Singing from the Same Broad Sheet? Examining Newspaper Coverage Bias during the 2009 MPs’ Expenses Scandal

Abstract

To see whether UK media coverage during the MPs’ expenses scandal followed partisan newspaper orientations, we analysed reporting from: a set of right-leaning (Daily Mail, The Times and Daily Telegraph) and left-leaning (The Guardian, The Independent) papers; the most widely read daily (The Sun); and a regional newspaper (The Scotsman). We found that, ceteris paribus, MPs received higher levels of coverage across all newspapers if they were on the front bench for one of the three major parties, misappropriated higher sums of money, received more media coverage before the scandal, or were female. However, there were no significant partisan differences between the newspapers under study. Thus, newspapers acted as watchdogs rather than in a partisan fashion during the expenses scandal.