The national media’s coverage of the Day of Rage protests could be well off the mark after reports emerged that there are likely to be more “press than protesters” at the event.
Media outlets have reacted with rage this morning accusing the far left of “hijacking” the grief of Grenfell Tower victims.
The Daily Express cited concerns that the UK’s emergency services are already “overstretched and exhausted” in its coverage.
It also ran a quote from Tory MEP Daniel Hannan who wrote: “Something our overstretched police don’t need right now: a bunch of revolutionary Leftist tossers rampaging through London. #DayOfRage”
According to The Mirror “thousands of protesters” are set to descend on Westminster to disrupt the Queen’s Speech.
But as LBC’s James O’Brien today pointed out this could yet again amount to little more than mainstream media hyperbole.
Just 400 people have confirmed that they will be attending the protest on Facebook, with fewer than 1,000 registered as “interested”.
The event has widely been tipped as been out to “close London down”, but with 0.005 per cent of Londoners signed up to take part that seems a little far fetched.
Coverage of it is more likely to be an attempt to smear the left over a non-event.
As Tim Mandelsohn tweeted earlier, the only people tweeting about it are the right-wing press. Go figure!
so this is the #dayofrage the entire right wing press is so angry about it. it’s a protest with under 400 people attending. pic.twitter.com/4WZFZZgDqu
— Tom Mendelsohn (@Tom_Mendelsohn) June 21, 2017