As we enter the final week of campaigning, I thought I'd take a look at what the paid-for tabloids (Mail, Express, Sun, Mirror) have been up to.
Well, the obvious thing is that they are all far more interested in pushing "their" team than in straight reporting. Everything is spun, so that when Tories announce something it's brilliant in the Mail, Sun and Express and a wicked lie in the Mirror. And vice versa.
Given the pro-Leave papers' attacks on Project Fear during referendum campaign, a key feature is that the way they all accentuate the negative, rather than the positive. Let's start with The Sun, since it's the best-seller. It has run 36 Tory-focused pages since the beginning of last month.
Well, the obvious thing is that they are all far more interested in pushing "their" team than in straight reporting. Everything is spun, so that when Tories announce something it's brilliant in the Mail, Sun and Express and a wicked lie in the Mirror. And vice versa.
Given the pro-Leave papers' attacks on Project Fear during referendum campaign, a key feature is that the way they all accentuate the negative, rather than the positive. Let's start with The Sun, since it's the best-seller. It has run 36 Tory-focused pages since the beginning of last month.
...against 52 on Labour (some appear in both montages, as the Sun is quite cute at playing good cop/bad cop on the same spread).
The Daily Express is the only one of the quartet to run more positive than negative pages. But it's a close-run thing. With 65 on what "Boris" is up to...
...against 63 on the dangers of Corbyn's Labour. There is not one positive or even neutral story about the Labour party.
But before we get carried away with the "awful Tory press", let's take a look at the Mirror. Its election coverage has been almost exclusively focused on the NHS and it has had nothing good to say about the Tories in these 70 pages.
Whereas, it has devoted only 44 pages to Labour. It has reported policies that have gone unnoticed by the other tabloids (quite apart from those like broadband that have been ridiculed elsewhere), while doing its best to skirt the antisemitism controversies.
The Daily Mail is by far the most politically engaged, regularly running three or four spreads on the campaign. It has been relentless in its assault on Labour in general and Corbyn and McDonnell in particular. It has run 133 pages on the "dangers" they pose.
Now, the Mail is as Tory as they come. But it's not especially enamoured of Mr Johnson. So, while it wants us all to vote Conservative on Thursday, it hasn't been as enthusiastic as its rival whitetop in trumpeting "Boris". There have been barely half as many Tory pages as Labour.
Indeed, it ran almost as many pages begging Farage to step aside and on members of other parties urging voters to "back Boris" as it did on Tory initiatives. 56 of them against 70.
All four tabs have pretty well ignored the other parties, other than to speculate on LibDem and SNP coalition plots. The Greens and Plaid Cymru have barely had a look in. One page did, however, strike me as interesting, given the Mail's campaign to get Farage to call off his troops."Remainers" seeking the sort of electoral pact the Mail - and others - were urging on the Brexit party were "plotting" something that had to be "admitted" to, something undemocratic.
Another noticeable feature of the coverage has been the cynical picture editing. We have seen Johnson out and about swigging whisky and beer (what happened to that "no alcohol" pledge?), dressing up with farmers, sheep, cattle, firefighters, builders, scientists etc.
You'd be excused for thinking that the Prime Minister gets a wonderful reception everywhere he goes, since there is absolutely zero coverage of demos and hecklers (even though he cancelled visits on basis of a handful of protesters). You might also think that Corbyn never goes out at all.
The research for this post started with gathering the pictures of the two leaders. But the fancy design work in the Sun, Mail and Mirror made that pretty scruffy (when you see the untidy montages below, you'll be able to imagine how impossible the others were). So let's just focus on the Express.
Here are all the photographs it has run of Mr Johnson since November 1. All to the same scale as they appeared in the paper.
Another noticeable feature of the coverage has been the cynical picture editing. We have seen Johnson out and about swigging whisky and beer (what happened to that "no alcohol" pledge?), dressing up with farmers, sheep, cattle, firefighters, builders, scientists etc.
You'd be excused for thinking that the Prime Minister gets a wonderful reception everywhere he goes, since there is absolutely zero coverage of demos and hecklers (even though he cancelled visits on basis of a handful of protesters). You might also think that Corbyn never goes out at all.
The research for this post started with gathering the pictures of the two leaders. But the fancy design work in the Sun, Mail and Mirror made that pretty scruffy (when you see the untidy montages below, you'll be able to imagine how impossible the others were). So let's just focus on the Express.
Here are all the photographs it has run of Mr Johnson since November 1. All to the same scale as they appeared in the paper.
And here are all the Corbyn pictures. Again to the same scale as they appeared in the papers, but not to the same scale as the Johnson pictures above.
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