Lib Dems in owned media manipulation

The Libs Dems are playing a dirty disinformation game with the oldest form of political campaign media.

Digital media is the sharp end of fake news, but the Lib Dems are deploying a more traditional form of media as a means of disinformation.

Campaign leaflets are dropped through letterboxes in constituencies that a party hopes to win. It’s here where the Lib Dems are playing dirty.

Misattribution of quotes

A Lib Dem leaflet published at the outset of the General Election campaign falsely attributed a pro-Lib Dem quote to The Guardian.

In fact, the quote “Lib Dems winning and on the up after by-election victory” was a claim made by party leader Jo Swinson in an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme. It was subsequently cited by The Guardian.

But this isn’t the only example of misrepresentation by the Lib Dems during the General Election campaign.

Dodgy data

The party has been accused of massaging data on election leaflets to make it look as if they’re leading in constituencies where they’re not.

A leaflet distributed in Edinburgh showed the Conservatives and Labour declining in Scotland, and the Lib Dems gaining on the SNP. The chart had no labels or source and wasn’t worthy of a primary school child.

Fake local newspapers

The most blatant example of media manipulation by the Lib Dems is campaign leaflets that look like local newspapers. These have been distributed in marginal constituencies.

The party has published campaign newspapers including The North East Fife Gazette, Mid-Hampshire Gazette, and North West Leeds and Wharfedale News.

Local newspaper editors and journalists have been brutal in their condemnation of the Lib Dem’s tactic, claiming it erodes trust in the earned media.

James Mitchinson, editor, The Yorkshire Post, is typical in calling out the so-called North West Leeds and Wharfedale News.

“This isn’t ‘news’ as the masthead suggests. It’s political propaganda imitating local newspapers in order to borrow the trusting relationships that titles like ours in this region have worked so hard to build up with you.”