Fleet Street

Abstract

The role of the press can change from election to election, sometimes because the structure and ownership of the press has changed, and sometimes because events call forth a different response. In 1979 the partisanship of the popular dailies was cruder than usual, while the quality papers did not have The Times to counter-balance, to borrow from or to criticise. The nature of the argument and the style of the campaign gave journalists little to get their teeth into — yet the parties were attacked for reducing the contest to a ‘media event’.

The authors are indebted to Deirdre Saunder for her help in preparing the tables.