FOREIGN DESK IN DISARRAY?

CRUMBRIA: 13/08/2025: EXCLUSIVE

Irrespective of the horrors in Gaza, it was hard for readers of Carlisle “newspaper”, the Crumbling News, not to come away from the latest edition without feeling that they’d purchased a pro-Palestine special.

The current edition featured no fewer than seven prominent articles on the subject from the front page splash to a full-page feature, a letter, an opinion column, and three demonstration photographs.

It’s rare, if not unheard of, for a local weekly newspaper serving market towns in Cumbria to go full Middle East Bureau.

But rather than a concerted campaign to push a narrative, it was actually nothing of the sort.

It looked more like distant Churnalists slapping stories on pages and not really knowing the head of the pantomime horse from the arse.

Indeed, one powerful quote from local Labour MP Markus Campbell-Savours was deemed so good that it was mentioned in various forms on three different pages.

Readers were also treated to an orchestra of voices backing Labour-run Cumberland Council’s drive for divestment from Israel.

There was just ONE opponent to this boycott. The Conservatives, the second-largest single party on the council.

Their contribution to the divestment ~~debate~~ chorus was confined to just 70 words in an article spanning more than 1,500. Who knows how much the Tories said or sent over to the paper, but that was it in terms of the alternative view.

So much for journalistic balance!

In fact, a tech-minded Chronic reader tells us that he ran the paper’s front page through a news-checking app.

It found:

“The article includes opposing viewpoints, so it’s not one-sided in the strictest sense, but it heavily weights its coverage towards the Council’s pro-divestment position — in space, detail, and emotive impact. That would lead readers of this article to see the issue through only one lens rather than the other.”

What the bias checker did not factor in, of course, is that Crumberland Council counts among its number Lib Dems and Greens. Pro-divestment voices were bound to dominate. With the local Palestine Group quoted extensively in the same article, the app was always going to reach this verdict.

The rest of the paper went as follows:

P2: March for Palestine – single column story.
P2: Terror arrests after protest – lead story.
P84: Full-page feature. Labour MP Julie Minns backs the government plan on recognising a Palestinian state.
P86: Letter: Call to impose arms embargo on Israel

So finally, to the paper’s opinion page on 87.

It’s predictable columnist regularly avoids passing judgment on current Government disasters. However, he shows a remarkable memory for recalling the varied shortcomings of Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak, Donald Trump and Nigel Farage, etc, etc.

(He’s entitled to as a commentator, but the effect is that readers know precisely what position he’s going to take on every subject).

“The trouble is no one seems able to criticise Israel these days without being accused of anti-semitism,” he mithered in a piece headlined ‘We’re losing patience with Israel’.

There was no space, however, on any of the paper’s pages for this little nugget.

Gannett, the US parent company of UK media giant Newsquest, owner of the Crumbling News, has a long-standing relationship with Taboola.

Taboola is a tech company founded in Israel, with huge offices in Israel and run by, er, a former member of the Israeli Defence Force.

Taboola has previously been described by the BBC as “the firm at the forefront of clickbait.” Natural bedfellow for the owners of Scroogequest!

Last year, Newsquest sent £22 million of UK dividends to Gannett, close bosom buddies, with Taboola. The two firms are headquartered in Nu Yawk and have been partners since 2013.

As recently as April, a US Gannett high-up told a corporate press release: “We’re proud to work closely with Taboola and look forward to expanding our relationship further.”

We’re sure Taboola’s whiter than white.

However, for the avoidance of doubt, perhaps Crumbria’s new crop of war correspondents might feel compelled to investigate this delicate financial relationship to reassure us that all is above board.

It would be terrible to have a local paper doing one thing while its parent company is doing another, like an uncoordinated pantomime horse.

A deep dive centrespread must surely be on its way into the next edition!

And will this cause pause for thought for the Labour leadership in Crumbria, which is so urgently keen to boycott the Israel regime? It hands over public money to Newsquest, ergo Gannett, every year.

Nearly £140,000 at the last count.

We warned last week that once you go down the divestment road, where do you stop?