Good thinking Unity……..

I think the tables have already been turned, their efforts have come across as desperate, unfounded and vulgar.

They have hoisted themselves by their own ignorant petard.

Did anyone watch Question Time on BBC1 afterwards? When Yvette Cooper slated the press for telling people how to vote she got a huge cheer from the audience. People are fed up with the partisan tabloid smears from all sides.
Unity could have a point here.

“Unity could have a point here.”

I honestly hope so. I also hope Clegg takes up the good fight, and parks his tanks on the Murdoch’s front lawn.

Lest we forget however, the lumpenproletariat do have a choice… but they still buy the “rubbishy newspapers containing almost nothing except sport, crime and astrology, sensational five-cent novelettes, films oozing with sex, and sentimental songs which were composed entirely by mechanical means”. Orwell wasn’t far off after all.

Okay, so an open attack on the Tory press would need a take a bit of deft handling and Clegg would need to exercise a fair degree of care in drawing a clear distinction between the kind of investigative reporting that was undertaken by the Telegraph during the expenses scandal and the febrile ravings of the tabloids, which serve only to poison the democratic well.

I honestly don’t think this will be hard for him. Outside the ranks of the truly hysterical among the elder tribes, I’ve met very few who don’t get that the difference is this: the Indy’s work was in the public interest and the tabloid slurs were in the private interest of Murdoch and Partners. Sometimes it really is just that obvious, though I accept that at times the distinction gets a little grey. This ain’t one of them. Four out of five pollsters seem to agree.

Orwell wasn’t far off after all.

Indeed.

Were Orwell writing today, I suspect that rather than working for Pornsec, Julia would either be fabricating celebrity gossip for the Brangelina industry or working for Endemol on its latest interminable exercise in low rent unreality television.

“Vote Cameron – Get Murdoch!”

Sadly, this may not scare as many people as it should – but used wisely, it’s a new t-shirt slogan

I think “vote Cameron – get Cameron” is terrifying enough :O

Manda Scott:

I suspect that both Murdoch and Dacre deliberately run marmite papers. What we are discovering officially now is what many have claimed for years; the vast majority of Britain hates them.

Briefly conflating the popularity of hysterical right-wing tabloids with that of hysterical right-wing politicians, the spiked YouGov poll quotes 45% as dismayed if the Tories get in, 51% if Labour did. But one must bear in mind that in the view of anyone who’s lived in this country since before 1990 either of those is a vote for Murdoch. Murdoch has claimed to win elections for both of those parties. I and apparently at least 51% of the country are hoping that will never happen again.

Well, he can claim… We can point and laugh.

Yes, the Tory press are mostly talking sh*te; but can we have a bit less bleating about the poor little LibDems, please? If they weren’t such filthy campaigners, they would deserve the sympathy they are currently getting. But they are. So they don’t.
(Unless and until they change their ways, and stop the misrepresentations that disfigure every single leaflet they put out.)
I hope we get a hung Parliament. But it would be more likely, if there weren’t more and more people fed up to the gills with the distorted graphs, ’2 horse race’ lies, unpleasant personal attacks etc., that are the LibDem electioneers’ stock in fare.

@4 Galen: I also hope Clegg takes up the good fight, and parks his tanks on the Murdoch’s front lawn.

I think this would be a winning strategy. Murdoch and Dacre are part of the corrupt old political establishment, as much as the Labservative parties are.

@9 the spiked YouGov poll quotes 45% as dismayed if the Tories get in, 51% if Labour did.

Clegg should also highlight this, and the fact that The Sun is deliberately not publishing information that would harm the Labservatives. He should then look directly at the camera and ask “who do you want to run the country, foreign billionaires such as Rupert Murdoch, or the British people?” I’m sure Clegg would win a popularity contest versus Murdoch.

And Pickles spun the usual tory bullshit….

“Pickles added: “We have a free and vigorous press, and beware of politicians who tells you that the press have gone too far. Beware of politicians who want to put restraints on the press. We don’t complain when articles are written about us and we might be unhappy about it.”

Yes Eric, how you love a capitalist free press that is far right wing because you don’t have to do the dirty work. Murdoch and Darce will do it for you, and you can lie to the people that you want a positive election, while all the time feeding the right wing media.

Piss off Rupert Murdoch! Vote Lib Dem!

That is a vote winner for some, and if we get nothing else from this election, the spectacle of the idiot press going ballistic has raised my spirits at least.

Also who investigates Murdoch.
Certainly not the British press

daily mail supporting labour?
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=tbM5-DxMVFPNOXM0e7jeg3A

daily mail supporting labour?
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=tbM5-DxMVFPNOXM0e7jeg3A

I think the editor before dacre was flirting with blair in the few years before 97 but i think he died in 97 or 96 and dacre stopped that. they were very anti major though.

