Media Bias against Labour?
Friday, 10 October 2008
Media types always complain when Labour argue that their is a bias against them, they claim they only report the news and after all, the polls show that Labour are suffering so what can they do but report them? So what are the polls saying now?
Well we don't know! Now that Labour are on the up suddenly the press have stopped commissioning these polls, as a record of all UK polls shows.
In the last 14 days, probably Brown's best, there have only been 3 polls commissioned by the Telegraph, Guardian and the Times. One poll for ever 4.6 days.
Compare that to late July, the worst for Labour. There was 7 polls within that 14 day period, one poll for every 2 days! That's more than DOUBLE the number of polls. There were also 7 polls in late June and 6 in mid-August.
Consistently there have been plenty of polls by every paper so they can ratchet up the hyperbole to attack Labour, nor that we are on the up suddenly they have dried up. Coincidence?
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4 comments:
Well, except that there wasn't much actual news over the summer, so the media were filling those empty pages with polling numbers.
Now the Brown economy has run into an iceberg, that's the big news story. For now, nervous swing voters may huddle for safety under Labour, but I can assure you that breaking the economy doesn't win your party any plaudits in the long run.
It's therefore not plausible to suggest that doing less polling during economic meltdown is related to political bias: it's just the reality of the news desks desire to fill space (as was) or their complete absence of space (right now).
Congrats on taking over from Kez as Scottish Labour's de facto #1 blogger, though!
All the best,
James
Agree with James. There are more important things going on at the moment than petty party politics.
In England perhaps thsi is applicable, but for us seperatist types, in Scotland there is very much a media bias for Labour - no dneying it
Indeed it is very bizarre. In England the papers tend to be pro-Tory or pro-Labour, dependant upon who is popular.
In Scotland its pro-Labour all the way; probably the reason why the blogosphere is so dominated by pro-independence viewpoints.
As a merry unionist one can open the Daily Record, the Sun, the Herald or the Scotsman and generally find 'SNP independence by creep' stories and 'Eck in bed with Tories' every other day. They feel little need to travel onto the web to express their views.
With a lack of mainstream media support nationalist opinions have now occupied the web as a free medium and are -in a way- using it as a open activist communication body.
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