WHY ISN’T THE MESSAGE GETTING OUT THERE?

Paywalls, the BBC, social media, and politicians

BBC broadcast, Economics Editor, prior to vote. © BBC

A Brexit Facts4EU.Org opinion piece

On Wednesday we wrote an article about the efforts that are being made across the board to promote a smart World Trade Brexit on 29 March.

We’re talking about Brexit – leaving the EU – with some side agreements between the UK and the EU to keep things running as smoothly as possible while longer term arrangements are made. Not ‘hard Brexit’, or ‘hardline Brexit’, or ‘extreme Brexit’. Just Brexit. Leaving the EU.

The simple fact is that the messages that most of you would like communicated more generally to the public just aren’t getting through. Or they’re not getting through well enough.

Why is this?

Paywalls

Not everyone has paid subscriptions to the online versions of the Telegraph, Times, Sunday Times, Spectator, Financial Times and other media outlets, to be able to read articles. A small proportion of the public have one or two perhaps. Most do not. Some people buy the printed editions of newspapers. Most do not.

Nevertheless, on an almost daily basis we are asked by pro-Brexit MPs to promote stories in these media outlets. MPs have free access to these. The majority of the public do not. It is rare that we’re asked by an MP to promote an article in the Sun or the Guardian, which are free for everyone to read online. The Sun is still the largest-selling newspaper in the UK.

Nothing we have ever published has been submitted to a media outlet which requires people to pay to see it. And we continue to publish daily, as we have for the last three years, with these articles being ‘free to view’. The only articles you’ll see from us in the press are in papers which don’t require subscriptions to read them.

The BBC

Alleged bias of the BBC has been a feature since its earliest days. It was regularly attacked from the left or the right. Mostly it got things about right overall.

Now – let’s face it – it has become a joke. Not only has it been demonstrably pro-EU since well before the Referendum, with the facts showing an obscene preponderance of Remainers on its political shows, but so many of its presenters now look and sound like something out of children’s television.

The BBC still has a journalist and presenter who knows what he’s doing. He has attacked left and right, pro- and anti-Brexit, with equal force and with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the facts. Unfortunately his last main TV show – This Week – will cease in the summer because Andrew Neil is stepping down.

The legendary Andrew Neil

We don’t blame him. Relegated to a time so late in the schedules that even we have to watch him the next day, Neil has clearly had enough.

Specialist sites

There are many specialist websites providing free information, of which we are one. Many of these sites are excellent and we know that some of our readers visit them daily.

That’s fine if you’re a Brexit or politics buff but let’s be honest, neither we nor these other specialist sites reach the majority of the public.

We counteract that by using our extensive contacts in other Brexit organisations, getting them to promote our research more widely. Some of this makes it into the public domain.

Anti-Social Media

Not everyone uses Twitter or Facebook. We have to, but you don’t. We know from our daily postbag that a great number of you are happy accessing websites like ours, but you’re not inclined to sign up to services online.

The simple fact is that ALL methods have to be used to ensure that the public have access to good information. We therefore post on Twitter and - more recently - on Facebook. This involves a huge amount of extra work but we do it in the cause of Brexit.

We are about to launch another paid social media campaign. This means that our posts on Twitter and Facebook will be promoted to millions of people. See our next article for details, and how you can help.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Sunday 10 Mar 2019

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