Our candidate for Dover and Deal has some interesting views on Liberal Democrats policies. Check them out at http://www.johnbrigden.co.uk/blog/

I’m not sure that the world of libel laws etc is going to be that non-doorstop by next Thursday.

The fact that a footballer has taken out a super-injunction in order to cover up his indiscretions will probably dominate the tabloids at the start of next week. And despite the majesty of the law his goings on will have been sung about lustily on every football terrace in the land. Libel laws are “topical.”

There’s a small logical error underlying this. You’re assuming that newspaper try to convince their readership of the political policies desired by owners/editorial staff.

The academic research shows rather that newspapers chase the already extant political views of their readership.

A sad commentary on human nature, to be sure, that Mail and Guardian readers, yes, they really do think like that.

But just like any other business, newspapers are trying to work out what their customers want and then giving it to them, good and hard, rather than serving up what they as a business want to and trying to convince the customers that this is what they want.

So Tim W,
To report news should just be about manipulating people to reinforce their predujices, no challenge. Just for financial benefits. No search for the truth.
I must say left of centre of papers have a better record about challenge. Take nasty Nick, Simon Jenkins and Henry porter all Tories or ta least favour right wing views in their different forms. In fact every left of centre paper, even the Mirror has at least two or three columnists who go against the grain of the paper. I cannot think of one right wing paper with a journalist who goes against the grain.
Talking of nasty Nick did you hear that podcast with nasty, jackie ashley and John Harris.
It was like listening to an old episode of Last of the summer wine”. Harris as lefty labour Compo, Ashley, the lib dem cleggy and Cohen as the Tory reactionary Foggy.
Wonderful

“To report news should just be about manipulating people to reinforce their predujices, no challenge. Just for financial benefits.”

Please note that I didn’t use “should”. Or “ought” or any other synonyms.

I said “is”.

Don’t worry, the world isn’t as I would like it either but I do think it valuable to first acknowledge how it is before trying to change it to how we’d (clearly, variously and differently) like it to be.

Sorry Tim
I assumed by the tone of he post that you are happy with the status quo.
I apologize

Tim Rand “But just like any other business, newspapers are trying to work out what their customers want and then giving it to them, good and hard, rather than serving up what they as a business want to and trying to convince the customers that this is what they want.”

You do talk a lot of tosh Tim.

Murdoch has been running his New York paper at a loss for over 15 years, and The Times rearely makes a profit. So why keep them them if money is the big factor?

Because Murdoch will make more money by having a right wing govt in power who will not challenge his dominant position. He uses his papers and his Tv in the same way that Pravda was used by the USSR.

As for the Mail there are plenty of its readers who will not be voting Tory, just as there are many Sun readers who will vote Labour. So why are the papers not giving them what they want?

Tim:

There’s logical error here, Tim.

This is not a strategy that’s intended to swing hardcore Sun/Daily Mail readers behind Clegg.

The appeal here is to disengaged voters, the 40% of the electorate who no-showed the last election.

Daily mail supporting labour?

No, Dacre has never come out an declared for Labour at a General Election but he has provided qualified support to the party, in government, on particular issues, much of which has come down to backing/demands illiberal and often knee-jerk legislative measures.

The Right wing press is RIGHT WING not Tory. It attacks the Tory party only from the Right, and sometimes will be luke warm to a the tory party if the leader is not a far right wing loon. Heath and Major were not supported by the Right wing press because they were not right wing enough.

Cameron will only feel the heat if he wins and does not move the to the far right, which kind of blows a big hole in Tims claims of giving their readers what they want.

I agree with much of the sentiment here, however, it would be almost impossible for any politician, but especially NC, to unveil proposals for changes to the press as it would appear to be a reactionary change to the press for personal gain.
A free press is utterly sacrosanct and whilst I would wholeheartedly agree with anyone who said that we currently don’t have a free press as it is monopolised by a few tory supporting interests, I think anyone suggesting a change now would obviously come under such immense fire that any sensible argument would be lost (especially as the tory press has brought shame upon itself already and is actively discrediting itself)

Don’t forget these turkeys don’t just vote for Christmas, they rewrite the bible every week.

Its difficult to know whether Clegg would benefit from bringing up Murdoch during the debates – if its done purely in the context of undue influence on the BBC, and all indications are that the scrapping of 6 music and Asian network were a result
Murdoch pressure on tory influence, then some points could be scored on the subject. Dangerous though.

After the election, a look again at the monopoly would be welcome.

Clegg should refer to the failed politics of the past, associate that with current electoral system with its culture of safe seats and peerages, in other words politicians’ jobs for life, and then associate that directly both with the Labour and Conservative parties and with “cosy relationships” with sections of the press.

He then should appeal to viewers’ experience of press bias and how some of the press want to decide the outcome of the election themselves rather than leave it to voters. A snipe at some of the press being foreign-owned wouldn’t go down badly!

Let’s face it: Sun/Mail readers, whatever, are mostly stupid and WILL vote as they are told to do. Cameron will win.