Britons Dissatisfied with How Last Three PMs Dealt with the Press
Most believe Tony Blair and David Cameron traded government policy in return for favourable coverage from a specific media outlet.
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(07/09/12) -
Few people in Britain believe the relationship of the last three national governments with the press has been ideal, a new Angus Reid Public Opinion poll has found.
In the online survey of a representative sample of 2,074 British adults, more than half of respondents say they are dissatisfied with the relationship that Tony Blair (54%), Gordon Brown (53%) and David Cameron (54%) had with the British press.
Conversely, just over a third of respondents are dissatisfied with the relationship John Major (36%) and Margaret Thatcher (35%) had with the press.
Only 36 per cent of respondents have followed the Leveson Inquiry into the culture, practices and ethics of the British press “very closely” or “moderately closely”—including 45 per cent of those over the age of 55.
Last month, Cameron told the Leveson Inquiry that he had never traded policies in return for the support of the media.
More than half of Britons think Blair (63%) and Cameron (58%) have traded government policy in return for favourable coverage from a specific media outlet. Fewer respondents believe Brown (49%), Thatcher (40%) and Major (38%) have behaved in a similar fashion.
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Full Report, Detailed Tables and Methodology (PDF)
CONTACT:
Mario Canseco, Vice President, Angus Reid Public Opinion
+877 730 3570
mario.canseco@angus-reid.com
Methodology: From June 19 to June 20, 2012, Angus Reid Public Opinion conducted an online survey among 2,074 randomly selected British adults who are Springboard UK panelists. The margin of error—which measures sampling variability—is +/- 2.2%. The results have been statistically weighted according to the most current education, age, gender and region data to ensure samples representative of the entire adult population of Great Britain. Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding.
