Thai Rath

[uk_falang]

www.thairath.co.th

[george]

Thairath is the biggest newspaper in Thailand.

[lingling]

www.thairath.co.th

A dating service popular among Thais abroad.

...

just kidding - a newspaper as george says...

[uk_falang]

Thairath is the biggest newspaper in Thailand.

I never hear of thairath before.

Is this a right wing newspaper - it sounds angry!

What about dating service?

[lingling]

I never hear of thairath before.

Is this a right wing newspaper - it sounds angry!

Probably the most read newspaper among uneducated or little educated Thais. Publishing gory photos of accident/murder/rape victims along with articles packed with meaningless figures and numbers (used to decide what lottery numbers to buy) is their main thing.

What about dating service?

That was just a joke.

[meadish_sweetball]

Thairath is the biggest newspaper in Thailand.

I never hear of thairath before.

Is this a right wing newspaper - it sounds angry!

What about dating service?

The words right wing and left wing do not have much meaning in Thailand as most of the political landscape is firmly to the right of the European/UK mainstream, and does not divide itself quite along the same lines as we're used to. Affiliation with regions and people are typically more important factors in politics here than ideologies.

Thairath is a tabloid newspaper, and like others in the same vein, based on sensationalism. 'rath' has nothing to do with 'wrath', rather it is the (unfortunate) romanization of the Thai word รัฐ meaning 'state' and a component part of such Thai words as 'government' and 'constitution'.

(Not sure what happened with this post, it appears to have been truncated. Something to do with using Thai characters?)

[TAWP]

Left and right doesn't say much about the politcal scene here since the parties lack any ideology - apart from the love of money, power and controlling others.

Thairath is a very common paper here and you will most likely see it in every foodshop you enter. And many homes. Apart from the partly gory images on the frontpage it's usually rather boring in layout on the other pages...perhaps it caters mostly to those that only like to read the headlines...

[johna]

Thai Rath is Thailand's biggest selling tabloid newspaper and its owner Kamphol Vacharaphol was a very influential figure in Thai politics.

Kamphol died approx 10 years ago and the newspaper is now run by son, Saravut, and daughter, Yinglak.

Thai Rath's style of journalism caters to the sensational, violence and scandal much like its British counterparts, Sun, News of the World.

Nicholas Coleridge wrote a good account of this paper in his book "Paper Tigers" c1993

Edited June 29, 2007 by johna

[chanchao]

If the worst of the fridge-crud of British Journalism tried to print a fraction of what Thai Rath manages daily there'd be uproar.

[Stephen Cleary]

As mentioned here, Thai Rath is Thailand's biggest selling newspaper at an average of 900,000+ copies a day.

The Thai Rath may have sensational headlines with lots of gory pictures to compliment but so do its competitors Daily News and Kom Chat Leuk, the latter of which is co-incidentally run by Nation Group. For a so-called more intellectual read, there is The Manager and Mathichon.

I can not simply agree with Johna that you can clearly compare Thai Rath to The Sun UK (and i have been reading the Thai Rath for donkeys years) Thai Rath's sensational stories are more or less configured to only appear on the front cover - and occasionally on its Scoop Section. Thai Rath has a whole collection of different writers of all shapes and colours - some of whom can be called 'intellectuals' and 'social activists'.

I too, have made many a joke about some of the sensational stories on the cover of Thai Rath, but through and through though - the paper is also home to plenty of seriously-minded articles and columns too.

[kmart]

Thai Rath is a good laugh. Murder, accident and rape victims in colour on the front page, it appeals to the semi-literate lorry drivers and shirtless Leo-swigging labourers that would probably buy "The Sun" in the UK.