Brave New World

Who the Sun support in an election really matters. At least, that’s what the paper’s famous 1992 headline, “It’s the Sun wot won it”, proclaimed when the Conservatives – endorsed by the Sun – surprisingly claimed general election victory over Neil Kinnock.

And, with a three million a day readership, there are few who would dispute its political influence.

But today the Independent offices in Derry Street received a surprise visit from Rebekah Wade and James Murdoch, who were reportedly unhappy with the Indy campaign ads that suggest “Rupert Murdoch won’t decide this election. You will.” Could it be that the ads have hit on a subject a little too close to the bone?

According to Michael Wolff, it is indeed the fear of a Conservative loss that sparked the outrage:

In a coming-apart-at-the-seams scenario, Rebekah Wade/Brooks and Murdoch’s son, James—who will both face the wrath of Murdoch senior if they don’t produce a winner—stormed over to the Independent, breached its security systems, barged into the offices of the Independent’s editor-in-chief and top executive, Simon Kelner, and commenced, in Brit-speak, a giant row. Their point was that newspaper publishers don’t slag off other newspaper publishers in polite Britain, but also the point was to remind Kelner that he wasn’t just slagging off another publisher, he was slagging off the Murdochs, damn it.

If Wolff’s analysis is correct, what does the Sun’s apparent losing battle over the hearts and minds of Britain’s electorate mean for newspapers in a wider context? In another backlash this morning against media general election spin, twitter users made clear that they weren’t falling for the universally negative coverage of Nick Clegg in the Tory-supporting newspapers. Ironically blaming all the world’s problems on Clegg – using the hashtag #nickcleggsfault – users highlighted their frustration at the papers’ hypocrisy. Could it be that time is up for the political dominance of newspapers at election time?

According to the Guardian’s Charles Arthur:

The rapid responses on Twitter indicate just how much shorter the feedback loop now is for the mainstream media and electors – and how dangerous it can be to attack politicians who are riding a wave of popularity.

Whether it will have any effect on the readers either of Twitter or of the newspapers is harder to tell. Clearly, Twitter has never been the favoured stamping ground for Sun, Daily Mail, Daily Express or Daily Telegraph readers. And it is unlikely that any of the papers’ editors will be taking notice of what it says.