- By Christopher Landau
"[The "liberal media"] love to be denounced from the right, and the right loves to denounce them, because that makes them look like courageous defenders of freedom and independence while, in fact, they are imposing all of the presuppositions of the propaganda system." - Noam Chomsky
On the 25th of March 2010, former Russian KGB agent and Billionaire Oligarch Alexander Lebedev bought The Independent and Independent on Sunday newspapers for the princely sum of £1 sterling. The deal was all but inevitable after the Office of Fair Trading declared no further interest in pursuing an investigation into the possible ‘competition issues’ arising from Mr Lebedev’s simultaneous ownership of another British newspaper, The Evening Standard.
What Lebedev’s ownership means for The Independent remains to be seen, but it got me thinking. What should we expect of this kind of corporate media takeover in 2010? As I was unable to find any actual journalists writing about this issue during all the election coverage, I decided to do a little research and try to find some recent historical precedents that might give us a better idea of what to expect from the takeover of the Indy. Ideally I wanted to find another independently funded, widely distributed paper which hitherto to a private takeover had produced high quality fact-based reporting and was considered seriously as an important educator and voice for the people.
What I found was a paper that matched all of my criteria: The Mirror circa 1984. I came across a number of articles and an excellent documentary on the The Mirror's takeover by the notorious business tycoon Robert Maxwell. Maxwell, who incidentally worked with my father very briefly during the eighties and died in mysterious circumstances on his boat, some years after running The Mirror deep into a hole. What the documentary depicts is really the sorry state of the British press today and the anti democratic relationship between our politicians and our journalists. Somthing that is all too relevant looking at the 24hr election coverage which we are forced to endure for the next few weeks.
In June 1988, former editor of The Mirror Sir Hugh Cudlipp, spoke at a memorial service for his late friend and Mirror colleague Sydney Jacobson. The venue at St Bride’s church was packed to the rafters with the journalistic elite of Fleet Street, a testament to Jacobson who had been a highly respected reporter. It must have come as quite a shock to many of those gathered there that day, when Cudlipp used the occasion to describe in visceral and emotive terms the threat to the free press as he saw it in 1988.
An extract from Cudlipp’s speech is featured at the end of the documentary I found: "Breaking the Mirror: The Murdoch effect". Written and presented by journalistic ubermensch John Pilger - one of my personal heroes. I couldn’t find any written transcripts of the memorial speech so I transcribed it from the film:
“In one particular sense, Sydney Jacobson was fortunate to retire from the Fleet Street scene in 1974. It was the dawn of the Dark Age of Tabloid journalism. The decades still with us, when the proprietors and editors, not all but most; decided that playing a continued role in public enlightenment was no longer any business of the popular press. Information about foreign affairs was relegated to three-inch yapping editorials insulting foreigners. It was the age when investigative journalism in the public interest shed its integrity, and became intrusive journalism for the prurient. When nothing, however personal was any longer secret or sacred and the basic human right to privacy was banished in the interests of publishing profit. When significant national and international events were nudged aside by a panting, seven-day and seven-night news service for voyeurs, on the one-night stand’s of pop stars and teenage delinquents. Some of these foolish things are worthy of mention in the popular press, but now its overkill.”
The rest of the documentary (which is posted at the bottom of the page) is very much still relevant today. It shows some of the most anti-democratic changes enacted under both the Tory and Labour governments in bed with the Media and especially Murdoch over the last few decades. Illustrating how after thirty years of ever-increasing hegemony in our media landscape, the mainstream news continues to depoliticise and subdue us into the desired state of non-critical apathy. A state which corrodes the very qualities in all of us most needed to address issues of social change.
An example of the 'apathy machine' in action which the film explores, is the sexualisation of news - now so ubiquitous as to almost seem cliché. We all expect soft-core porn with our ‘news’ in England right? ‘That how it’s always been!’ Wrong. Pilger’s documentary sheds light on just how recent and rapid the period of decline in the British press has been. Focusing on The Mirror primarily; but also on The Sun and the effects stil felt to this day, after Murdoch's alliance with Thatcher in the seventies; an alliance that helped break the Unions and arguably British journalistic standards. The film also shows the extraordinary relationship Murdoch maintained with the British government under Thatcher, which was then reconfirmed and strengthened by Tony Blair and New Labour.
However it is my personal opinion that the flaws we might be able to percieve in the British news media today, are but a prelude to something much worse if the Conservative party is allowed to regain the majority this May. Thats not to say that the cozy relationship Labour has fostered with the captains of Media industry is not similiarly dangerous and anti democratic. But arguably the Conservatives have always seemed more natural bedfellows for Murdoch than New Labour ever were. It seems fair to say that The Sun and the Torys always had more values shared in common. E.g Targeting the working class and trying to pull them to the right.
But perhaps it is time we ruled out both parties completely if we want to see a new relationship forged with the media. It seems a pretty good bet that as none of the newspapers have a meaningful relationship with Nick Clegg going into this election, the Lib Dems might have an opportunity the other parties do not to enact media reform. It is frustrating to see that now Murdoch has switched his allegiance and his treasure to support David Cameron, an actual opportunity for Labour progressives to seriously tackle reform and anti-trust legislation is both revealed and negated. No longer fearing the awesome 'thwak' of the Murdoch or Labour party whip would have gone a long way to help the emergence of a less one sided relationship between our government and the press.
On the other hand, if Cameron does get in; I predict a new crack down on the increasingly panicked and vunerable BBC. Which might of course merely signal the the beginning, of a new wave of massive Thatcherite style deregulation - just at the time when we need the opposite. Thus pushing us incrementally ever closer towards that fetid screeching ideological clusterfuck known as U.S corporate news.
The fact is though, because almost all the papers decided months ago that Cameron was inevitably going to win this election, they are now invested in his victory in the most undemocratic fashion. They have gone after Gordon Brown in such a deeply personal way that until last week they were certain he was as good as shot.
Just imagining all those prospective Tory M.P’s - all gelled hair, thirty somethings with a degree in political science, fresh faced and donning an ill-fitting suit or two and so eager to enact their long held dreams of unleashing Thatcherism 2.0 on us all. ‘The age of Austerity’ was what Cameron called his vision of Britain for the future. Anybody that understands the history of the Conservative party understands which sections of society that austerity would be forced upon. So what about the third alternative?
David Yelland of the Guardian writes in an article today: "Make no mistake, if the Liberal Democrats actually won the election – or held the balance of power – it would be the first time in decades that Murdoch was locked out of British politics. In so many ways, a vote for the Lib Dems is a vote against Murdoch and the media elite." Well I like the sound of that, and to think it only took one leaders debate (and the entire country going to shit) to crack open the two party political system. Whether or not the Lib Dems can actually hope to win the majority of seats in this election of course, very much remains to be seen.
I will leave you with this notorious description of the 'ideal' media system, as described by Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels. We would still do well to heed his words, as long as we recognise them as the antithesis to all our striving. “What you need [in a media system] is ostensible diversity, that masks actual uniformity”. You have been warned. C
John Pilger - Breaking the Mirror (The Murdoch Effect)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5005752483917353600#
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