News Values (?) of the Current Bun...

I was in the newsagents this morning and I was struck by the unanimity of the front pages. All except one. Can you guess which one...?

Yes, it was the supersoarawaysun that somehow missed the story that newspapers had been hacking the phones of everyone and anyone in illegal attempts to generate "news" stories. The supersoarawaysun even managed to miss the fact that the supersoarawaysun had accessed and revealed the medical records of a sick child and published the story against the wishes of the child's parents, who just happened to be the Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time....

Instead they led with a suggestive headline about about an over-the-hill footballer ... Says it all really: sleazy, nasty, cruel and cowardly and way off target in terms of news and information.

Red Faced - Red Top

George Pascoe Watson is cock of the walk. As the Political Editor of the Sun newspaper, he is the biggest beast in the corral. His support and opinion can make or break politicians and their parties.

So when he comments here that Alan Johnson will definitely not be Shadow Chancellor, it carries weight.

Except... two minutes after reading his tweet, BBC TV confidently announced that Allan Johnson is the new Shadow Chancellor, quickly followed by this non-apology from the bold George...

This may seem a trivial matter, but people like Pascoe Watson survive and prosper on their contacts and the reliability of the information they can get from those contacts. There has been much discussion recently about the "red top" tabloids, especially the Sun, losing their dominant influence over public and political opinion.

Getting it so wrong so publicly in this type of issue won't help restore that dominance.... and a good thing too.

It Was the Sun Wot Lost it!!

Yesterday Trevor Kavanagh (67), veteren Sun journalist, wrote this hysterical piece predicting riots in the streets of London if the voters were to defy the Sun and support anyone but Dave. If you don't do what we tell you, says the Super Soaraway Sun, Greek style chaos would ensue.

But, you know what?.... the people defied Trevor and the Sun. They refused to be bullied into electing the Conservatives, and they refused to be rushed into buying the whole Cleggmania package and they gave us a hung Parliament.

So, amid all the political furore about who will do deals with whom, and what shape a new Parliament will eventually take, one development is in danger of being missed: the print media is one of the big losers in this election.

Seven national papers supported the Tories, two supported the Lib Dems, and only one, The Mirror, supported Labour (two if you include the Mirror's Scottish sister, The Daily Record), but theTories failed to get a majority, and the Lib Dems failed to get any improvement in their vote. Given all the media support of the Conservatives and the supposed unpopularity of Gordon Brown, this is a massive failure of the political influence of the UK press.

But this situation was not entirely unpredictable: in February, when the Sun ran a campaign against Brown on the way he wrote and addresssed letters to bereaved relatives of military casualties, the resultant pressure on Brown was viewed as illegitimate and massively unfair. The paradoxical outcome was that Brown got a huge sympathy vote, his personal ratings improved and the beginning of the Labour recovery in the polls was established. The Sun's attacks were counter productive, producing the opposite effect to the paper's intentions.

Similarly when the print media, in the Conservative interest, attacked Nick Clegg with charges of Nazism and other nonsense, the Lib Dems consolidated their improvement in the polls and Cleggmania was off and running. Once again the public told the press where to get off in pushing an agenda that the people did not buy.

So the print media, previously so powerful and dominating, so used to dictating to Prime Ministers and government departments, has failed in its stated aims of forcing a Cameron government on the people.  The Sun, the embodiment of this hubris, the newspaper above all others which has arrogantly assumed that it rules the country and that politicians must bow to to the will of Rupert, has lost the plot and lost the power.

After the 1992 election, the Sun ran a famous headline which boldly claimed that "It Was The Sun Wot Won It!". In 2010 the matching headline would have to be "It Was The Sun Wot Lost It!".

Tories Attack the BBC (via the Sun)

Today's Sun has an online article  (no idea if it is in the printed paper) claiming that the BBC is biased against the Tories. Among the many accusations were claims that;

"The Sun's analysis" showed Labour politicians on Question Time were allowed to speak for a full minute longer than Tory counterparts.

On March 11 ex-Labour minister Caroline Flint got SIX minutes more than Tory Justine Greenings.

And on February 18 Labour veteran Roy Hattersley spoke for nearly three minutes longer than Tory Rory Stewart.

Last week bosses tried to make Mr Cameron look a laughing stock by putting out footage of him checking his hair in the wind before making a serious statement on Northern Ireland. Party chiefs complained.

A POLL on The One Show ignored issues with Gordon Brown to ask only, Is David Cameron too much of a toff to be PM? (the BBC later apologised).

Then last Sunday BBC2's Basil Brush Show featured nasty "Dave" - complete with blue rosette. He beat nice Rosie, with a purple rosette, by promising free ice cream but was arrested because it was out of date.

Last night the BBC admitted the One Show slot was "not as good as it should have been".

But a spokeswoman insisted: "The notion that the BBC is biased in is palpably not true. Our news coverage scrutinises all parties with rigour and impartiality."

So is it true?

Even allowing that the "Sun's analysis" on Question Time speaking allowances is accurate, it would not be surprising if Government spokesmen took longer to respond. They are usually defending attacks from at least two hostile guests (a Tory and a Lib Dem), plus the "celebrity guest" could be a Tory as well (two weeks ago Carol Voderman was openly Tory). So it is not unreasonable that a Labour representative would get time to address the various attacks, from two or three other guests, on their position.

It could be also that the Labour representative has more to say, and is a better speaker, that is certainly the case with Caroline Flint/Justine Greenings.

As for Roy Hattersley speaking for three minutes longer than Rory Stewart: well, I've heard of Roy Hattersley....

The other claims may or may not be trivial, but I'm grateful to the Sun for bringing the Basil Brush story to my notice: I think it's priceless, if  a little naughty. But does it outweigh the Sun's relentless daily attacks on Labour and its corresponding and unstinting support for the Tories? I think not...

The truth is the Sun has pledged its support to the Tories for this election and in return the Tories have promised, if elected, to weaken the BBC and let Murdoch take large chunks of the corporation's TV and online business.

It's not a secret, the Tories have already said they would abolish the BBC Trust, they have threatened the licence fee and have made other veiled threats against the BBC.

I find it interesting that the Conservatives oppose the BBC, the NHS and the Trades Unions: all the organisations that ordinary Britons love and support and depend upon. They pretend to be patriotic but they attack those institutions which make Britain the country it is and which serve the majority of UK citizens.
 
As for the Sun: if it wasn't for the effect of its poisonous influence on public life in the UK nothing would be more pleasurable than to ignore it completely. But if the Tories win the upcoming election, the Sun will  want to extract its pound of flesh. Heaven help social cohesion and public discourse then.