Last night's Newsnight featured a characteristically supportive report for Gordon Brown from Michael Crick, then an interview between Jeremy Paxman and former Labour deputy leader John Prescott (not pictured). This, in turn, was followed by an interview with former Labour deputy leader Roy Hattersley (who shares Prescott's views) and a man Paxo introduced as "Richard Reeves, director of the independent think-tank Demos." This is a classic instance of bias by labeling:
One type of media bias has been called 'Bias by Labeling'. Part of this involves labeling a person the reporter or commentator disapproves of as, say, 'right-wing' but, conversely, not labeling someone the commentator approves of as 'left-wing' but instead, say, describing them as 'independent' or an 'expert'.
http://beebbiascraig.blogspot.com/2009/07/bias-by-labelling-case-of-injostice.html
Demos is not part of the Labour Party but it is a centre-left think tank close to Labour. (You could say much the same about the BBC!!)
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"You're an outsider in all this," Jeremy said to Mr Reeves (a phrase Baron Hattersley took up). Well, up to a point Jeremy, up to a point.
Was "Demos" not formed by Marxists as a Front Organisation ?
ReplyDeleteDisappointed that John Prescott is "not pictured", but surely a photo of svelte, forces sweetheart, Roy Chatterjee , would be nice ?
On the other hand ...