Who were the media winners and losers in the 2019 General Election campaign? Who stood out and which programmes bombed? There were some poor moments. Channel 4 News was forced to apologise

live on air for having claimed that Boris Johnson referred to “people of colour,” coming into the country, when he clearly said, “people of talent”. It was a low point. Perhaps the worst

interview was Andrew Marr’s attack job on the Prime Minister. Marr was stung by the controversy around the interview that never happened: Andrew Neil’s interview with the Prime Minister.

Marr is usually a good interviewer and he couldn’t have liked the implication that he was a soft touch compared to Neil. What followed was a fiasco. Marr was rude, aggressive, and

get a word in edgeways. Earlier in the programme, Marr had interrupted Baroness Chakrabarti twice in eleven minutes. “Empty chairing” was the most annoying new trend. James Cleverly, the

Conservative chairman, was double booked and so couldn’t turn up for his interview on Kay Burley’s new morning show. Burley claimed that he had backed out of the interview and she empty

chaired him. Johnson and Farage were represented by ice statues in a Channel 4 debate on the environment. Most controversially, Andrew Neil empty chaired Johnson at the end of a three-minute

piece to camera attacking the Prime Minister for not agreeing to be interviewed. Neil presented this as an affront to democracy, which was curious since Johnson had been interviewed by Marr

and had already agreed to be interviewed on Sky News by Sophy Ridge. Does Neil think Marr and Ridge weren’t up to the job? He’s not said. On Radio 4’s Today programme, interviewers like

Mishal Husain and Nick Robinson tended to interrupt government ministers more often than Labour or Lib Dem MPs and were more aggressive and dismissive in their tone. A classic example was

Robinson’s interview with the Justice Minister. The contrast with Martha Kearney’s soft interview with Labour’s shadow health secretary was remarkable. The BBC, in particular, has come under

attack for bias. For decades their defence has been, “If we’re criticised by Left and Right we must be doing something right.” This doesn’t follow. For example, the failure of the BBC to

give due coverage of allegations of Labour anti-Semitism is a major problem. Then there are the guests they invite. The Daily Politics and Newsnight have frequently invited speakers from the

far left, especially Novara Media (Ash Sarkar, Aaron Bastani, Grace Blakeley, Holly Rigby among them) and _Guardian_ columnists like Owen Jones and Dawn Foster. None of these

writer/activists represents the Labour Party, never mind more centrist opinion. Just as serious was the biased BBC coverage on Monday and Tuesday of the story about the four-year-old at a

Leeds hospital. Laura Kuenssberg referred to “onlookers jeering” at Matt Hancock when the crowd was made up of Labour activists; Norman Smith, also of the BBC, spoke of how the Ashworth

tapes were leaked to “the far-right website, Guido Fawkes”. But there have been impressive highlights. Andrew Neil’s interviews throughout the campaign have been superb. He has been by far

the best TV interviewer: impartial, in command of his facts, taking no prisoners. He set a new standard for political interviewing. Emma Barnett on Woman’s Hour and her own show on Five Live

was also superb. Her interview with Jo Swinson stood out — it exposed Swinson’s weakness on crucial issues. But the biggest winner of all was neither on television or radio. Facebook and

Twitter have changed media coverage. They are usually quicker to break news stories (eg Guido Fawkes and the Ashworth tapes) and offer radio and TV clips allowing their audience to judge for

themselves. Best of all, they provide a broader agenda than traditional media, both in terms of topics, but also in terms of voices. How often do you hear historians or other academics on

the BBC or Sky News? If you would rather hear from Tim Garton Ash or AC Grayling than Novara Media you can. You could see scathing attacks on Labour by Maureen Lipman or on Johnson by Ben

Elton. If the mainstream media didn’t cover a demonstration against Labour anti-Semitism on Parliament Square, Twitter would. Traditional media are falling behind. Too slow, too biased, too

middlebrow. Election coverage will never be the same again.