The media should know that trying to conceal the fact will not make it go away.

The belief that if you ignore something it is either not happening or will soon go away is a dangerous and futile exercise.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that the media and television are intent on concealing the level of attendance at the public rallies for each of the candidates in the Labour Party leadership contest.
This is in marked contrast to the reporting of last years contest, when the cameras were all too keen on photographing queue's of people clamouring to attend Jeremy Corbyn's meetings and even climbing through windows to get in when the halls were full, as was invariably the case. No doubt much of the coverage then was more about novelty value than any actual interest because the media and television considered that Corbyn would not win and that the public interest in the man would soon wear off. Perhaps they even had their headlines prepared pouring scorn on Jeremy Corbyn's challenge and the "misguided" public interest in his meetings. How wrong they were and how stunned they must have been when Corbyn swept into office on the first ballot, with 60% of the votes.

Corbyn in Leeds

Owen in Salford

Corbyn in Salford

Owen in Hull

Corbyn in Hull

Owen in Salford

Less than 12 months later, they are determined not to make the same miscalculation again.The media and television have almost completely ignored the public rallies and only the Social Media have carried any reports on the numbers attending Owen Smith and Jeremy Corbyn rallies. Perhaps the disparity in numbers seen thus far almost vindicates the silence of the mainstream media who would not be too keen to report how the support for Corbyn has if anything, increased from last year and how their preferred candidate Owen Smith, has been left speaking to just a few dozen supporters or perhaps just curious people, forming the audience.
What the media would have even greater difficulty in explaining or putting a spin on the noticeable absence of any of the Parliamentary Labour Party "Big Guns" Kinnock, Benn, Umnna, Cooper, Hunt, Watson and the others, at any of the Owen Smith rallies offering their support and endorsement of "their candidate". It was after all these plotters who hatched this coup in the first place, triggering this leadership election distraction. It seems that they can find no one from the 172 conspirators with enough backbone to stand with Smith and justify their actions and promote Smith as an alternative leader.

As this leadership contest will be a long drawn out process, perhaps they are waiting for the Jeremy Corbyn campaign to falter before they throw their wight behind the challenger. They may have to wait a very long time and during this period of self imposed absence, their already tarnished mantle of credibility, collapses to dust around them. No one will ever trust them again.