More complaints about the Liberal Democrats and media bias – but this time it’s the Conservatives worried that when Liberal Democrats get equal billing, people like what they see.
From the Times:
The Conservatives complained to the programme makers three times during Monday night’s television debate between the candidates for Chancellor, accusing them of skewing coverage in favour of Vince Cable.
At one point during the Channel 4 Ask the Chancellors programme senior Tories phoned the hotline to the production staff claiming that the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman was receiving too much applause.
Yesterday the Conservatives warned broadcasters not to give the Liberal Democrats an easy ride in the leaders’ TV debates.
Although many were happy with the performance of George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, senior Conservatives, including David Cameron, were irritated by the way Mr Cable was able to present himself as a referee between two opponents rather than facing pressure over his own policy positions.
We’ve covered before the familiar problem of media bias against the Liberal Democrats, and explained how you can help.
So what happens when a Liberal Democrat does get an equal chance? Vince connected well with the audience as these clips show, as well as getting very favourable coverage in the media afterwards.
No wonder the Conservatives don’t like it.
See the rules for the upcoming Leaders’ Debates here.
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10 Comments
I think we see now where the rules on applause and audience interaction in the Leaders’ debates came from…
So, does a Liberal Democrat press officer have the hot-line numbers to complain direct to the gallery that decides camera angles and who is shown on-screen? Incredible, makes you wonder just how much arm-twisting goes on behind the scenes.
You can be assured that Conservative Central Office would press ITV, BBC and Sky to pack the audience with their supporters. Unless the television authorities can ensure that the audience is impartial, which I trust they can are able to do, we and Labour will,need to do likewise to ensure balance. One thing that cannot be controlled is the TV audience of millions. Many, many will have been impressed with Vince. It is now up to Nick to do as well and I hope he is able to put the other party leaders in the dock together! Tweeledum and Tweedledee.
Through lucky positioning (in the middle) and the luck of being quite physically imposing, plus having a professorial demeanour, Vince was able to take a leaf out of the Ross Perot playbook. He played it perfectly – very similar to Perot with Bush and Clinton, where Perot played the role of a sort of fair-minded middleman and also managed some humour. So Cable was classic Perot, and deserves praise for being so.
Typical of the Divine Right to Rule the Labservatives believe they have.
Absolutely comical. The Tories really are pathetic sometimes.
Again – cancel everything, something just came up. Tory blogger Andy Hume thinks Vince is as “wrong as a red-headed Chinaman”. Obviously we’re all starting from the assumption that miscegenation is wrong, guys, am I right?
http://mreugenides.blogspot.com/2010/03/vince-cable-sainthood-can-wait.html
Stanley Theed wrote:
…Unless the television authorities can ensure that the audience is impartial, which I trust they can are able to do…
They can, actually. I have it on good authority (from somebody who was asked to ask a question for the debate) that they ask you “what party do you most strongly associate with?” or somesuch. Then they’ll check that they’re not skewed too much towards one party.
Nice to know that they’re afraid of us.
Yes, that’s right, Edward, I’m against miscegnation.
[sigh]