Jon Snow attacks tabloids' general election coverage

Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow has today said that the tabloid press had a "poor election", devoting pages of coverage to the leaders' TV debates but ignoring the results and claiming their favoured candidates won. Snow also said Gordon Brown's bid for re-election suffered because he has lost the sight in one eye. Snow told an audience of media executives in London that the primacy of TV news was apparent during the general election campaign, which was dominated by the UK's first ever televised leaders' debates. "It was a TV [election]. There were three [leaders'] debates and the lifeblood was drained from the rest of the campaign," he said, speaking at a Westminster Media Forum seminar on the future of news media. He derided the tabloid press for its election coverage. "What a poor election the tabloids had. There was nothing to report," Snow said. He said they had been forced to devote pages of coverage to the debates but had then ignored the results by insisting their favoured candidates had won. "What did they do? They told their [readers] they were wrong!" Snow added. Other seminal events during the campaign, including Brown's exchange with Gillian Duffy, were also TV moments, according to Snow. He said the idea that putting "ridiculously poor quality snippets online ... will sate interest in politics is the way of madness". Snow said he believed Brown's chances of re-election had been hampered by his appearance and disability: "The camera is very, very bad at handling people with one eye — that's not an unkind thing to say, its an honest thing to say," he said. "The camera either loves you or it doesn't and it has never loved Gordon Brown. It never managed to come to terms with the way Gordon Brown looked," Snow added. "I think there's a real danger the way you look is becoming a pretty important element of politics — which is a great pity." Snow said the internet will "augment" television news but will never replace it. He added that internet giants including Google and YouTube are either unwilling or unable to match the professionalism of broadcasters. "New media is more dependent on what we do now than it was ten years ago. Google did not put the helicopter above Downing Street when [Gordon Brown's] car departed for the palace," he added. "Its all about content, content, content and people forget that at their peril ... It's no good thinking citizen journalists are going to tip out on to Downing Street and give us HD pictures of Mr Brown leaving Downing Street," Snow said. He added that "tablets of stone" had given way to parchment and parchment was replaced by paper. But radio did not make newspapers obsolete and television will not be replaced by the internet. Snow said there will be a "fusion" of old and new media and broadcasters would eventually work out how to "monetise" the internet. Channel 4 News audiences were down by around 13% but that an increasing number of people are watching online, he added. "We're most of us nearly bankrupt but we're not yet dead", Snow said. But he insisted "journalism is on a roll" and that TV news will survive and thrive because of its "sheer excellence ... The fact it is so much better than anything a citizen can do". • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. • If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".