The day after the British elections, NPR.org showed considerably more interest in a candidate who ran dressed as a “space lord” than in the leader of the Labour Party.
There were 771 words in NPR.org‘s lead day-after story (6/9/17) on the results of the British elections. None of them were “Jeremy” or “Corbyn.”
That’s odd, because surely one of the most noteworthy aspects of the election was the surprisingly strong showing of the Labour Party under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn. Widely expected to lead his party into an electoral disaster, the unapologetic leftist instead achieved the biggest gain in vote share for a major British party since 1945.
Labour’s surge caused Conservatives to lose 12 seats and their absolute majority in Parliament, forcing them into a coalition government with the far-right Democratic Unionist Party. If it weren’t for the Scottish National Party’s decline in popularity, which produced 13 new Conservative MPs in Scotland, the election would have been a rout for Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May, and we would likely see Corbyn moving into the prime minister’s spot today.
None of that, apparently, was found noteworthy by NPR London correspondent Frank Langfitt.
Corbyn’s name did come up a few times in a day-after story on NPR‘s blog The Two-Way (6/9/17). The post quoted 60 words of reaction from Corbyn—comparable to the 51 words attributed to German Deputy Foreign Minister Michael Roth.
The Two-Way showed considerably more morning-after interest in another of Theresa May’s opponents—running a 400-word post (6/9/17), complete with two photos and a video, on a joke candidate named Lord Buckethead who ran in May’s constituency, winning 249 votes.
h/t Sam Husseini
You can contact NPR ombud Elizabeth Jensen via NPR’s contact form or via Twitter: @EJensenNYC. Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective.
There was another joke candidate in May’s constituency
But I don’t think many people found her amusing.
I think this was just a couple of typos, and I should know because I make them a lot. : )
The headline should really read:
“A man with a bucket FOR a head, ran this headline…”———–it seems to make more sense this way.
Above is a perfect example of why we are a war loving Empire, for when it comes to reporting the news, it is the society norm thing to believe that fiction,
“it seems to make more sense “
It seems the Tory establishment including the Blairite right wing of the Labour Party ended up believing their own anti-Corbyn propaganda, while those it was aimed at dismissed it as the claptrap it was. They fooled themselves!
If the rich keep the lower-half of society so impoverished that they refuse to vote, if they do this so that the 26% most wealthy become the voting majority and win all elections, how can democracy be anything other than slavery?
If the other commenters here will forgive me for being on subject, NPR has indeed underplayed thee British Labor Party’s biggest gain since 1945.
The headline and the body of the article are not consistent with each other.
The headline says ‘Buckethead’ the article says ‘Lord Buckethood’.
Which is it?
And note, the headline as is, will mislead rock fans into thinking that NPR reported on the electric guitar virtuoso Buckethead.
NPR is corporate.
NPR is Jewish.
Then maybe them not wanting to give positive coverage to an anti-Semitic party is understandable.
There are other signs that the British Labor Party is gaining strength. But Trump, not May ,is the main cause.