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MP highlights 'care' in reporting Cumbrian shootings

An MP has praised three regional newspapers for the ‘care and diligence’ with which they reported on the Cumbrian shootings.

Copeland MP Jamie Reed, whose constituency includes Whitehaven, highlighted the way the tragedy was reported by regional media in a speech in Parliament.

He singled out the Whitehaven News, Carlisle daily the News & Star and the North West Evening Mail for praise in a Westminster Hall debate on the Cumbrian shootings.

But Mr Reed was critical of the way certain sections of the media reported the massacre, saying some journalists had written ‘dreadfully inaccurate copy’ and caused distress and anger in the community.

He said: “The media local to the tragedy – the Whitehaven News, the News & Star, the North West Evening Mail, Border television, BBC Radio Cumbria and Look North – reported the tragedy with a care and diligence entirely different from that of the national media.

“That is because they are rooted in the area and care about the people about whom they are reporting. They understand the power of their roles and the effects of carrying them out in particular ways.

“The Whitehaven News was particularly impressive, as just one week before, it had reported the tragic deaths of Kieran Goulding and Chloe Walker, constituents who were killed in the Keswick bus crash.

“Like the News & Star, the Whitehaven News understands the role that it plays in my community and how it can help the community’s healing process – not the families’ healing process, perhaps, but certainly the community’s.”