Thursday 17 June 2010

Fulham Chronicle: where has your campaign gone?

A quietly forgotten campaign hasn't been seen round these parts for quite some time. Back in February the Chronicle launched a big campaign, backed with billboard advertising and even an advertising van that drove around both Hammersmith and stopped in front of David Cameron's own front door, calling for the propaganda paper that our Council published with our taxes to be stopped.

The reason, the Chronicle said, and in my view quite rightly was that tax payers money shouldn't be used to fund a "paper" that is actually a political propaganda piece for the local Conservative Party. Articles always seem to have a positive slant for the Council and nobody that isn't a Tory ever seems to get a mention, let alone stories that don't portray the Council in anything other than a glittering light.

So where has the campaign gotten to, after what's coming up for 5 months? Er, precisely nowhere. Only 300 people have signed their petition, which is now quite hard to find on their website so here it is again, and the problems that seem to prevent the paper even being delivered to some readers appear to carry on.

It's not as if there aren't stories to report on - at the time of writing 2,388 of you have read this story alone on the murder of Jaabe Roberts on Askew Road.  We need much more independent journalism, and a lot less propaganda masquerading as "news" and calling itself "H&F News" - and which has been condemned by even fellow Conservative MPs as unacceptable.

So a question for the Chronicle - where has your campaign gone?!

2 comments:

  1. I've had the Chronicle through my door in Askew area. I've also seen the Chronicle online, mostly through links on Twitter. I just ignore the H&F News, but I do read the Chronicle when it comes.
    Thanks for flagging up the petition. I guess before the elections, there was more reason to put pressure on the council with this kind of campaign. Now that they're over, it's back to business as usual. Erecting vast new town halls, printing propaganda, beating up carers.

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  2. Perhaps the Chronicle think they won?

    See Coalition agreement, page 12, top right corner "We will impose tougher rules to stop unfair competition by local authority newspapers."

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