Bias In The Media

I’d only been awake a few minutes this morning before being spurred into writing another post. The reason? Opening a newspaper. The article in question that drove me to such anger was a piece in The Telegraph covering the recent UKIP conference.

Now I have no objection to the reviewer (Tanya Gold) taking issue with their policies, nor do I mind it being a subjective piece. My issue with it is that the piece has no ambition to give an outline of the party’s conference; instead it is designed to make UKIP seem as foolish as possible. Every quote is twisted and turned and everyone who has been interviewed is turned into a figure of ridicule. Within the first couple of paragraphs we have “They are here – the Little England Euro-sceptics, brushing the dust from their eyes”, “ragtag army of bearded men and ancient ladies” and “UKIP supporters are the worst dressers in British politics”. Honestly, can you imagine the same tact being used for other parties? Perhaps she would describe Labour as ‘self-interested liars, filling out their expenses forms’ or the Conservatives as ‘insubstantial career politicians, desperately trying to get their greedy mitts on power’.

This comes literally weeks after Nigel Farage, UKIPs former leader and most prominent member, was fined €3000 for correctly pointing out that Herman Van Rompuy (EU President for those who have never heard of him) has all “the charisma of a damp rag” and “the appearance of a low grade bank clerk”. This was enough for politicians to call for the democratically elected MEP to be suspended from the European Parliament, though similar language against this party seems more than acceptable – expected even. The hypocrisy astounds me.

But back to the article – surely this article is attacking a party many of The Telegraph’s readers agree with. After all it is a conservative newspaper, and The Conservatives have been bleeding votes to UKIP since ‘Cast-Iron Dave’ (as he is regularly called in the newspaper’s own comments) reneged on his Lisbon Treaty Referendum promise. Surely then none of the paper’s journalists despise UKIP to such an extent that they’d write such a scathing article. Well presumably that is why the editors brought in Tanya Gold to write the article, a lady famed for her “comic observational articles” in The Guardian, The Independent and The Daily Mail: the three papers that a typical reader of The Telegraph would disagree with most strongly.

As I conclude this post though I am heartened by the comments below the article. Despite the blatant attempt to win wavering Tories back into the fold, this article seems to have, if anything, pushed them into the arms of UKIP. At this moment all but 1 commenter has pledged their vote to UKIP. I will end with two of my favourite quotes from these comments:

“Your paper may well mock and denigrate UKIP in the run-up to the General Election, but it will be UKIP that has the last laugh when Cameron and his cronies fail to collect the keys to Number 10” (Christopher Dean)

“They aren't 'slick', and they don't have powerful spin doctors to get the Party 'message' across. In my book that is a definite plus … Pathetic” (Robbydot)

First Post

Right, I’ve had it. I’m fed up of the rubbish I keep reading in the press; Fed up of the incredible bias on the BBC; Fed up of our useless politicians. No-one seems to represent the views of the general public any more. So I’ve decided to start my own blog to express my own views and hopefully stimulate some discussion on some of the key issues our politicians shy away from. This is something I have been considering doing for a while, primarily through frustration at the ever diminishing differences between the three ‘Main Parties’ whose policy boundaries are now so blurred that the only choice between them at the forthcoming election is which of the leaders is going to cause the least damage to this country.

The thing that has angered me into finally putting pen to paper though (or fingers to keyboard) is not just the complete lack of understanding of the public mood from the main parties but from the mainstream media as well. I can now no longer read a newspaper without being angered by the fact that not a single one cares about this merging of the political parties. On the one hand you have The Guardian moaning about the Conservatives and arguing the case for Labour and on the other you have The Telegraph continually stressing how the country cannot survive five more years of Brown and Labour. None seem to realise that Labour, the Conservatives and the Lib Dems are one and the same. None understand the true reasons behind the public hatred of politicians, who bleat on about such things as the Expenses Scandal as the reason for their downfall.

Voter turnout has been decreasing since a relative high of 77.7% at the 1992 General Election to a low of 59.4% in the 2001 election. A recent Ipsos/Mori poll predicted that turnout for the upcoming election could be as low as 53%. This trend shows that public apathy to politics is no new phenomenon, and while it has been exacerbated by the recent scandals, had already been on the increase. The political ‘Elite’ fail to see the real reasons the public are disillusioned with politicians. Why bother turning out to vote when every candidate is proposing the same thing?

In my despair at the lack of comment on this subject I have started this blog. I will use it to comment on what I believe to be the important issues of the day and endeavour to give a refreshingly different take than that offered by the mainstream media. I encourage criticism and debate, something that our current crop of politicians seem keen to stifle!