In the industrial heart of Darlington, where Cummins engines rumble and sweat meets steel, the local press should be the loudest voice for truth and accountability. But instead, the Northern Echo reads like a corporate cheerleader’s newsletter.
Year after year, Cummins lines the pockets of local media with sponsored features and glossy adverts. They’re not just a headline — they’re the headline. The BusinessIQ awards? Sponsored by Cummins. Glowing “community partnership” stories? Cummins’ name is stitched into every one.
Yet, dig beneath the surface and you find an unsettling silence. No hard questions. No scrutiny. No unvarnished truth. Just a well-oiled PR machine that keeps the real stories — the workplace struggles, the environmental fines, the ongoing accountability gaps — carefully hidden behind a corporate curtain.
When money talks, local journalism listens — or stays quiet. The Northern Echo’s pages offer no critique, no challenge, just a steady drip of sponsored praise that’s more ad than news. The watchdog has become a lapdog.
For those on the factory floor, for the community watching silently, the absence of critical reporting is a glaring omission. Accountability isn’t for the annual awards or the marketing brochures — it’s for the real world, the everyday people bearing the cost.
Cummins’ grip on the local narrative is tighter than you think. And until that grip loosens, the true story stays muffled in the hum of engines and the echo of silence.
Lee Thompson
Founder – The Cummins Accountability Project