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The media demonisation of Jeremy Corbyn — the evidence: an interview with Nicholas Jones
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Richard House (RH): Many readers will remember you well from the 1980s when you were in the front line of reporting on the miners’ strike for the BBC and your famous interviews with Arthur Scargill and National Coal Board chairman Ian MacGregor. Can you say something about that period and the extent to which you were aware of anti-left media bias then?
Nicholas Jones (NJ): Throughout the big industrial disputes of the 1980s Margaret Thatcher had the unwavering support of most newspapers.
Press proprietors were in full support of the steps being taken by the Conservative government to tighten industrial and employment law and curb trade union power.
Union leaders of the day, such as Alan Fisher (National Union of Public Employees), Joe Wade (National Graphical Association), Ray Buckton (Aslef) and especially Arthur Scargill (NUM), were vilified, as was almost the entire labour and trade union movement.
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