Blog posted 07 September 2015

         THE CORRUPTION & ASPHYXIATION OF THE CORNISH PRESS

When the Tories planned to turn Cornwall ‘blue’ in the run up to the 2015 general election, was acquiring nearly all of the Cornish newspaper titles, below, by Local World, part of that plan ? and did that involve corruption by an out going Office of Fair Trading ?

Was this one of the reasons why then MP Stephen Gilbert closed his constituency office a month before the election ?

The following 2 titles were not part of the above OFT package, but are Tory owned.

“We will harvest content and publish it without human interface”, unquote, David Montgomery, owner of Local World.

Montgomery’s vision was that press officers from the police, hospitals, councils, schools, businesses and other organisations should be invited to provide the majority of stories usually by self-service and given a large measure of control as trust developed.

This to some showed little understanding of, or respect for, quality regional content that often begins with readers pleas, claims or complaints against those very same organisations. That such a vision did not allow for the exposure and coverage of regional scandals and controversy.

If the OFT thought it fair and democratic for a county to be saturated by a Tory Press in the run up to a general election then the OFT really was corrupt and deserved to go. The trouble is Cornwall is now lumbered with an undemocratic Tory media which will only tell the people in Cornwall what they want the people to know. The likes of a corrupt Council, NHS Trust, Police Force etc. are not going to-up load what they would rather the people not know.