With over 30,000 tweets today, the hashtag #ToryElectionFraud has been trending on Twitter at number 3, and is currently (at the time of writing) the sixth most tweeted about issue.
However, with such a big political news story currently unfurling, you would have expected the media to be all over it like a rash – just as they were with the Ken Livingstone anti-Semitism saga last week.
Despite the furore that Channel 4’s investigation has created, there has been virtually no other coverage from the mainstream media of this deeply undemocratic scandal. And Twitter was rightly outraged at the lack of coverage.
#toryelectionfraud trending. There are serious questions to be asked and an urgent investigation needed. Amazing stuff from Channel 4 news.
— Shehab Khan (@ShehabKhan) May 3, 2016
BBC ignoring the #ToryElectionFraud just makes us respect the real Journalists who do real Journalism more and more pic.twitter.com/6P6rDd3h8P
— Shlomo. (@hapoelorient) May 3, 2016
@Hapoel4 That's why the Tories want to sell off @Channel4 #ToryElectionFraud
— Woody (@John101Wood) May 3, 2016
We should all #refusetopaythelicensefee until the BBC stop censoring our news
#toryelectionfraud @BBCNews @laurak— Allan Skerratt (@AllanSkerratt) May 3, 2016
The term ‘BBC bias’ has been bandied about a lot recently, and many are questioning the political neutrality of commentators such as Laura Kuenssberg and Andrew Neil of the BBC’s Daily Politics show.
It’s easy to see how many have come to these conclusions, given that Kuenssberg’s last 6 consecutive tweets – spanning from April 28th – have all been about one person: Jeremy Corbyn – as opposed to anything that could potentially damage the Conservatives.
When you combine Kuenssberg’s unashamedly negative Jeremy Corbyn obsession, with her Daily Politics sidekick Andrew Neil – Chairman of the zealously Conservative media outlet, The Spectator – it’s not hard to see why many are now questioning why the BBC’s political department are keeping a potentially huge Conservative scandal subdued.
Revealing Tweet count for @BBCPolitics – hardly mentioning #racistTories and #toryelectionfraud pic.twitter.com/ZSFHVLYC3T
— Tom Pride (@ThomasPride) May 3, 2016
The BBC covered Labour’s anti-Semitism row with wall-to-wall coverage – it was their website headline for more than two days, with article after article analysing how the furore could potentially engulf the entire Party. However, the BBC gave almost no air-time to complaints of Islamophobia against Tory Mayoral Candidate Zac Goldsmith.
And when it comes to potentially criminal investigations being meted out to Conservative Party officials, the BBC have yet again deemed this Tory scandal as simply not newsworthy.
But then you realise that there are elections on Thursday, and it all becomes clear.
