The Student Room Group

Political allegiances of journalists/broadcasters

There are a few that we know are aligned with a particular party/persuasion, Nick Ronbinson (Tory) for instance, but what about the rest?

I assume most political journalists prefer to be seen to remain impartial, but clearly anyone involved with political journalism is bound to have strong political views. Paxman's views are ones I am most eager to hear about.

If you know/suspect any then please post them in here.

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Sky, Kay Burley and Adam Boulten in particular, seemed to be rooting for the Tories. They were going a bit mental when the coalition talks were touch and go.
I think paxman is tory as is most of the media.
Reply 3
Celtic_Anthony
Sky, Kay Burley and Adam Boulten in particular, seemed to be rooting for the Tories. They were going a bit mental when the coalition talks were touch and go.


Boulten is a strange one. His wife is Labour and I know he is friends with senior Labour figures but everything he says/does suggest that he is a Tory.
Reply 4
Laura Kuenssberg is perhaps the most blatant Tory political correspondent I have ever seen.
Reply 5
Phwoar, Kuenssberg would get it all night long. Even if she is a Tory.
Reply 6
Teveth
Phwoar, Kuenssberg would get it all night long. Even if she is a Tory.


:sexface: Admittedly it's even easier to say that if you are a Tory.
Reply 7
Andrew Marr, Kirsty Wark and Jon Sopel are Labour. And I think Krishnan Guru-Murthy is too, while Nick Robinson, David Dimbleby and Andrew Neil are Tories.

The G Doctor
I think paxman is tory as is most of the media.


I'm sure I once heard he was a communist while at university or something :confused: Dunno if that's worth believing, but I don't think he's a Tory.
Reply 8
depends who they work for in general I would guess:

BBC - Labour
ITV - Conservative
C4 - hardest one, i'd guess either Labour or Lib Dem
C5 - Conservative
Sky - Conservative
I think Jon Snow is pretty left-wing. Same with Paxman but he's described as a floater on wikipedia.

IMO, most are fairly impartial, or at least compared to US they are, though that's not saying much.
Reply 10
Craig_D
Laura Kuenssberg is perhaps the most blatant Tory political correspondent I have ever seen.


Do you really think so?

I know that Nick Robinson is. I know that Andrew Neil is also.
Reply 11
SciFiBoy
depends who they work for in general I would guess:

BBC - Labour
ITV - Conservative
C4 - hardest one, i'd guess either Labour or Lib Dem
C5 - Conservative
Sky - Conservative


I think you're confusing "Tory" with "thicky".
Reply 12
When, in his twenties, Paxman unsuccessfully applied for the vacant editorship of the venerable Labour-supporting weekly The New Statesman, he said he considered himself a socialist.[34][35] He had previously stood as a Communist candidate in school elections

Hmm how interesting of Paxman.
L i b
I think you're confusing "Tory" with "thicky".


how would that be confusing? :p:
Reply 14
Can't remember their name, but there's definitely a BBC journalist that referred to the Labour party as 'us' when he was interviewing someone from Labour.
Teveth
There are a few that we know are aligned with a particular party/persuasion, Nick Ronbinson (Tory) for instance, but what about the rest?

I assume most political journalists prefer to be seen to remain impartial, but clearly anyone involved with political journalism is bound to have strong political views. Paxman's views are ones I am most eager to hear about.

If you know/suspect any then please post them in here.


Nick Robinson isn't Tory - he's just Establishment. Whoever is in power he'll support them for as long as they remain the Establishment itself.
Nick Robinson is Tory, I've been watching him for a few years now and he's always seemed more Tory than Labour, even in the Blair and Brown years.

To be fair, though, the TV correspondants are a lot less biased than the papers. I had the misfortune to read both the Sun and the Mirror during the election campaign (and the Star and Daily Fail too, on occasion) because of them being left in the canteen at work and nothing to do on my breaks, and they were so biased I couldn't believe it at times.
I don't think most of them have a strict alleigance to any party in particular, they'll critique any party, and equally praise them, depending on their merits and failures.

However, in the case of newspaper journalism, it's a different story.
Reply 18
With her latest anti Cameron outbursts over the immigration issue Laura Kuenssberg is clearly left of centre.
(edited 8 years ago)
Paxman has described himself as a One Nation Tory, which historically speaking would probably put him to the left of the current Labour party. However in reality he is centre.

Andrew Neil is a Tory, albeit one who seems to hate the current incarnation of the party.

Jon Snow is a liberal.

Nick Robinson is a Tory with a sympathetic streak for new labour, albeit still a fantastic political reporter.

Kay Burley is a pitbull who'll support whoever Murdoch tells her to.