The 'Two Tier' Journalism Exposed by the Farmers Protests

The glowing coverage handed to the hugely wealthy people leading the campaign against inheritance tax reforms shows who has a voice in the media and who doesn't

Protests in Westminster are a daily occurrence. In the more than a decade that I’ve worked inside Parliament I cannot recall a single day in which there has not been some sort of protest taking place in the streets that surround the parliamentary estate.

Almost all of these get pretty much zero coverage in the mainstream press. To the perennial frustration of campaign groups, there are few activities less likely to make it to the front pages of Britain’s newspapers than some campaigners waving some placards around in Whitehall.

Whether you’re a Waspi woman, a British Tamil, or a pro-European, the chances are that your protest is going to be largely, or entirely, ignored by the British press, no matter how many other people you persuade to take to the streets.

And for the few protests that do actually get noticed, the coverage is overwhelmingly negative. 

Whether it’s The Sun branding climate protesters “fanatics” or “loons” who should be locked up, or the Home Secretary writing a column in the Daily Mail calling pro-Palestinian protesters “hate marchers” whose rights should be removed, such action is overwhelmingly portrayed negatively.

That is of course, unless you happen to be Jeremy Clarkson.