The shock troops and attack journalists of the right-wing political commentariat

Below is an article by Nick Jones. He was is print and broadcasting journalist and former BBC industrial and senior political correspondent with over fifty years’ experience. He is also the author of several books about British politics and industrial relations.

Jones wrote an article recently about what he calls ‘attack journalism’ in the mainstream media – their constant ‘character assassination of Jeremy Corbyn’, and of ‘conjuring up yet another hatchet job on Corbyn to help bolster the brilliance of Johnson’. He describes how obnoxious headlines from an array of Tory propaganda comics are ramped up to a point of rowdiness and then points out the sobering fact that Conservative-supporting newspapers account for 80% of UK newspaper sales.

Jones then concludes that “media coverage in 2017 was the vilest of any general election of my 60 years as a reporter.” Here is his view of what is happening right now on the coverage of the most bitterly fought out election in Britain’s history.

 

“media coverage in 2017 was the vilest of any general election of my 60 years as a reporter”

 

Nick Jones: BORIS JOHNSON’S blood brothers in the press are highly paid wordsmiths able to twist and turn the daily news agenda as they strive to deliver a Conservative victory.

Johnson has always been their hero, the Brexiteer-in-chief for much of the media class, a journalist admired for his wizardry in delivering an endless stream of anti-European Union exclusives about the mad machinations of the Brussels bureaucracy — the fake news of his day.

In his hour of need, columnists and feature writers employed by hard-line Brexit-supporting newspapers — the Daily Mail, Daily Express, Sun and Daily Telegraph — are only too happy to follow in his footsteps, able within a matter of hours to pull together an election story line into a hard-hitting column or feature.

Attack journalism is the forte of this elite commentariat: yet more character assassination of Jeremy Corbyn; a chance to ridicule Nigel Farage; trash Jo Swinson; or perhaps an alarmist set of predictions about the imminent disaster of life under a Labour government supported by the SNP.

 

“If Conservative morale needs a boost after a run of unhelpful setbacks, they have no difficulty in conjuring up words to produce yet another hatchet job on Corbyn to help bolster the brilliance of Johnson.”

 

Leo McKinstry has few equals in the range of his output: “Threats may loom but Boris is still ahead of the game” (Daily Express, 4.11.2019); “Corbyn and his cronies who’d turn the UK into Venezuela” (Daily Mail, 30.10.2019); “Blood Brothers: Labour leader’s career dominated by links to terrorism” (Sun, 23.5.2017).

Ross Clark’s is another go-to byline: “We finally have a compromise that can suit everyone” (Daily Express, 4.10.2019); “If Corbyn gets into No 10 … we’re all in the chicken soup” (Sun, 6.9.2019); “People are waking up to the true horror of Corbyn (Daily Express, 24.11.2017).

Dominic Sandbrook is the mainstay of the Daily Mail’s production line of anti-Corbyn hatchet jobs: “What would Britain look like under Corbyn? Take a trip back to East Germany” (Daily Mail, 24.9.2019); “The useful idiot” (Daily Mail, 16.2.2018); “Apologists for slaughter” (Daily Mail, 28.10.2017).

The power of the commentariat derives from the exposure they gain: Conservative-supporting titles command 80 per cent of daily newspaper sales.

Two-page spreads and features alongside editorial columns supply punch lines that feed through to the commentary on television and radio programmes and spark off reaction on social media.

So in-your-face is the press commentariat of the right-wing press — and so heavily outnumbered are media voices from the left — that they command a far higher proportion of broadcast interviews and invitations to newspaper reviews on television and radio.

All too often the multiple roles — and political affiliations — of the commentariat’s elite get conveniently ignored by broadcasters.

So long as press headlines continue to be treated as news — and the front pages are reproduced in extended television press reviews — the tabloids will retain, despite rapidly falling circulations, at least a fair degree of their previous clout.

 

“Perhaps, as others are now suggesting, the BBC, ITV and Sky could make a start by including a health warning in press reviews by reminding viewers — and listeners — of a paper’s political affiliation.”

 

A headline or quote could be prefaced by the lines that this is from a paper that advised readers to vote Leave or Remain in the 2016 referendum.

If there was clear signposting, the Daily Mail, Daily Express, Sun and Daily Telegraph could hardly complain as they were jubilant in congratulating themselves on securing the Leave majority through the strength of their campaigning journalism.

I suggested in the inquest after Theresa May’s drubbing in the 2017 general election that she had been duped into thinking that voters were bound to agree after she had been crowned a popular hero by the Brexit press.

She had become cocooned in the deadly embrace of the anti-Corbyn hate of Conservative-supporting titles.

We will see on December 12 whether Johnson’s blood brothers in the Brexit commentariat are making the same fatal mistake.

Media coverage in 2017 was the vilest of any general election of my 60 years as a reporter. I fear 2019 might be even worse.

 

 

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