Beate Willar the Beverley party has hit out at the local media claiming are simply not getting the coverage afforded to those with large marketing budgets.
A statement released Beate said;
“The Beverley Party is the new kid on the block. We want and need to tell people what we are all about, yet we have had great difficulty getting our press releases printed in the local media.”
“Only HU17 has published articles about us, along with the offerings from the other parties. We would like to take the opportunity to whole-heartedly congratulate and express our gratitude to Paul for providing a balanced platform for everyone.”
“The local papers, we were hoping to at least be given the same opportunity that the candidates at the last election enjoyed: a paragraph on each of the candidates in the Beverley Guardian.”
“To our disappointment, this time around, the editor chose to only offer the readership a list of the names of candidates. Only the national election candidates had a personal profile published.”
“The argument might well be that there are too many candidates standing for ERYC. However, surely the local elections are big enough news to warrant the space for this kind of coverage plus, of course, couldn’t the profiles have been staggered ward by ward over a few weeks?”
However it is not just been local candidates who faced a raw deal when it comes coverage in the Beverley Guardian. The newspaper interviewed the prospective parliamentary candidates carefully selected education as a topic of interest.
Given the fact that Graham Stuart has a vested interest in education some took a dim view on this choice of topic and since those articles are published no subsequent articles were followed offering a broader range of subjects.
Further criticism was aimed at the way in which information and party colours were presented in the paper, Beate added;
“Looking at the list, there doesn’t seem to be any obvious logic to the order of the candidates/parties listed. Why are the LibDems sometimes above and sometimes below UKIP?”
“Why is The Beverley Party always below UKIP, but sometimes below and sometimes above the LibDems? If it was random, why are the Conservative candidates always listed first?”
“On a lesser note, why are other parties listed with their chosen colours, and The Beverley Party given grey, we are turquoise and green, if you are interested?”
“How much thought went into making this list ‘fair’, given that it might well be the only information on the local election offered to voters via this medium?”
“So what’s the fuss about, when everyone is otherwise pretty much in the same boat?”
“Well, the issue is that we are actually in very different vessels; sitting councillors have a distinct advantage in that they are well-known to the electorate, whereas newcomers are unknown quantities, and need opportunities to introduce themselves.”
“They are dependent on the press to give them the space to do so, even more so when they do not have the budget of others, who can afford to pay for large-scale advertising in the papers and on billboards up and down the county. “
“Campaigning is a costly business, both in time and money, and having the local press withdraw from the process is arguably not in the best interest of its readership who should have access to information on the full range of voting options available to them.”
“So, in trying not to get involved, they are arguably doing their readership and local democracy a disservice. Moreover, it stands to reason that they cannot, in fact, be “not involved” when they accept paid-for party advertisements.”
“Well, we’ll just have to make every effort to speak to our electorate of 24000+ in person.”
