With 6 Liberals in the new UK coalition government, you'd think there was at least some support for them in the press but alas not. I have been rather bemused at the coverage for candidates during and in the aftermath of the UK's general election: Mirror resolutely Labour (so no change there), Times/Telegraph/DailyMail (all resolutely Conservative so no change, but now paint the Liberals in a neutral/good light as per current party diktat), but the only two newspapers that came out in favour of the Liberals during the campaign (Guardian) and openly endorsed their candidacy (Independent) are now actively undermining them.
On the night of the election, when the Conservative count was outstripping the Liberal count, suddenly the Guardian flipped and started talking up the benefits of a Conservative government (huh? I thought, but thought it was just a blip simply reporting on the parliamentary numbers). During the campaign, even though the Independent only proferred its support in the last week of the election (why so late?), a certain John Retoul was raving negative about the Liberals on the paper's blog pages. You'd think this was common dissent on an otherwise Liberal-leaning paper, again, fair enough.
One week post-election and to my bafflement, the Guardian and Independent have moved resolutely into anti-Liberal, pro-Conservative territory. The Guardian has wheeled out Polly Toynbee the eternal Labour supporter commentator (what? they just lost) and delivers editorials on how Labour could do better next time, general comment is generally dismissive of Liberal efforts (although Mark Pack delivers somewhat guardedly positive comments but never gets to the website's top page), and Conservative developments are reported neutrally. On the Independent, John Rentoul openly undermines Nick Clegg and his party "file under childish, silly and moderately funny", old-Tory-leather-boot Bruce Anderson does the same "the average Liberal constituency activist is an angry fanatic, with shallow, thoughtless opinions, utterly unscrupulous on the doorstep, ready to spread any smear and tell any lie" and Labour is given the odd soapbox in the comment section to talk about "listening and reconnecting". Wow. With friends like this, as they say, who needs enemies?
A major priority of the Liberals should be to create an overwhelming media channel into the echo-friendly blogosphere because when the going gets tough, the Blue/Red press shouting match will drown out your message and you'll lose the ability to shape opinion to your benefit (or at least get your ideas through to people untainted by rival party propaganda). Better start soon while you're ahead!
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And it continues with this morning's top-page Guardian featured blog article: "An awkward question for David Laws. Does the chief secretary to the Treasury have a mandate to reduce spending by £6bn this year given that his party – along with 52% of the electorate – wanted to delay cuts?".
ReplyDeleteAnd joining John Rentoul on the Independent, now Nichol Forest tries to paint Nick Clegg as a wide-eyed Europhile-cum-closet-Tory this morning: "Nick Clegg seems like a nice chap [...] but what about his beliefs? [...] a job with another Thatcherite, Leon Brittan, in Brussels. hmmmm."
Interesting that they are using the Tories used during the campaign. It seems that there is an ongoing campaign at now-Labour-leaning Guardian and Independent to undermine the liberal half of the UK coalition govt and discredit the coalition as a whole. Assuming Labour sees the liberals as both harbingers of political instability to the cosy Red/Blue Westminster game, and easy pickings. The start of a long-term media strategy?