Propaganda: Which political party is this then?

By TruePublica: Analysis by Loughborough University shows newspaper negativity towards the Labour party reached its highest levels during the final week of the election campaign. It would be fair to say, that never in British newspaper history has the media literally ‘ganged up’ against Labour in a coordinated propaganda campaign as they did this last election.

In its last weekly report analysing media coverage of the General Election, the University’s Centre for Research in Communication and Culture (CRCC) found press hostility to Labour was more than double the levels identified during the 2017 election – and that was bad by all analysis presented at the time. It was noted how ‘presidentialised’  the 2017 campaign had been. By the same measure, negative coverage of the Conservatives almost halved in the final week of the 2019 campaign.

Speaking about its final report, co-author Professor David Deacon said: “Press partisanship in elections is traditionally measured by looking at the papers’ formal declarations at the end of the campaign. Our study uniquely examines press allegiances by measuring daily reporting throughout the campaign. Our results show that Labour may have had a rough ride in the 2017 General Election, but it paled by comparison with the 2019 campaign.

In truth, the general public has just witnessed the biggest political propaganda campaign since WW2. And given the scale of targeted micro-ads from the EU referendum to the last election, (which numbered in their billions) – was easily the biggest propaganda campaign ever.

And just as a demonstration of what actually happened, these are not the headlines of a country in huge decline after a decade of Labour, but the headlines of a Conservative party barely 65 days after Boris Johnson’s electoral win.

 

UK public spending to top £1tn a year, thinktank forecasts

Forecasts of economic collapse and an unsustainable national debt as a result of a Corbyn led government?  All the mainstream media ran with stories that Labour would collapse the economy with £1trillion of public spending a year.

No -This is a headline from the Resolution Foundation report that says government borrowing will now have to rise to 40% of GDP, eclipsing the Tony Blair years and taking Britain back to 1970s spending by 2023.

 

MI5 ‘reduced volume of intelligence’ they show home secretary because they do ‘not trust’ her

Accusations that ‘Russian apologists’ and ‘terrorist sympathisers’ in the Labour government would be a national security risk?

No – This is a headline about MI5 Security service officers who have reportedly cut back the volume of intelligence they show to the Tory Home Secretary Priti Patel because they “don’t trust her.”

 

Journalists walk out of No 10 after bid to impose selective briefings

Allegations made that Labour would attempt to end free speech and close down the wider political narrative?

No – this is a headline about Journalists from all the mainstream media who walked out of a Downing Street briefing on Boris Johnson’s Brexit plans after the prime minister’s director of communications tried to close down free speech and the wider political narrative of Britain.

 

Veteran broadcaster David Dimbleby brands PM a ‘liar’ that nobody trusts

Are these mainstream media headlines ganging up to prove the new Labour PM only got into power by making promises he couldn’t keep?

No – this is a headline from Veteran BBC broadcaster David Dimbleby who has told German media that Boris Johnson is a liar that nobody trusts, who has become ‘arrogant with power’ following the general election result – and will have to explain why things have not gone as promised.

 

Civil service unions blast ‘insulting’ attack on Whitehall staff

Expectations that Labour would create a crisis within the civil service as they prepare to reverse austerity and make cutbacks to places like the civil service to save money?

NO – This is the headline from the FDA, which represents senior civil service officials, and PCS, which has tens of thousands of members in the civil service rank-and-file, hit out at the Conservative government who said civil servants would be ‘culled’ and were “woefully unprepared” for changes to their working culture being planned by Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s most senior aide.

 

Armed forces minister wants military to investigate ‘plankton-powered rubber duck bombs

Wacky headlines supporting British generals who would not support Labour and might possibly even stage a coup to stop a Corbyn led government?

No – This is a headline about what a new Tory Minister of Armed Forces said one week ahead of a major review into the UK’s defence capabilities). Speaking at the RUSI think tank the former army officer compared Britain’s military capabilities to doomed video rental firm Blockbuster before it was put out of business by Netflix.

 

Labour promises £26,000,000,000 for NHS by taxing UK’s richest

Surely the country will be bankrupt if it just keeps throwing money at the NHS wall? That was the headline three weeks before the election, but as it turns out…

Boris Johnson went on to pledge that “The government are putting £34 billion into the NHS, the biggest ever cash injection.” But then it turned out to be a lie – it’s only £21billion. Johnson then went on to pledge 50,000 more nurses – that also turned out to be a lie. Overall, if promises are kept the bill be £25 billion (ish).

 

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