8 years ago
Friday, November 16, 2012
A nuclear bomb that dropped on the press - and the motley crew who seized their chance
Back in June 2007, David Bell and Julia Middleton were given a significant boost in their campaign to neutralise the ‘excessive power’ of Britain’s popular press.
Shortly before leaving office, Tony Blair, whose hatred of large sections of Fleet Street was by now mutual, launched a bitter attack on the ‘feral beast’ press — ironically singling out the high-minded Independent newspaper — and called for tighter media regulation.
Blair ignored the fact that his Government was notorious for spin — the manipulation of the media through dissembling and sometimes downright lying — that had reached its apogee in the Iraq war ‘dodgy dossier’.
His spin-doctor-in-chief, Alastair Campbell, the former red-top journalist and ruthless orchestrator of the media, favoured any paper that gave supportive coverage.
Campbell and Blair were the architects of the baleful New Labour/News International axis.
The Rupert Murdoch-owned Times sometimes seemed to be New Labour’s house organ. Campbell also reportedly dictated favourable headlines and editorials to friendly Sun executives, while ostracising critics such as the Daily Mail and Telegraph.
Our current Prime Minister David Cameron once dubbed himself ‘the heir to Blair’.
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