How unfair it is to have a newspaper lend so much support behind a political party. The Sun as we all know can get very nasty turning people into turnips etc. Now I know the Sun is popular, with over 3million papers sold daily, I like the paper much more than say the Daily Mail, the Mirror or the Daily Express. But I have never liked the total all out go and get them attitude they have to politics when it takes sides.
Sky which is owned by one of Rupert Murdoch's companies seems much fairer in its reporting, so why should a newspaper be so different. Sky, ITV, Channel 4 all appear give a fairer view when compared to the papers and US TV news. So what happens if the Tories from now on do make some news worthy gaff on a policy which the Sun readers would of wanted to know about? Do the party focused press report it? Do they stick a turnip on Cameron's head, I bet they don't. It's just not cricket is it.
Now I know what you the reader may be thinking. Yeah well this guys a Lib Dem and they have no support in the press, so of course he doesn't like it? Well ok yes there is no Lib Dem support or infact support for any other party apart from the big two and yes I don't like it. But I also genuinely think that taking such strong sides in an election is not democratic and does skew the result.
What do you think about our newspapers taking such strong sides in the political arena?
I think the whole idea of news has been lost. One even gets tabloid-like opinions from the main BBC news programs, and with a running order of stories that might suite OK magazine.
ReplyDeleteThat is OK but a bit like ads with photoshop lovelies - they should carry a health warning, "this is an opinion of the News - from a Tory member" and "this paper supports the Tory party" for example!
There was never a newspaper which didn't have a political line it wanted to push - it is the job of an editor to be political, because politics is all about decision-making.
ReplyDeleteI think Murdoch is slightly different because his corporate strategy is designed around getting a competitive advantage and growing profits from offering and recieving favours, so in a major sense he is anti-politics and is reversing power relationships.
1st post
ReplyDeleteYeah I agree the news is being lost.
2nd post
I suppect you might about Murdoch strategy. I think its an interesting general point that the news papers still have too much power and the TV dont try to influence quite as much. Jst wonder if this could lead to miss reporting when taking sides.
I think that non-internet and non-politcal people have only the TV and tabloid newspapers to influence what they think. That is a large part of society and most (?) of them will vote. So the BBC is for Labour, Sun for Tory etc so it evens out. Clever people will read the Guardian and look at blogs like this but probably they are outnumbered by the sun readers.
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