Gary Younge - The Tories can’t win without the press. This isn’t how democracy works

The power of the rightwing press has corroded public debate. But we can do more than just complain about it

Corbyn has been misrepresented, as well as being falsely accused of being antisemitic. The vile media campaign against Corbyn has been disgraceful - all dirty tricks and outright lies - and so now Johnson leads in the polls, who doesn't have the British people's interest at heart, only that of the elite.

Our media is not for for purpose.

In February 2016, a few months before the referendum, Donald Tusk published the European Council’s draft plans for renegotiating Britain’s relationship with the EU. David Cameron was prepared for the possibility that Tusk’s response would be less than he hoped for – it was a negotiation, after all. But what really shocked the then prime minister were the front pages the next day. “Cameron’s EU deal is a joke”, said the Daily Express; “The great delusion”, barked the Daily Mail; “Ministers defy PM on Europe”, claimed the Telegraph; while the Sun went with “Who do EU think EU are kidding, Mr Cameron?”, which compared the offer to a “steaming pile of manure”.

“The Tories [in the leadership of the remain camp] were about to run a referendum campaign based on a playbook … for winning elections in an environment where the print media was sympathetic,” writes Tim Shipman in his book All Out War. “But this time their natural allies were hostile.” Senior Tories were not used to having their arguments distorted, the facts so hideously disfigured in their opponent’s favour that they were unrecognisable, or blatant falsehoods by the opposition taken seriously. These were not only rules of engagement to which they were unaccustomed – they were rules under which they could not compete. “It pains me to say it,” a member of Cameron’s team told Shipman, “but if the Mail, Sun and the Telegraph had been for ‘In’ we would have romped home.”

The Guardian 

Gary Younge - The Tories can’t win without the press. This isn’t how democracy works