The weakest link
Newspapers’ views do not seem to affect readers’ votes
“IT'S the Sun wot won it!” claimed Britain's most-read daily newspaper so memorably in 1992, after rooting for John Major's Tories and ridiculing Neil Kinnock's Labour Party. By 1997, the Tory gazette had become the house journal of the victorious Labour Party. So then, naturally, it was “the Sun wot swung it!” This time, the Sun is still squarely behind Labour, and so is a wider spread of papers than at any time since 1945. Does this help explain Labour's firm lead? Apparently not: research shows that newspapers have little impact on their readers' votes.
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “The weakest link”
From the June 2nd 2001 edition
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