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The NY Daily News continues its front page streak with Bill Cosby takedown
The New York Daily News continued its streak of provocative covers today, using the precious real estate to publish part of its editorial on Bill Cosby, who now faces arrest for sexual assault in a dramatic image reversal for the famous comic.
Most of the cover is taken up with the text. The words, making the point of how many women Cosby is accused of assaulting, against a black background, make a striking impression. When it comes to stirring up emotions, the Daily News showed it knows how to use the printed word to powerful effect.
The editorial, titled Justice comes for Cosby: Already guilty to many in the court of public opinion, America’s Predatory Step Uncle now gets his day in court, was the site’s most-read story by mid morning. The cover and editorial got close to 1,400 social media mentions and 18 million impressions by midday, with pickups from outlets including Business Insider and The Independent accounting for more than half the social media mentions, according to data from Brandwatch.
The Daily News has upped its game this year, using its covers to cast Donald Trump as a clown in this one and to accuse the NRA of helping terrorists in another.
The Daily News’ recent strong stances haven’t always met with universal appeal (as in this case where the paper expressed its frustration with politicians’ cliched “thoughts and prayers” response to the San Bernardino, California, mass shooting).
The Cosby cover also got mixed reactions on social media, with many on Twitter applauding its strong stance while others blasting the paper on Facebook for convicting the accused comic before he’s had his day in court. However, less than 1 percent of the conversation was negative, with about 20 percent of the mentions positive and about 80 percent neutral, according to Brandwatch.
Daily News gets it. pic.twitter.com/juUGg9yOAt
— Travon Free (@Travon) December 30, 2015
New York Daily News’ Cosby front page is pretty smart/strong. pic.twitter.com/qOu3mmTGu5 — jeffpearlman (@jeffpearlman) December 31, 2015
Another great NY Daily News front page: pic.twitter.com/wu6Da8n59x
— Roger Simon (@politicoroger) December 31, 2015
It’s not the first time a newspaper has recently used its front page to editorialize. On Dec. 4, The New York Times published an editorial to call for a reduction in gun ownership in response to the San Bernardino shooting. It was the Times’ first front-page editorial since 1920.
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