Plaid Cymru's Caerphilly victory overshadowed by UK broadcasters' obsession with Reform UK and Labour

Whose fault was that, Plaid has a journalist for a leader, pull your socks up Plaid, the ones with Plaid stitched in. (not stitched up)

There is something really sinister with the way the media just report the filth spouted by these deformed lot. There is no indepth look at how deranged these guys are. I saw it with my own eyes when they reported on the Nathan Gill pleading guilty episode. One minute in a 30 minutes news tv program. Shame on you BBC Wales.

This was pretty clear prior to and post result "analysis". It skews the reality.

Yet more evidence that Wales needs its own nationwide media and needs to stop relying on English news outlets.

Do you see how the press enable a bloke that wrecked the UK.

People still voted tactfully in Caerphilly regardless of how much attention Reform received from the media. Hopefully, it will be similar nationwide in May next year. There are many people out there that simply detest Reform and will do their utmost to keep them out of power, particularly the younger generation.

The BBC in particular have acted as enablers rather than educators concerning Reform. Newsnight, Politics Live and Question Time all regularly feature either Farage, Tice or Yusef. They are being led by the nose by polling in England, rather than any substantial policies that would deserve space for discussion on their airwaves.

And this is exactly why broadcasting should be devolved ... and exactly why the unionist parties oppose that.

It is quite possible this bias was simply because journalists have never bothered to learn much about Plaid, its policies, priorities, leadership and gradual change in Wales from being a creature of the Welsh-speaking agricultural areas to being a genuine party of the entire nation. Journos are by and large lazy beasts and if they can bang together an article (always against deadlines, remember) from the clippings library of what they know, they will always do this in preference to doing research into what they don't know. If this leads to stereotyped news coverage, it is hardly surprising.

BBC heavily into misdirection all focussed on Labour, Reform, Tories and a bit of LibDem chucked in for variety. Well, let them carry on. With media attention elsewhere Plaid and others interested in a distinct Welsh agenda should ramp up their effort out in these new 16 constituencies that will make for interesting street fighting. Reformers fed on a diet of Daily Mail etc and BBC News will still vote Reform but our job is to agitate interest among those who don't share their Greater England dreams and get them out to vote. Only 50% voted at Caerffili and it was hailed as success. Just think what something over 70% would do to the twitchy crew at Westminster.

I suppose it’s only natural for UK wide media to focus on Uk wide ramifications. But looking at the point of how the emphasis of the reporting reforms loss as such, overshadowed the Plaid victory, then you can see as much of that on this website as anywhere else. For instance the headline of the first opinion piece here following the result didn’t lead with ‘plaids victory’ but rather ‘Reforms defeat’ and then in the article proceeded to mention reform 3 times more often than Plaid. The following day a second piece began ‘reforms humbling’. Today there is one titled ‘peak Farage’. I’m aware of course that none of these are pro reform pieces but clearly there is as much, possibly more, about reform losing as Plaid winning.

It's almost as if it's nothing more than well controlled propaganda designed specifically to influence a particular outcome.......

Broadcasters are at fault. The media has become a megaphone for Reform UK. Even before Farage was elected to Westminster as a MP or Reform had a handful of councilors in England were always prioritised on Question Time and other political discussion shows. And when Plaid Cymru won recently the Caerphilly by-election the media were obsessed with Labour losing and Reform coming second not the actually victor Plaid Cymru's Lindsay Whittle who defeated Reform's Llyr Powell whilst ousting Labour after dominating Caerphilly for the past 100 years. We just have to accept that the established media have no interest in Wales or care about reporting news anymore. Just look at their bias regarding the Middle East conflict. What Plaid needs to do is to continue with its positive campaign and let the others fight among themselves. Labour & Conservatives are finished in Wales so no threat. But I am looking forward to the Senedd election debates where the light of scrutiny will reveal Nigel Farage and Reform for what they truly are. A one man single policy wrecking ball party who want to remove our voice , abolish our Senedd Cymru , and return Wales back to being a vassal sweatshop state to be used and abused by the English/British establishment which they have always been part of.

As much as I agree with the devolution of Broadcasting and am concentrating about a lack of Welsh media input in comparison to Scotland for example: conventional media platforms are dying off. How many people still read newspapers or watch the 6pm news compared to 20 years ago? The future is the internet and social media (YouTube, X, Tik Tok, Facebook etc). This is where Welsh based platforms need to look towards.

The reality is Reform totally dominates "X" Every single negative vibe raised regarding Wales has a 1000 voices which erupt in unison They have their own TV channel GB News Permanant fixtures on Question Time Whittle had zero social media profile but connected at street level Nation Cymru literally the only one to telegraph the backlash against Reform The feature on Ukrainians Torfaen is the big battle field with Reform confident of hoovering up 2+seats The Senedd could well be dictated by "Llanyarfon " man a much needed win for Reform May the backlash continue in earnest

It's because the English centric media is obsessed with Westminster and treats devolved administrations with barely concealed contempt. The story they wanted Caerphilly voters to write was not the story that transpired. That has upset the narrative that Westminster based parties know best because working class Welsh people need to know our place at the bottom of the rung.