Will the same papers do this for Tory conference too?
As the country’s right-wing press sharpens its cutlery ahead of Jeremy Corbyn’s speech to Labour conference, it’s worth noticing how coverage of the event already displays bias along political lines – and to keep this handy when the Conservative party conference is covered next week.
Consider this your cut-out-and-keep guide to newspaper bias this conference season.
Here are five general trends to watch out for:
1. Prominence – while the Left-leaning Mirror and Guardian have treated the Labour conference as a national story worthy of their front page, most of the conservative press has kept the conference off page 1 (Times, Daily Mail, Daily Express), or relegated it to second or third story (Telegraph).
This is on the morning after Labour’s shadow chancellor gave a speech laying out the party’s economic policies.
One exception is the Sun, which melds its stablemate paper the Times’s splash about Mars with the conference to attack and ridicule the new Labour administration.
This is not the first time this has happened. Earlier this year the Times kept the Labour party’s general election manifesto off the front page, where the Tory manifesto was featured positively.
Will the same newspapers keep the Tory conference off of page 1 next week?
2. Hostile editorials – while the Sun’s front page story is more an opinion column than news coverage, the dedicated editorial pages of the other newspapers are already pummeling the Labour conference.
The Mail’s columns are perhaps the most robust, though supposedly more serious papers like the Telegraph are not far behind.
As ever, this partisan coverage is written with the general public’s best interest at heart…
Will the same newspapers be as critical of the Tory conference, or will they write as critical supporters of the party?
3. Irreverence and mockery – As the Sun recently proved, mockery of politicians (an important practice) is not something the press applies without prejudice. Political sketches of the Labour conference and newspaper cartoons will similarly ridicule Labour with more gusto – today’s Sun front page being a good example.
Can we expect the same treatment for the Tory conference?
4. Ideas described as out of date – Economic, social and defence policies floated by Labour are called old-fashioned and a ‘return to the 1980s/70s’, despite their being the roughly the same vintage as those of the Tories.
Will the policies of the Conservative party be characterised as a return to the past?
5. Splits and disagreements amplified – There is certainly a big gulf between different tendencies within the Labour party over its direction with Corbyn at the helm.
But as the Tory top brass jostle for position (who was the MP and Oxford contemporary who gave Lord Ashcroft the pig story…?) ahead of their own leadership election before 2020, and as splits over the European Union bubble on, threatening to cripple David Cameron’s EU referendum campaign, their conference will surely yield plenty of comparable material.
Will the papers explore (and revel in) these warring factions within the Tory party?
Now it’s over to the papers. Let’s see how their coverage of the Tory conference resolves these questions.
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Adam Barnett is a staff writer at Left Foot Forward. Follow MediaWatch on Twitter
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49 Responses to “Five examples of biased press coverage of the Labour party conference”
WhiteVanMan
1999 The Macpherson inquiry was set up Based on the assumption that the right people had done it, but if more evidence came up, the law of double jeopardy should be changed. As the private prosecution had rightly thrown out the only evidence Duwayne Brooks statement and the Inspector in charge praised in the report had been forced to admit there wasn’t any evidence they’d done it, the only assumption that they’d done it was the Daily Mail Headline.
the press coverage with assumptions they had done it, meant that they’d been found guilty before the trial or evidence, is that those who have doubts are dismissed as discredited or racist.
Comrade Fisher
Surprise, surprise, bad policies and looking after the rich is OK, Good but unpopular policies and looking after the poor is wrong. Yet the tory press have the gall to complain abut BBC bias.
Comrade Fisher
Working class tory voters are either social climbers or morons, when push comes to shove their going to look after a Lord or double-barrelled middle classer, before somebody on the dole or in a crap job. I like Corbyn and his policies, trouble is it’s going to make the filth even more right wing, so goodbye to the NHS and free health care, hello to compulsory health insurance. Goodbye to benefits, hello to private unemployment insurance and the return of workhouses. And who will provide all this for the Government? The highest bidder from a long list of tory party donors.
woolfiesmiff
Stevie P thanks for a prime example of a tirade and rant par excellence.
This is what I said about the BBC
the BBC ( a left wing organisation) has far far more media clout than ALL the dwindling newspaper readership put together.
Dear deluded nutter stevie p the BBC clout is a cast iron fact. The BBC has more viewers/readers than all the print media combined.
You can find half a dozen or so people with right wing connections out of 20,000. Well I’ll see your right wingers and raise you Gavin Davies former Director General and Greg Dyke former Director general both active Labour party members , former Labour Minister James Purnell Director of Strategy, Alan Yentob , Evan Davies Sarah Afshar, etc etc etc
The left needs to wake up and smell the coffee, You keep trying to explain your lack of support all down to a bogey man media influencing ignorant plebs.
Er Labour privatised the NHS not the Tories, oh and just so you know GP’s have NEVER worked for the NHS, they’re self employed.
As I said I’m NOT a Tory or UKIP, I’m NOT right wing, I’m a working class boy, from an inner London council estate who left school aged 14 and taught myself to read and write. I’m a multimillionaire businessman and entrepreneur and I’m a FREE MARKET SOCIALIST ( look it up)
You on the other hand are just plain dumb
woolfiesmiff
So what? The Daily Mail is a vile lying newspaper….whats that got to do with what I said? What is it with you ultra lefties and your inability to think logically or to follow a simple argument?