and unsuitable for the job at hand. Yet the minister - who claimed almost £6,000 for redecorating his second home, charged £669 for cleaning and laundry and another £4,100 for food - wants to claw back money from heroes like Corporal Duncan and Marine McWilliams."
