Have you heard about the #JC4PM tour?

Dozens of top-drawer musicians, comedians, poets and people from the political world are coming out to show support for Jeremy Corbyn. People like Billy Bragg, Charlotte Church, Brian Eno, Ken Loach, Mark Steel, Jeremy Hardy, Francesca Martinez, Grace Petrie, Arthur Smith, Sara Pascoe, Lindsey German, John Rees, Mark Serwotka, John McDonnell and Ken Livingstone. It’s supported by Unite the Union and has been promoted by Stop the War, Momentum, The People’s Assembly and Stand up for Labour. It is a shining example of the strength of support behind Jeremy Corbyn.

I won’t be surprised if you haven’t heard of it. It’s something the media don’t think is ‘newsworthy’. Those are the words of some journalists writing for national papers. And I’m not talking about ‘The Sun’ or ‘The Telegraph’. The only media coverage the #JC4PM tour has received was from Andrew Whitaker in the Scotsman.

I believe there are two reasons why the media are not reporting it.

The first reason is that a story about big names supporting Jeremy Corbyn does not fit in with the narrative that he is losing support or is not credible. The range of names backing the Labour leader despite all the media attacks on him undermines the media itself.

The second reason that the tour is not being reported is that the media want it to fail. If it does not receive publicity then it is harder to sell tickets and fill out the venues. Then they could possibly write a negative story about it!

I am writing this blog to alert people to this and also to encourage people to support the first event at the O2 Kentish Town on Thursday. The tour will be moving on to Bristol, Edinburgh, Croydon and Newcastle in February and March. More dates are being organised in May.

To book tickets go to http://www.jc4pmtour.com/