Nick Clegg has caught out the media too - Best articles: Britain

Nick Clegg has caught out the media too
The Tory and Labour leaders aren't die only ones disconcerted by
the sudden rise of the Lib Dems, says David Yeliand. It has also
caught most of the British press off guard. For years, British
newspapers have deliberately ignored the third party on the
assumption that it will never wield power. I should know because
I edited The Sun for five years, during which time I never once
met a Lib Dem leader. The party wasn't actually banned from
Rupert Murdoch's papers, yet it might as well have been for all
the attention it got. We used to send a team of five reporters, plus
assorted senior staff, to Labour and Tory conferences, but we
didn't send anyone to Lib Dem ones "for fear of encouraging
them". Indeed, the links between the two main parties and the
press have become so close that the two sides are almost
"indistinguishable". But this cosy arrangement is under threat
now that the election has suddenly turned into a three-horse race.
If the Lib Dems were to win, or secure the balance of power,
Murdoch and the rest of the media elite would be left floundering.