At the end of August the Sun published a pink poodle-shaped balloon image to illustrate a migrant hotel scandal that has dominated UK news. Anti-migrant tabloids produced most of the 1,571 stories mentioning migrant and hotel over the past month, and reporting has shifted across other media. Refugees are increasingly framed as threats to locals, with headlines such as 'Hotel migrant rights outweigh those of locals, ministers argue.' Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, describes toxic coverage with real-life consequences. Mainstream media and political opinion have hardened, portraying newcomers as potential sexual predators or criminals. Politicians and rightwing media form a symbiotic cycle of outrage.
Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, tells me of toxic coverage with real-life consequences. The mainstream media and political opinion is in a very different place than it was a year ago. Now there's an idea that everyone coming here is a potential sexual predator, a potential criminal. Sections of the press have long delighted in stories of division and outrage rather than nuance and debate.
We see a symbiotic relationship with politicians jumping on populist bandwagons and using the rightwing media to do so, who then flood their websites with the resulting outrage. This circular obscenity has seen shadow cabinet ministers such as Robert Jenrick playing to the media gallery outside migrant hotels this summer. Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch joined the unvirtuous circle with her claim that Women are afraid to go for run
Collection
[
|
...
]