In what represents a startling swing over the last year, a majority of the British public now see the press as a “force for bad” – up from 43% to 53% in just eleven months. This is the first time “force for bad” has become the majority view since YouGov began asking and tracking the question. Conversely, the proportion who see the press as a “force for good” has collapsed from 32% to 23%, now polling behind ‘Don’t Know’. The swing in negativity has overwhelmingly come from the Tories…
All parties now see the press as a force for bad more than they do good, whereas just eleven months ago the Tories were overwhelmingly of the opposite opinion. Long-running anti-press sentiment has also become more extreme in the Labour Party, although muted a little in the LibDems. None of this will make happy reading for fleet street…
