By a margin of more than two to one, the British public believes the legacy media’s muted coverage of the United Kingdom’s grooming gangs scandal was due to political correctness. Over 43 percent of respondents to a poll by Friderichs Advisory Partners and J.L. Partners agree that “the media did not cover the grooming scandal because of political correctness,” with only 18 percent disagreeing. This consensus extends across all societal groups, including Labour and “BAME” (Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic) voters.
Trust in traditional media to cover the grooming gangs scandal, which involved gangs of mostly Pakistani-heritage Muslim men abusing thousands of mostly white working-class girls, is alarmingly low. Britain’s de facto state broadcaster, the BBC, only garners a “great deal” of trust from 14 percent of respondents, with nearly half (48 percent) expressing little to no trust. Newspapers fare even worse, with just eight percent having “a great deal” of trust and 58 percent distrusting them to varying degrees.
