The former newspaper of record has been dragged down the path of Murdoch bias
Take a look at these pictures. They show the front page for the Times newspaper for Monday, Tuesday and today. Notice anything strange?
If you’re still stumped, recall that this was the week the two – that’s two – main parties released their election manifestos to the country.
Yet the Times newspaper, thought to be less partisan than other papers, could find no space on its front pages for the Labour manifesto – not even as a smaller story or tiny short at the bottom of the page.
Monday’s headline, ‘Passionate Cameron outlines his Tory dream’, speaks for itself, while Tuesday’s ‘Right to buy for £1.3m families’ hails the Conservatives’ flagship policy.
Today’s paper leads with ‘Brussels vows to block Cameron on EU treaty’, about the prime minister’s valiant but futile stand against the European juggernaut.
While Labour does get a mention in the ‘right to buy’ story on Tuesday, it’s only to highlight criticism from the Institute for Fiscal Studies and shoot holes in Labour’s campaign. (There’s also a cartoon at the foot of the page of a toothy Ed Miliband saying: “Will I make life tough enough? Hell yes!”)
So, what gives? No headlines? No stories? It’s not as if Labour’s manifesto release lacked new policies, from freezing rail prices to expanding childcare services, or surprise moves like placing deficit reduction and fiscal responsibility pledges at the front of the document.
It’s as if these covers were printed in an alternate Tory universe where only one party is running, or at least with any chance of success. And this in what was once the newspaper of record.
You would expect this sort of thing from the openly conservative newspapers. (The Daily Mail for example also ignored Labour on its covers.) But the Times is still considered to be a more serious and objective newspaper, both here and around the world, despite being swallowed by Rupert Murdoch’s News UK in 1981.
How can anyone honestly look at these front pages and call them an authoritative or honest account of this week’s news?
Adam Barnett is a staff writer at Left Foot Forward. Follow MediaWatch on Twitter
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24 Responses to “Missing something? No room for Labour manifesto on the Times front page”
JoeDM
The print media does not and should not be unbiased. We have a variety of views available. Go and read the Guardian or Mirror.
Leon Wolfeson
Good joke!
BlueApesRevolt
There are some dismal comments on here from Tories ..all lacking any understanding of the dynamics of power,control ,wealth and the media.They seem to believe that Britain has a free press ..Ok if that is the case why have a number of journalists working for The Daily Star ,The Daily Mail , The Daily Express etc etc talked about the fear of losing their job unless they towed the line of the newspaper owner ?.Press freedom according to the narrow right wing definition only applies to the person that owns the newspaper ..and that is no freedom for the wider population .The fact is that roughly 80% of the press has a hard right wing perspective .That perspective does affect the worldview of the readers ..what news gets reported ,how it is reported ,what isn’t reported etc and as this article makes clear the Times goes out of it’s way not to allow prominent coverage of Labour’s manifesto ,while The Sun abuses potential Labour voters in the most stigmatising way .It is at the same time ridiculous to accuse the BBC of being biased towards Labour ,Nick Robinson and Andrew Neil to name but two have both had pasts as zealous right wingers ,while the upper echelons of the BBC are far more Tory than Labour .Perhaps the truth is that a news source which is relatively balanced (compared to the Tory press ) appears left wing to most Tories ,because these are so used to having their own views reflected in the media The right will not be satisfied until all major news sources are on the hard right .Even then they will call it “freedom “..
Leon Wolfeson
If there was an article criticising Lawn Gnomes, your bot would post “Well done Lawn Gnomes”
Guest
Keep yelling how you’re so so MUCH nicer than the people you accuse, based on your bigotry, and how you are creepy even to your Dear Leader.