That’s the message from the two online campaigning groups Avaaz and 38 Degrees. One of their emails says:
The tabloid press is doing all it can to skew the election result by bullying and scaring voters. The political editor of The Sun has been given clear instructions from Rupert Murdoch: “It is my job to see that Cameron f****g well gets into Downing Street”. Murdoch and his tabloid press friends think they’ve got the right to decide who governs us.
Together we can stand up for our right to choose who we vote for and expose this cynical manipulation. Let’s shame the tabloids, and prove to the rest of the media that we won’t buy their spin.
Please sign the petition now and forward this message to stop this media scaremongering:
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/hung_parliament
Right now the media scaremongering is dominating the airwaves. But we know that millions of us want to cast our votes with hope – of a better politics and more balanced parliament. A massive outcry by tens of thousands of us will help shift the debate.
Numbers matter here, so we’re teaming up with Avaaz.org. In total there are half a million of us – if enough of us get involved and spread the word we can break the tabloid stranglehold. By acting now, we can make sure we don’t wake up on May 7th to hear Rupert Murdoch gloat again that “it was the Sun wot won it”.
We can show we’re not going to sit by and let right-wing media barons decide who runs the country. Sign the petition now:
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/hung_parliament
A hung parliament carries its own uncertainties and risks. But it also spells opportunities – fora more balanced parliament, reform to the voting system, and a different way of doing politics. For many of us, it looks like it might be our best bet for changing politics for the better. But whoever we end up voting for, it should be us the voters, not foreign media barons, who call the shots in this election.
The tabloid editors are rattled. Polls suggest voters may defy them and refuse to vote in their chosen party. That means right now they’ll be planning to step up their dirty tricks in the final days of the campaign. A huge petition from 38 Degrees and Avaaz, defending our right to choose our own political destiny, could create a buzz on the internet and throw their plans off-course.
Add your voice now by clicking here, then please forward this message to all your friends:
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/hung_parliament
Thanks for getting involved,
David, Hannah, Johnny, Nina and the 38 Degrees Team
P.S. Create your own hung parliament scare story with our “Tabloid headline generator” at http://labs.38degrees.org.uk/headline/ and we can add some of the best to the website.
8 Comments
And the Mirror’s the worst of the lot.
Not all tabloids are bad on this – the People has come out in favour of proportional representation and a balanced parliament: https://www.libdemvoice.org/the-observer-endorses-the-liberal-democrats-19243.html
It can hardly be called a “free press” when one Australian living in America ownes 40% of our media.
I hope after the election was might have a tough anti-monopoly media ownership law, a stronger PCC, and some basic rules about what constitutes fair reporting.
“I hope after the election was might have a tough anti-monopoly media ownership law, a stronger PCC, and some basic rules about what constitutes fair reporting.”
Unfortunately, I fear we’re going to have precisely the opposite.
The Lib Dems can wait idly for the tidal wave from the right-wing press or they can spell out in £bns/tax rises the difference between the IFS’s 26% vs 13% and 18%.
Also, being clear about a referendum being a pre-requisite for Euro entry and the positives of the migration amnesty eg tax receipts up, less power to organised crime, BoJo also in favour, would be sensible. If the LDs do not explain these supposed weak areas by Thursday, I’m sure Fleet St will be only too happy to ‘try’ to.
Signed it.
I comfort myself that the Murdoch empire won’t last for ever, though maybe I might be the first to go!
I think it was Lloyd George who said one man, one paper. Holds true today,
JohnG, that is the thought which stops me going bonkers