Misreporting By Mr Skinner

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26511, 28 August 1951, Page 6

Misreporting By Mr Skinner

It is sometimes assumed that when a politician makes a plain statement he knows what he is talking about? Any such assumption about a repiy given to a question by the DeputyLeader of the Labour Party (Mr Skinner) at his Lyttelton meeting last week would be wrong. Asked why the public was not told that ships were sometimes idle because the shipping companies were not employing casual labour, Mr Skinner said: “The newspapers have i“not told you. We are getting no “ co-operation from the newspapers. I "It looks as if they are behind the "shipowners”. Perhaps Mr Skinner is not to be blamed for not knowing that considerable newspaper publicity had been given to this matter at the only port concerning the questioner—Lyttelton. More particularly, Mr Skinner might not be blamed for not knowing that "The Press” had printed two news items about the situation at Lyttelton, one of them under the following headings: “Labour Short “at Lyttelton; Goods Accumulate “on Wharves; Casual Workers not “ Engaged ”, Mr Skinner might also not be blamed for not knowing that “The Press” had printed a leading article on the subject headed “ Port “Delays”; or that an increase in the number of men on the port register was later reported. But Mr Skinner can be justly blamed for his readiness to make an accusation without knowing the facts and without pausing to find out the facts. In his eagerness to get some sci-ap of evidence to jvatify an unsubstantiated suggestion that the newspapers were “ behind ” the shipping companies he jumped to a conclusion that suited him. As for “co-operation” (with the Labour Party presumably), the

function of “The Press” is to report fairly and at reasonable length the speeches of Parliamentary candidates. It does this with rather more regard for the facts than Mr Skinner showed in his reference at Lyttelton to the newspapers.