Corbyn's Argument For Fair Reporting

Although critics argue for fair reporting, it is generally acknowledged that most newspapers will have a certain ideological bias. While the right-wing news media is expected to be harsh on a Labour leader, biased coverage of Corbyn crosses traditional boundaries. For example, a 2016 YouGov poll found that a 78 per cent of the people polled agreed that the “mainstream media as a whole has been deliberately biasing coverage to portray Jeremy Corbyn in a negative manner” (YouGov 2016). This observation was not limited to Corbyn supporters. 51 per cent of the public agreed that the media was biased against him, along with 87 per cent of affiliated Labour members who said they were “undecided” during the 2016 leadership contest (ibid). This argument

News media cannot wholly create problems. Newspapers can only alter the awareness of an issue. The controversial coverage of Corbyn is caused by his troubled relationship with the media and him being a ‘bad’ leader, and any bias that is found simply shows this. As an example, 172 Labour MPs passed a no-confidence motion in Corbyn in 2016, triggering the second leadership contest (BBC News 2016). This is an unattractive picture of a divided party with 26 shadow minister resignations under Corbyn (ibid). Some journalists point out that there is no better way to frame it, if the bulk of your front bench resigns. Corbyn is seen as a bad leader by the public through his poor communications strategy and therefore gets bad press. One can further this argument by demonstrating that Labour affiliates and supporters are not being influenced by the coverage, as was clear enough from Corbyn’s increased mandate in the second leadership election, therefore there is no harm done by the news coverage (Greenslade 2016a). Nevertheless, it seems unlikely that relentless negative reporting would have had no impact on public opinion of him and the direction of the party under his leadership. This is not only important in the time of a general election but on a daily basis as the leader of the opposition. His role in holding the government accountable can also be seen to be delegitimised as a result. It cannot be assumed that his support has not been eaten away at by the negative coverage. Corbyn carries little favour with the electorate at large. According the social responsibility theory, the news media has obligations to society and should be socially responsible by making journalists accountable to the public (Siebert et al 1956). This theory changed the way news media was published, going from objective reporting