IN A NUTSHELL:
It was always debatable to what extent press bias reflected or shaped public opinion; in the digitised age, press influence is easy to dismiss, but the near-uniformity of anti-Labour flak and the close links between the Tory campaign and press angles (e.g., the vicious attacks on Miliband), to the extent of the Telegraph promoting 'stories' about letters it helped to generate, and the Sun offering to pay for pro-Tory stories, was undeniably a factor. The press brutalised the party (Labour) that dared to propose tougher press regulation; the Tories policy to leave it as it is, with IPSO. Political leaders will remain wary of picking fights with the press. Also, it certainly wasn't Twitter wot won it!
In the1992 general election it was the Sun “wot won it” for John Major’s Conservatives. In 2015 such hubristic declarations seemed to hark from a different era, dating back to a time before the advent of social media and rolling news curbed the influence of the rightwing press. ...
