Too Much of a Good Thing? Television in the 1997 Election Campaign

For all the significance of its sensational result, it is hard to remember an election in which both the political campaign and its coverage on television were so severely criticised. Most press commentators agreed that this was a 'dispiriting' campaign, dominated by slogans, evasions and negative yah-boo politics.1 It seemed to offer evidence of the socalled 'dumbing down' of British public life, and television stood accused of contributing to or at best conniving at this dismal process.2 Turnout was the lowest since the war while audiences complained of too much politics on television. Tony Blair also blamed television, detecting a 'conspiracy against understanding' to set against BBC Director-General John Birt's 'mission to explain'.3