{"id":366235,"date":"2026-07-31T16:00:42","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T15:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/why-undercover-footage-exposing-lobbyists-raises-concerns-for-journalism-explainer\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T16:00:42","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T15:00:42","slug":"why-undercover-footage-exposing-lobbyists-raises-concerns-for-journalism-explainer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/why-undercover-footage-exposing-lobbyists-raises-concerns-for-journalism-explainer\/","title":{"rendered":"Why undercover footage exposing lobbyists raises concerns for journalism | Explainer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i4.ytimg.com\/vi\/CrLN6vbqzjE\/hqdefault.jpg\" alt=\"Why undercover footage exposing lobbyists raises concerns for journalism | Explainer\"><br \/> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CrLN6vbqzjE\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p>A Guardian investigation has revealed that a political lobbying firm, founded by the former electoral strategist for David Cameron and Boris Johnson, secretly pays journalists to write pieces for British newspapers that are favourable to its clients.<br \/>\nSubscribe to Guardian News on YouTube \u25ba https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/guardianwires?sub_confirmation=1<\/p>\n<p>In a practice that appears to create a back door for private companies to influence public opinion, lobbyists for CT Group, which was co-founded by the campaign strategist Lynton Crosby, told an undercover reporter they had paid journalists to place apparently independent stories in newspapers.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, CT Group said: &#8216;We do not comment publicly on work we do for clients and we therefore cannot respond to the specific allegations you have made.&#8217; CT Group said the events had been &#8216;deliberately mischaracterised&#8217; and it did not engage the undercover journalist to do anything and did not pay him anything. It said the journalist was looking for work and &#8216;chased us relentlessly over a period of more than six months&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Lobbying giant filmed offering reporter payment for flattering client coverage in national press \u25ba https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/2026\/jul\/22\/david-cameron-firm-adviser-pays-journalists-favourable-pieces-boris-johnson<\/p>\n<p>The Guardian publishes independent journalism, made possible by supporters. Contribute to The Guardian today \u25ba https:\/\/support.theguardian.com\/<\/p>\n<p>Sign up to the Guardian&#8217;s free new daily newsletter, First Edition \u25ba http:\/\/theguardian.com\/first-edition<\/p>\n<p>Website \u25ba https:\/\/www.theguardian.com<br \/>\nFacebook \u25bahttps:\/\/www.facebook.com\/theguardian<br \/>\nInstagram \u25ba https:\/\/instagram.com\/guardian<br \/>\nBluesky \u25ba https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/theguardian.com<\/p>\n<p>The Guardian on YouTube:<br \/>\nThe Guardian \u25ba https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@theguardian<br \/>\nGuardian Australia \u25ba https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@guardianaustralia<br \/>\nFootball Weekly \u25ba https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@footballweeklypodcast<br \/>\nToday in Focus \u25ba www.youtube.com\/@todayinfocuspodcast<br \/>\nStateside \u25ba www.youtube.com\/@statesidepodcast<br \/>\nPolitics Weekly \u25ba https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@politicsweekly<br \/>\nScience Weekly \u25ba https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@scienceweeklypod<br \/>\nGuardian Football \u25ba https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@guardianfootball<br \/>\nGuardian Sport \u25ba https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@guardiansport<br \/>\nIt&#8217;s Complicated \u25ba https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@itscomplicated<br \/>\nGuardian Live \u25ba https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@guardianlive<\/p>\n<p>#lobbying #journalism #uk #undercover #davidcameron #borisjohnson #lyntoncrosby #explained<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Guardian investigation has revealed that a political lobbying firm, founded by the former electoral strategist for David Cameron and Boris Johnson, secretly pays journalists to write pieces for British newspapers that are favourable to its clients. Subscribe to Guardian News on YouTube \u25ba https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/guardianwires?sub_confirmation=1 In a practice that appears to create a back door [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":366236,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[128995],"tags":[],"actors":[],"class_list":["post-366235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guardian-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Why undercover footage exposing lobbyists raises concerns for journalism | Explainer | News ISC Videos<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Watch Why undercover footage exposing lobbyists raises concerns for journalism | Explainer for free, here on News ISC. 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