One thing is for sure, I am now spending much more money on newspapers than in recent past. I used to buy the Guardian on most days. The it seemed to me they reported less on citizen journalism and soforth so it got less interesting. Waitrose has a very good deal of a free paper if you spend £5 so I try to buy something on a Monday or Tuesday. Education and media are still covered to some extent.
Anyway, I am trying to work out from the Guardian today what is really going on. The Brexit aspect might get exaggerated in other papers but it seems to be a large part of it. Matthew d'Ancona ( @matthewdancona ) writes that the "Brexit party is really pushing its luck". I am not sure this is true, it might just be the Brexit press that is pushing the story.
The Times is supposed by Alastair Campbell to be a reasonably balanced paper compared to some others but I don't think the story about Cameron saying that Osborne had "messed up". The aim seems to be to destabilise anyone in favour of the UK remaining in the EU.
In the Mail Peter Oborne writes (Beginning of the end for Dave and George? p9) that "Boris is distrusted by a n umber of MPs...so so not discount the chances of Michael Gove." He has written an "emolliant" article praising both IDS and Osborne. So that might be the choice once the Brexit case is made. They are both journalists so there will be no shortage of copy.
Meanwhile tbe CBI warns of a shock to the UK economy if Brexit happened. Page 1 on Guardian and the rebuttal starts paragraph 6. Page 12 in the Mail. "Scaremongering" in headline and para one. So the CBI joins the Bank of England as a source that will find it hard to get over a point of view. Page 37 in the Times, start of the business section. Rebuttal starts para 7 so this is maybe why Alastair Campbell thinks the Times has more balance.
What disturbs me is that I found the article by David Cameron in the Sunday Independent to be very low key and unconvincing by comparison. He worries about turnout but fails to show much of a positive case. Maybe he has spent too long with a nuanced negative view of the EU. My guess is that the Brexit press is strong with Conservative supporters.
Those concerned with the positive case for the EU may have to pay more attention to online media. More later on the BBC. They seem to be following the Fleet Street agenda fairly closely but maybe this will change. It might even happen they could be encouraged so to do.
No comments:
Post a Comment