Roy Greenslade: The press will make it difficult for David Cameron to sell a pro-EU vote

Britain’s national newspapers are partisan. They say what they think.

Well, to be honest, several of them scream what they think. And they do it repeatedly. There is never any doubt where they stand on any given subject.

Take the European Union, for instance. Over the past decade, and arguably for far longer, the majority of the press has made it abundantly clear that it does not think much of the EU and its various institutions.

More recently, the EU’s reaction to the Syrian refugee crisis has dominated media coverage, heating up a debate that was already pretty hot and complicating matters still further for Prime Minister David Cameron.

Yesterday, The Daily Telegraph ran a prominent, front-page article headlined: “Voters head for the Brexit”, based on an opinion poll that found 50% of the electorate prepared to vote for pulling out of the EU.

And The Times carried a piece in which it reported that Conservative MPs have conceded that Cameron may not be able to deliver his desired reforms, such as restricting the welfare claims enjoyed by EU migrants.

In company with larger-selling titles, such as the Daily Mail and The Sun, these newspapers have been relentless opponents of the EU.

But has that press hostility been a fair reflection of public opinion or has it stimulated it?

There is a long history to the debate about insidious newspaper influence, with many media academics on one side of the argument and publishers, editors and the majority of journalists lined up on the other.

Evidence one way or the other, as distinct from prejudice, has rarely been forthcoming for obvious reasons. How can anyone prove that people do, or do not do, as newspapers bid?

Then there is the role of broadcasters who are required to be impartial. Given that many people claim to receive their news via TV, it is suggested that this substantial body of non-newspaper readers are enabled to make up their own minds.

Countering that view, however, is the fact that a great many of the items about the EU that feature on the main news bulletins on BBC, ITV and Sky are follow-ups to articles published in newspapers.

This suggests that, at one remove, the negative spin of the original stories is also imparted, even if unconsciously, by TV journalists. Therefore, the anti-EU agenda, while diluted, is evident in what viewers see and hear.