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Real Media in Manchester: What the Papers Say
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be the first to commentPosted by Tim Gopsill
Tim Gopsill is the editor of the CPBF's newsletter Free Press. He was in Manchester to work with the Media Reform Coalition and Real Media's media hub, who provided a grass roots view of the Tory Party conference from Day One. Here'sTim's take on how the papers reported the TUC-People's Assembly march on Monday, 4 October.
Thousands of marauding Conservatives invaded Manchester over the weekend to brag about their power to drive millions of people into poverty and despair. Mancunians and tens of thousands of visiting protesters turned out to raise their objections, and for their trouble found themselves, rather than the Tories, denounced as violent and abusive thugs.
Monday’s national press zoomed in on the convenient incident of the innocent Tory onlooker who took an egg in the face as the 100,000-strong march went by. Pictures were in every paper but only one, the Daily Telegraph, was able to identify the character as 19-year old Manchester Tory student, Colm Lock.
He told the paper: “I refuse to be cowed by protesters who resort to violence as a first measure.”
The fact that, even if genuinely spontaneous, the egg-chuck act was the only thing to vaguely approach violence in a whole day of political activity did not detract from its propaganda value.
On its page 7 The Times headlined “Tories were spat on and hit with eggs in protest”, above various accounts of some lively but non-violent exchanges with marchers, summed up by Commons leader Chris Grayling: “There is a culture on the left that believes in angry protest.”
Job done, the papers were free to concentrate on the real news from Manchester: that the Tories had seduced a far-right member of the Labour Party leadership to join some government-appointed commission or other.
The sensation of Lord Adonis’s supposed defection was on every front page, sharing some with pictures of the unfortunate Colm Lock. Others were excited by the 5p charge on plastic bags, the build-up towards UK forces launching murderous militart attacks on Syria, and the prospects of leading Tories jostling to succeed David Cameron.
Only two papers – the Mirror and Independent – ran reasonable stories on the Manchester protests. The Mirror headlined PIG-HEADED PM a story on protests about Cameron’s conduct that did manage to add some truth to the egg-throwing tale, while the Independent ran an excellent account by political writer Donald McIntyre, who had been to the trouble of talking to marchers and picking up their tales of deprivation and despair as victims of welfare cuts.
The Sun, perhaps to the surprise of many, ran a strongly-worded editorial attacking the government over the tax credit cuts on low-paid workers. “It’s just plain wrong,” stormed the Sun.
And beneath it? Headlined “Mob of losers”, a yet more ferocious attack on those protesting against it! “The left, puffed up with their own ‘virtue’, try to shoot down debate by vilifying and intimidating opponents”, it ranted.
The Daily Mail, true to form, pictured Charlotte Church on the march, and alongside a feature by ace left-baiter Quentin Letts … “Screaming lefties were buzzing eggs at the Tories”. Inside the conference, wrote Letts, “Mr Gove made the best speech. He poked fun at the Twitterati and Guardianista multi-millionaires and idiots such as Russell Brand and Charlotte Church”.
Back in the real world, the actual Guardian, set as it is on a Blairite mission to keep the Labour Party out of the hands of the mob, grudgingly printed a couple of photos of the march, but beyond that, in the printed paper at any rate, there was not a word.
This piece by Tim Gopsill first appeared on the Real Media website. Reproduced with thanks.
DATELINE: 5 October, 2015
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