Informed 09


British newspapers had been given over to propaganda. Professor Chris Frost, chair of the NUJ’s ethics council, believes the national press has been pushed by social media into polemic Brexit coverage. Repetitional damage will follow, he says. “It’s going to be immeasurably more difficult to regain trust because people have become used to polemic newspapers. Whatever side of the Brexit debate you take, biterness will continue.” At a seminar on Brexit coverage, Will


Moy, chief executive of the fact-checking organisation Full Fact, gave the UK media a grade of ‘F’ for its efforts. Financially- challenged newsrooms, he argues, have struggled with an immeasurably complicated subject. “Te expertise this story requires is vast; constitutional law, parliamentary procedure, trade negotiations, and foreign relations. Nobody is expert in it all,” he says. “Explaining Brexit has been an amazingly difficult ask.”


Seasoned political journalists concede that lessons have been hard learned. Gary Gibbon, political editor of Channel 4 News, says deep understanding of the “trade issue” at the heart of Brexit requires a specialist background. “[UK media] relied too much on generalists reporting intricate and unfamiliar policy terrain.” Brexit’s “greatest lesson” was that broadcasters were wrong to apply the equal airtime principles used in UK politics, he says. “Te referendum exposed the danger of prioritising ‘balance’ in terms of soundbite duration and forgeting the need to subject all arguments to equal levels of rigour. If an argument collapses under pressure, that is the fault of the argument not the interviewer.” Covering Ireland has also challenged the UK media as much as it has Brexiteers. Daily Mirror associate editor Kevin Maguire admited to the BBC that the significance of Brexit for Ireland was “drowned out because of the focus on money and immigration”. RTÉ Europe editor Tony Connelly and Belfast website


A journalist in no10


In covering the Prime Minister’s atempts at Brexit, political journalists know they are dealing with a former colleague who, as a reporter in Brussels, thought nothing of concocting stories on EU “plans” for a ban on prawn cocktail crisps or a “banana police force” to regulate bendy fruit. Because he has spent his career among the media he is more vulnerable to revelations of scandal, such as recent allegations in Te Sunday Times


that he groped journalist Charlote Edwardes at a lunch at Te Spectator, where he was editor. Yet Boris Johnson is at his ease among journalists in a way his predecessor Teresa May was not. Unlike her, he has an “eye for a


story” and has been “on the front foot” in relations with the media since entering Downing Street with the intention of calling a swiſt election, lobby reporters say. And, unlike Mrs May, he also has unequivocal backing from the Conservatives’ house journal, the Daily Telegraph where he used to work.


Te Detail have diligently covered the implications of Brexit for communities north and south of the Irish border: the Sun told Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to “Shut Your Gob and Grow Up”. But Brexit has given the UK media, and its audiences, a beter understanding of Brussels. On Te Express, Barnes says, he is known as the “Remainer-in- Chief” for his reporting on the EU. “I have deliberately taken a neutral approach to the Brexit saga because my role is to inform readers about what is happening inside the European Commission and the European Parliament.” Westminster reporters also have an


improved grasp of the machinations of their own beats. “Te collective knowledge of [parliamentary procedures bible] Erskine May has improved immeasurably,” says de Boton. HuffPost UK’s Waugh thinks this process has enhanced faith in parliamentary democracy. He also believes the UK media has done a good job for people interested in Brexit. “Tere has been a plethora of excellent coverage – if you want to know about it, it’s there.” His daily newsleter, Te Waugh Zone, analyses Brexit developments. He believes that its format has come into its own in coverage of the story. “Political newsleters, like podcasts and


expert Twiter threads, have become an accessible way for the public to get the story behind the story.” Te BBC’s podcast Brexitcast, since turned into a BBC One show, has been a huge success, adding to the workloads of presenters Laura Kuenssberg and Katya Adler. Katy Searle, head of BBC Westminster, says the show works “because you hear personalities in an unfamiliar way, and their language is easier to consume”. At ITV News, de Boton highlights the difficulty in covering a story with “a lot of repetition”. To keep audiences engaged “we use a lot of quick interactions, doorsteps, quirky moments, even humour, to keep the story moving”, she says.


But for Suzanne Franks, professor of journalism at City University in London, the UK media’s Brexit output has been “breathless” and resonant of sports reporting. “Tere hasn’t been enough thoughtful, standing-back coverage,” she complains. Even so, the immensity of Brexit amounts to “a golden era for political journalism,” she says. “Tese are stories that reach into the psyche and resonate. I wonder if we will ever go back to an era where politics is considered boring again?”


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