Westminster Election 12th December 2019

[Rois]

Are "we" going to take N Belfast and hold Fermanagh Sth Tyrone?

N Belfast is on a knife edge. The priest at mass on Sunday in St Therese on Somerton Rd wasn't encouraging a SF vote anyway!

[marty34]

Some amount of dirty actions in the Foyle Constituency. So much for Integrity and Respect.

Just saw this 9n website - a letter? Loads of spin in elections these days.  It's nearly a full time job digging the dirt but does it make any difference?

Look at the campaign agsinst JF a few weeks ago: it has totally worked against what they had intended I think.  Anti PBP posters in west Belfast.  This is the way elections are going - look at the websites above the Labour one on the net - false sites: fake news.

[Franko]

Eh, Kuenssberg didn't. See the part in her tweet where she says "hearing that...", that's the bit that gives it away that she's passing on third party information, not reporting facts

The wording of Kuenssberg's version is maybe debatable.  Peston regurgitated what Dom told him to as a fact.

Hardly the standard expected of two of the top political correspondents in the country.

The litany of 'mistakes' made by the BBC in the recent past (which have somehow ALL managed to be 'mistakes' which benefited the Tories) is just too much of a coincidence for me.

[trailer]

Gildernew will do well to hold FST. NB is a toss of a coin. If SF hold what they have that'll be a very good election for them.

[smelmoth]

If the PM makes untrue claims (ie states lies as facts) when standing on a major campaign platform is it the role of good journalists to expose those lies?? Especially the journalists claiming to cover the event.

The same applies to coverage of any other leading candidate

[playwiththewind1st]

Are "we" going to take N Belfast and hold Fermanagh Sth Tyrone?

N Belfast is on a knife edge. The priest at mass on Sunday in St Therese on Somerton Rd wasn't encouraging a SF vote anyway!

Probably a DUP fan.

[Franko]

Good to see people are managing to restrain themselves when it comes to rhetoric come election time.

Kuenssberg and Maitlis are "vile" apparently.

Morons in 2019 appear to have an inability to distinguish between the fast paced, as near to live as possible action of Twitter and actual journalism.

I'd venture that the 'morons' are the people in 2019 who don't realise that social media IS journalism.

[Eamonnca1]

Jesus Christ, Kuenssberg tweeted what she had heard. Just like Peston and even f**king Tom Newton Dunn. This is how Twitter works. They didn't report it as fact and when it was apparent that it wasn't true, I know Kuenssberg at least apologised.

Her job is not to be an investigative reporter and tell you the truth. Her job is to report on the politics going on around everything. The conservatives making false claims about someone getting punched is clearly politics.

Going back to your example of the weather, if it's raining outside, her job isn't to tell you it's raining outside. Her job is to tell you that there's a clampet who claims it isn't.

If people want live, rolling fast-paced Twitter style news they have to accept that tweets on live, unfolding events won't have had the benefit of editorial scrutiny. That's just simply the world we live in, not evidence of a pro Tory media conspiracy.

Jesus Christ, have people really been conditioned into accepting this? If it's not raining outside, a politicians says it is raining outside, a journalist's job is not to just tell you what the politician said. It's their job to look out the f***ing window and let you know if they're telling the truth or not.

[marty34]

Are "we" going to take N Belfast and hold Fermanagh Sth Tyrone?

N Belfast is on a knife edge. The priest at mass on Sunday in St Therese on Somerton Rd wasn't encouraging a SF vote anyway!

Probably a DUP fan.

Our moral guardians!!!

[playwiththewind1st]

Are "we" going to take N Belfast and hold Fermanagh Sth Tyrone?

N Belfast is on a knife edge. The priest at mass on Sunday in St Therese on Somerton Rd wasn't encouraging a SF vote anyway!

Probably a DUP fan.

Our moral guardians!!!

Add in Danny O'Connor + Pat Buckley to that mixture & bingo.

[gallsman]

Jesus Christ, Kuenssberg tweeted what she had heard. Just like Peston and even f**king Tom Newton Dunn. This is how Twitter works. They didn't report it as fact and when it was apparent that it wasn't true, I know Kuenssberg at least apologised.

Her job is not to be an investigative reporter and tell you the truth. Her job is to report on the politics going on around everything. The conservatives making false claims about someone getting punched is clearly politics.

Going back to your example of the weather, if it's raining outside, her job isn't to tell you it's raining outside. Her job is to tell you that there's a clampet who claims it isn't.

If people want live, rolling fast-paced Twitter style news they have to accept that tweets on live, unfolding events won't have had the benefit of editorial scrutiny. That's just simply the world we live in, not evidence of a pro Tory media conspiracy.

Jesus Christ, have people really been conditioned into accepting this? If it's not raining outside, a politicians says it is raining outside, a journalist's job is not to just tell you what the politician said. It's their job to look out the f***ing window and let you know if they're telling the truth or not.

That false, clichéd analysis was attempted earlier. Try harder.

[Franko]

He's right though.  The whole function of political journalism in society is to provide truth and objective  analysis of the political landscape.  To use another cliche... to hold power to account.

You seem to think that it's to be little more than a gossip columnist.  Report what they said.  The fact that that is the level of political journalism which satisfies you is unsurprising.

[gallsman]

Ah, I see you're doing the thing where you put words in my mouth. Given the topic, how wonderfully ironic.

Political journalism appears to have been dragged down because the politics it has to cover is at an all time low, on both sides of the aisle.

Do people really, genuinely believe that the BBC and ITV political editors are simply shills for the Tories? Peston, Kuenssberg and Maitlis practically ridicule Johnson at times. BBC devotes an half an hour every Friday night with HIGNFY so Hislop and Merton can ridicule Johnson, and May before him, and Cameron before her. Jonny Mercer was on it about six months ago and sat there being dragged from pillar to post for 30 nearly the entire episode.

They, along with others, were fed a particular mistruth which they then shared with us via the majesty of Twitter. You're right that Peston didn't qualify it, which he absolutely should have. The others that I've seen certainly did. They all then immediately apologised and clarified that it absolutely hadn't happened. If people want their news wired directly into their brain via Twitter in a smartphone then this is the sort of thing that will happen from time to time.

The hysteria surrounding it is absolutely nonsense. There was a claim, it was shared perhaps a tad eagerly and embarrassingly and subsequently debunked. Demanding they reveal their sources etc is crazy. We're not talking state secrets and national security here

[gallsman]

And just to be clear, Emily Maitlis is an absolutely exceptional journalist.

People running about calling people "vile" because they don't cheerlead in precisely the way they want them to is indicative of the direction society is heading. "Disagree with me? Well, f**k you Nazi/Commie pig."

[gallsman]

Final YouGov poll gives the Tories a majority of 28, which is within the margin of error.

Tory 339
Labour 231
SNP 41
Lib Dem 15