What the "Independent" didn't publish

It is sometimes quite surprising what the Mainstream Media (MSM) does and does not consider news.

I still buy a certain number of "dead tree" copies of newspapers because at certain times, especially on a Sunday, it is useful to be able to relax away from the computer and take a leisurely read of a piece of analysis.

Nevertheless there have been no fewer than three occasions in the last fortnight when I started to read an interesting article in a magazine or newspaper such as the Economist or Sunday Times and then realised that I had already found and read the entire article on the internet.

And while the MSM will sometimes pick an run with stories which originally launched in the blogosphere, you can sometime find things in the blogosphere which the newspapers and television does not consider news.

For example, considering how many years the Conservatives were "flatlining" on 30% or so in the opinion polls, it is extraordinary that opinion polls showing 21% plus Conservative leads combined with record lows for Labour support appear to no longer be regarded as news even by the papers which commissioned the poll.

Yesterday there were hints that the Independent on Sunday had commissioned a poll from ComRes which was about to be published and would break records. Yesterday evening it came out, and did indeed break them. Comres is one of the pollsters which usually produces results giving a higher Labour share. The official announcement of the results on the Indy's "Open House" reads as follows:

"Labour hits record low
By John Rentoul

Our opinion poll in The Independent on Sunday tomorrow records the lowest Labour share of the vote, 24 per cent, in a ComRes poll. The Conservative lead, 21 percentage points, is also equal to the biggest lead recorded by ComRes, for our sister newspaper The Independent three weeks ago. The figures, with the change since the last poll for the IoS in mid-June:

Conservative 45% (+1)

Labour 24% (-2)

LibDem 16% (-1)

Green 5% (+3)

Other 9% (-2)


We also asked if people agreed or disagreed with the statement, "The Labour Party will lose the next election regardless of who leads it": 68 per cent agreed, including 38 per cent of Labour voters, and 22 per cent disagreed.

Two-thirds of respondents agreed that "Britain should never have become involved in Iraq" (66 per cent); 26 per cent disagreed. Three-quarters agreed that "British troops should be withdrawn from Iraq as soon as possible" (74 per cent); 18 per cent disagreed.

Finally we asked if people thought "a Conservative government would be more effective against knife crime than the present administration": 44 per cent agreed, and 41 per cent disagreed. Given the proportion of people who must be sceptical about the effectiveness of any politicians on such an issue, that would seem a very good score for David Cameron (Dominic Grieve, the new shadow Home Secretary, probably does not yet have the public profile to take the credit for it).

ComRes has been carrying out opinion polls for the IoS since 2004. It is a member of the British Polling Council and interviewed 1,016 people by phone on Wednesday and Thursday this week. Full tables at ComRes."


Let's make it clear: this is the lowest ever Labour share from this pollster, a company which usually finds one of the highest Labour shares among reputable polling companies.

I was about to buy a "dead tree" copy of the IoS this morning for a set of these results, but didn't because when I picked up the paper in the newsagent I could see no sign of them.

I learn from a poster on "political betting" who actually did plough through the Indy that these results were referred to in 'a brief comment on page 2 (under the headline, of all things,”Cameron upsets Shadow Cabinet”)'
posted by Svejk July 20th, 2008 at 8:59 am on pb.com

(Apparently the headline is based on the allegation that some of DC's team are upset at not having been given faster promotion.)

It says something either about the current climate, or about the "Independent on Sunday" that a record low in support for Labour and another 20%+ Conservative lead is not considered news, where the fact that a few politicians would like to be promoted faster is considered worth a headline.

This isn't the only current story to which the MSM have not given much prominence but bloggers consider significant. The Smith Institute, a policy think tank very close indeed to Gordon Brown, is in serious trouble with the Charity Commission. Have you seen anything about this in a newspaper, or on the TV? Me neither. But you can hardly miss it in the blogosphere.

If you're interested, an internet search on "Smith Institute" will find you the story, though most of the more aggressive post on the subject are more likely to come up if you seach under "Sith Institute" as bloggers have given the organisation this nickname after the villains from "Star Wars".

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