TIME TO RAISE THE ROOF ABOUT THE LACK OF POLITICAL BALANCE IN LOCAL NEWSPAPERS

I have just been out to find a copy of Issue 75 of Coastal View as I have started to advertise for electrical work in it again. It is not distributed where I live but is available from a few reasonably local outlets.

I could not believe my eyes when I looked through it. 17 of its editorial pages had items about the two Labour MPs and various Labour Councillors and that included FIVE full pages and THREE that were at least half pages full of Labour propaganda.

The Lib Dems had ONE item about the possible closure of Laburnum Library sent in by Josh Mason. I accept my item about the proposal to move the books out of Roseberry Library may have been after the deadline for this issue but I understand we sent out a few items that didn't get in.

There are a handful of items concerning Independent Councillors in the popular local paper and a couple of letters from UKIP. Nothing from the Conservatives.

We don't all have the staff paid out of the public purse that MP's have to spend all day writing articles for them but we are involved in quite a lot of things that are just as newsworthy but are ignored by the local media.

Our answer is as always we do the hard work of keeping in touch with our electors ourselves. There are quite a few newsworthy items which go out regularly in my ward newsletter Focus, on this Facebook page, and my blog. They are about local campaigning, holding the Labour Council to account and making proposals for actions that seek to make a difference for local people.

Surely it should not be down to who can afford to pay staff to feed newspapers but it clearly is you know. We no longer have an MP so we expect to have less coverage but what is happening with Labour coverage is not fair at all. Nobody else, as far as I know, is asked to comment on the claims in these Labour biased items.

We do send out press statements as well but very little gets in these days. It seems to me that newspapers no longer even try to provide balanced coverage.

The Gazette, which is Trinity Mirror owned, gave up on balance years ago. They only balance articles critical of Labour but they no longer ask opposition members to quote on items put out by the local Labour Councils.

I am sure it will turn out to be our fault as it always is but I ask myself what would Labour say if one of the other political groups got 17 pages of coverage in one local newspaper? They would raise the roof and never stop going on about it.

Redcar & Cleveland Council's funding of Pro-Labour Coastal View and Moor News free newspaper

My December 16th posting about Coastal View free newspaper publishing verbatim scurrilous Labour Party articles smearing the Lib Dems, started with the words "Grant funded Coastal View." This prompted a complaint to Ian Swales' office by one of the owners claiming that the newspaper was not grant funded.

As a sign of good faith, even though I had understood that they had received Council grants, I deleted the words "grant funded."

I have checked with the Council and the newspaper has received the following grant funding:

£5000 (grant) in May 2009, in relation to set up costs printing, design and delivery of the newspaper; 

£3000  (PR work) in May 2009, in relation to PR work carried out for the Enterprise Team.

Since then the newspaper has been taken over and the following has been provided:

£662.50 (grant) in November 2010, in relation to the purchase of a PC and Monitor; and

£1750 (PR work) in January 2011, in relation to promotional activity for the Enterprise Team. 

Every edition since No 3 has carried a full page advertisement paid for by hard pressed Redcar and Cleveland Council who are making severe cuts in public services yet can afford to fund this newspaper.

Issue 3 - Redcar Renaissance. 1 page advertisement costing £250;

Issue 4 - Have your say on Regeneration Masterplan. 1 page advertisement costing £250;

Issue 5 - Sea change on its way. 1 page advertisement costing £250

Issue 6 - Green light for landmark building and virtual shopping is a winner. 1 page advertisement costing £250.

Issue 7 - This is…. £75m Redcar Regeneration. 1 page advertisement costing £250.

Issue 8 - Contractor appointed to deliver Creative Hub and plans in place for Redcar Leisure and Community Heart. 1 page advertisement costing £250.

Issue 9 - Redcar Regeneration gathers pace and outdoor exhibition comes to Redcar. 1 page advertisement costing £250.

Issue 10 - £50k grant is just suite for Loftus Project, Council offers job bonanza support and creative talent throw open their doors. 1 page advertisement costing £250.

Issue 11 - International demand for glimpse of Saxon Princess Treasure, spark of inspiration for half marathon runners, and creative talent throw open their doors. 1 page advertisement costing £250.

Issue 12 - Start on site for £31m Redcar Leisure and Community Heart and youth centre gets green light. 1 page advertisement costing £250;

Issue 13 - A66 improvement plans motor ahead, Seaside scheme set to bring investment and jobs and demolition signals start on site for Creative Hub. 1 page advertisement costing £250.

Issue 14 - £4.9m youth centre work begins, £300k revamp is treemendous for forest and entries pour in to landmark naming contest.  1 page advertisement costing £275;

Issue 15 - Seafront shop to showcase Redcar Regeneration, creative industry set to flourish and mMajor demand to be Eco Village people.  1 page advertisement costing £275;

Issue 16 - Redcar leisure plans given the green light, Princess’s Treasure display attracts 28,000 and pupils all smiles at new £4.75m school. 1 page advertisement costing £275;

Issue 17 - Olympic hero’s jump-start for £31m leisure scheme, hundreds check out Tesco jobs and My place begins to take shape.  1 page advertisement costing £275;

Issue 18 - Ian’s at the art of Redcar’s revival, School children steel themselves for seaside landmark and trip down memory lane for ex residents – South Bank.  1 page advertisement costing £275; and

Issue 19 - Eco Village launch, Flight of the future – Redcar Seafront fly through and Landmark visit for Coatham Primary school to Vertical Pier. 1 page advertisement costing £275.

Last year, in February, Redcar and Cleveland Lib Dems announced that we had included abandoning the "vertical pier" in our manifesto in response to the survey we had carried out that showed 97% of Redcar residents did not want it.  Coastal View asked me to write an article about it. I did this and received an email back thanking me and pointing out that it would be the front page lead story. In the end they didn't publish it and instead a full page Council add appeared in the paper promoting the "vertical pier."

Coastal View

Posted by Chris:

I see that Coastal View is claiming, in its letters page, that my letter in issue 13 was crass and they were only reporting news. This was not news reporting it was pure propaganda with hardly a sniff of the truth. It was a series of exaggerated claims and smears about the Liberal Democrats with no balancing comments, no journalism, no editing, no right of reply, just Labour press releases published verbatim without any check on the facts at all. It was unfair, biased and most unprofessional.

There appears to be no end to it or any hope of more balanced reporting in the future. Claims by the same Labour Councillors, published in issue 15, give the impression that a company is considering building a wind farm on the Stray. A simple check with the company concerned would show that there was no truth at all in these claims. It was pure scaremongering. The next thing we will read is a story claiming they have successfully fought if off.

UPDATE

Coastal View would like to point out that the comments appeared on the letters page and was a readers letter not their comments.
They were, however, unlike all the other letters on the page, unattributed to anyone .