Jeremy Corbyn was systematically attacked by the British press in his first week as leader, research finds

Last Updated: November 27, 2015By

The British press “systematically undermined” Jeremy Corbyn with an onslaught of negative media coverage in his first week as Labour leader, new research has claimed.

The Media Reform Coalition analysed nearly 500 pieces across eight national newspapers, including The Sun, The Times, Guardian and Daily Mail, and found 60% of their articles were ‘negative’, meaning they were openly hostile or expressed animosity or ridicule.

Out of the 494 articles across the papers during Corbyn’s first seven days at leader, 60% (296 articles) were negative, with only 13% positive stories (65 articles) and 27% taking a “neutral” stance (133 articles), the report says.

In the days after he was selected, Corbyn was criticised for his controversial shadow cabinet appointments, policies that were at odds with the views of many of the party’s leading figures, his decision not to sing the national anthem and his poor relationship with the media after pulling out of an interview on the Andrew Marr show.

The Sun, its sister paper The Sun on Sunday, and The Daily Mail published the highest ratio of ‘negative’ stories about the new leader, according to the report, with 91% of each newspaper’s coverage considered critical.

The Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph follow with 83% of its coverage deemed negative, while 71% of stories published about Corbyn in The Times and Sunday Times were ‘negative’.

By contrast, just 11% of articles in the Guardian newspaper were ‘negative’.

News articles, in which the media ostensibly do not editorialise, were actually the most critical of Corbyn, the report says.

Read more: Jeremy Corbyn systematically attacked by British press

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4 Comments

  1. NMac November 27, 2015 at 12:57 pm - Reply

    I don’t suppose for one minute that the results of this survey will get much, if any media coverage.

  2. Ros Curwood November 27, 2015 at 4:43 pm - Reply

    Well there’s a surprise. Dont suppose Mr Murdoch or the Barclay Bros had anything to do with that, champions of the people that they are.

  3. Christin Bergin November 27, 2015 at 7:50 pm - Reply

    Most Corbyn sympathisers knew that his ‘own’ side would try to sabotage him/ So far as MSM was concerned business as normal Except maybe the guardian who let themselves down pretty badly.

  4. jh November 27, 2015 at 9:08 pm - Reply

    Hate to disagree with their analysis, but the majority of the coverage in the Guardian seemed deeply critical of Corbyn with much of it resorting to ridicule. Many of the articles that purported to be supportive were littered with digs and backhanded complements. Hard to believe they only found 11% there.

    Of course they were still one of the better nationals but that only serves to highlight the dire state of Britain’s mainstream media.

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