Jeremy Corbyn’s Suspension, Agenda-Setting, and Alternative Media
How alternative media outlets played a role in the reaction to a political shock
By Declan McDowell-Naylor
Last Thursday, The EHRC (Equalities and Human Rights Commission) published its long-awaited investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party. The investigation found that the party was “responsible for unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination”, and, among other important details, that there had been “serious failings in the Labour Party leadership in addressing antisemitism and an inadequate process for handling antisemitism complaints”.
The political, media, and public reaction to the report is a useful case study in today’s media system in itself. Key announcements and interventions took place throughout the day across a blend of press conferences, radio slots, online news, broadcast debates, and social media posts. In this blog post, I highlight among this wave of reaction the role of alternative media. In doing so, I give an insight into the purpose of our ESRC-funded research project, 'Beyond The MSM'.
Part One: The Report is Published
The report was published at 10am. Immediately afterwards, headlines broke and the routine of ephemeral Twitter commentary began. Central to the situation, as many commentators had long noted, was that the conditions within Labour were poised for a factional conflict.
At 10.36am, Corbyn published a Facebook post, which included a soon to be key statement: “One antisemite is one too many, but the scale of the problem was also dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media”. Not long after, Laura Alvarez posted a tweet in which she she told followers to “BOYCOTT THE POISON MAINSTREAM MEDIA”.
Rallying calls against the mainstream media were a leitmotif of Corbyn’s leadership. According to Gabriel Pogrund and Patrick Maguire’s account, in Left Out, Alvarez was a reader of the The Canary. Moreover, Corbyn himself is on the record saying he reads The Canary. In this regard, Corbyn’s leadership shared in the language of sites like The Canary, Evolve Politics, The Skwawkbox, all of which frequently accuse the ‘MSM’ of bias. As the day wore on, these sites would come out in support in very much the same terms.
At 11am, Keir Starmer delivered his press conference as planned. He was aware of Corbyn’s statement, and when asked about it by reporters, replied that he would “look carefully”. At 12.15pm, Corbyn reiterated his earlier remarks to the broadcasters. Just after 1pm, Labour released a statement explaining that Corbyn had been suspended from the party and that the whip has been removed. Subsequently, the BBC edited its earlier report on the EHRC report, and the suspension quickly became the day’s main story.
Part Two: The Alternative Media’s Reaction
As we wrote back in July, Corbyn-supporting left-wing alternative media sites like The Skwawkbox and The Canary had already began regular criticism of Starmer. Thus, these sites were also poised to set their own agenda, beyond that of the mainstream media Corbyn and Alvarez had already criticised earlier in the day.
As the report was released, The Skwawkbox was the quickest to set the agenda, publishing two posts. One digested the report in support of Corbyn and another providing details that “you won’t hear from the ‘MSM’”. Between them, they were shared over 2,000 times on Facebook in left-wing Facebook groups.
Five minutes after Corbyn’s initial Facebook statement, the alternative media site Double Down News released a video by South African politician Andrew Feinstein, defending Corbyn. This would go to be widest shared Corbyn-related content on Facebook for the entire day, as the graph below shows (full data).
Overall, on Facebook, posts from alternative media outlets (including Leave.EU) made up 8 of the top 50 most shared. As has long been observed, beneath the surface, alternative media content can proliferate on Facebook and in this space compete with professional journalism.
Both The Skwawkbox and The Canary dedicated their day’s coverage to the EHRC report, and in The Canary’s case, solely to Corbyn’s suspension. Four articles were published by The Canary, defending Corbyn or criticising Starmer for the Party’s decision. Evolve Politics posted a single, neutrally-worded article, which was shared over 2,000 times on Facebook. Kerry-anne Mendoza, the Canary’s Editor-at-large, wrote an article in which she stated Starmer had launched a “Stalinist purge of left-wing MPs from the Labour party”. The article was shared over 4,600 times on Facebook. At around 7pm, Novara Media did a live show in which it discussed Corbyn’s suspension.
On Twitter, Mendoza, along with many other alternative media voices, was highly active throughout the day. Mendoza retweeted the Double Down News video, criticised Angela Rayner, referred to Novara Media’s Ash Sarkar and Michael Walker as “careerists”, and in one of the most widely retweeted posts, referred to Corbyn’s suspension as a “witch hunt”. At 4.08pm, Mendoza announced that she would be appearing on Radio 4’s PM.
Elsewhere, Ash Sarkar posted a highly-interacted with tweet, in which she called the EHRC report “measured and thorough” but called Corbyn’s suspension “oil on the fire”. Sarkar’s Novara Media colleague Aaron Bastani sent a series of tweets questioning Corbyn’s suspension, shared content from The Skwawkbox, and debated the contents of Corbyn’s Facebook statement with Patrick Maguire. At 2.55pm, he announced he would be appearing on Sky Papers later that evening.
Part Three: Agenda-setting on PM, Channel 4 News, Sky Papers and Newsnight
As the previous section suggests, a pattern emerged throughout the day in which alternative media contributors, who had been active online throughout the day either defending Corbyn or criticising Starmer, were picked up to contribute to evening broadcast slots to discuss Corbyn’s suspension and the EHRC report. Here, we see a classic set of examples of how a hybrid media system works, as online blurred into broadcast.
Firstly, Kerry-anne Mendoza, appeared on the BBC Radio 4’s PM.
Secondly, Andrew Feinstein appeared on Channel 4 News and was interviewed by Jon Snow.
Thirdly, Aaron Bastani appeared on Sky News, with City A.M's Rachel Cunliffe, to argue against Starmer's decision to suspend Jeremy Corbyn.
Towards the end of the evening, Barnaby Raine, an infrequent contributor to Novara Media, appeared on Newsnight.
Here, we see four separate occasions during prominent broadcast programming in which alternative media contributors had the opportunity to set the agenda to millions of viewers and listeners.
And that is that, The End?
Red Roar, the anti-Corbyn alternative outlet, posted a single elliptical tweet in the moments after Corbyn was suspended:
And that is that, the end.
— The Red Roar (@TheRedRoar) October 29, 2020
Clearly, the site thought the Corbyn project was over. But it also leaves open the question of the future of left-wing alternative media. After all, their rise has been so connected to with Corbyn's.
Kerry-anne Mendoza, posting the PM exchange, declared “It’s likely this will be the last time you hear me on mainstream media”. This suggests her own fate is caught up with Corbyn's. Yet, as we wrote last December, in the wake of the General Election loss, it was premature to predict the end of alt-media, and I argue it would be premature now. Even as Corbyn’s power within Labour has rapidly faded, the conditions which gave rise to alternative media have not - as our project will explore.
