Mr. Kavanagh's bovvered...again!

 
The Sun today carries the latest in a series of grenades lobbed by its political columnist Trevor Kavanagh.

Kavanagh begins by explaining the apology given by someone on Twitter who had accused the Sun of falsifying a photo taken at the funeral of Margaret Thatcher. Kavanagh then writes:

It reflects an incessantly watchful Twitter world of grievance-seeking vigilantes eager to take offence. But there are signs that it is now seeping into mainstream British culture, especially those with something to hide.

There then follows a short list of examples Mr. Kavanagh uses to illustrate his point, interspersed with such comments as:

At other times these incidents might be shrugged off as amusing examples of human error. But they point to an increasingly suspicious and judgmental atmosphere (#nb - my emphasis) in which people with no axe to grind are encouraged to take offence on other people’s behalf.

The public? 'Suspicious and judgemental'? Surely not! That's the Sun's and Mr. Kavanagh's job! 
Then:

You might think this information was in the public interest. No, they risk prison for misconduct in a public office in two cases and “perverting the course of justice” in one.
This is the Leveson Effect. It has begun to suffocate the crucial flow of information that distinguishes a free country from a police state.

Which came first, Mr. Kavanagh, the questioning, arrest and sometimes charging of News International journalists for 'perverting the course of justice', 'causing misconduct in a public office' or the incidents you itemise? If the police are ultra-strict now about officers' contacts with journalists, who must bear the blame for that?

Britain set an example to the world by establishing a force which polices by consent. By definition, a wall of secrecy removes that consent.

There now follows a petulant Mr. Kavanagh's railing at the fact that the police no longer tip off his journalists when an arrest is made:

It is now common for suspects — innocent and guilty — to be held in absolute secrecy while their personal lives and careers are in limbo indefinitely.
Dozens of decent journalists who have been left to swing in the wind, uncharged for more than a year, know exactly how this feels.

How frustrating that must be! Trial by tabloid denied an unarrested, presumed innocent suspect! Dreadful....

Chief constables have shut down normal channels and begun reacting with hostility to legitimate inquiries.
The ugly assumption is that journalists with impeccable sources must have obtained information by skulduggery. It is the perfect cop-out.

But completely understandable? 

The Press deserves criticism and has taken it by the bucketload. But this sinister new culture of suspicion benefits those with something to hide — not those with the right to know.

Just as, for many years, the silence of editors, journalists and newspaper owners over the phone-hacking scandal benefitted those with something to hide, Mr. Kavanagh?

Lord Justice Leveson barely concealed his contempt for journalists but naively swallowed Hacked Off’s half-truths and exaggerations and accepted evidence from left-wing mischief-maker Full Fact as gospel.

Lord Justice Leveson showed no contempt for most journalists, just coolness towards those few who had been proven to have lied, cheated and shown contempt towards the Inquiry.

Lord Justice Leveson barely concealed his contempt for journalists but naively swallowed Hacked Off’s half-truths and exaggerations and accepted evidence from left-wing mischief-maker Full Fact as gospel.

His adviser throughout was Sir David Bell, intimately linked with the Media Standards Trust which spawned Hacked Off — and the discredited Bureau of Investigative Journalism which smeared Alistair McAlpine.

These oft-repeated accusatory comments against Full Fact, Media Standards Trust and Hacked Off really are wearing thin indeed and need to be left at the bottom of your ammo box, Mr. Kavanagh!

What a shabby basis for new Press laws, stitched up at 2am in a Hacked Off ambush, which is snuffing out Press freedom and the right of the British public to hold authorities to account.
Even an inventive tabloid hack could not make this one up. (#nb - My emphasis)

Oh, I'm sure any of your 'inventive tabloid hacks' could make this one up, Mr Kavanagh.....

Along similar lines is this article from Melanie Phillips in Mail Online:

The Leveson Lovers and a Compromised Inquiry That's Begun a Chilling Assault on Free Speech - Melanie Phillips - Mail Online

A Death and a Funeral Become Handy Hooks for Mail's prejudices..

When a political leader dies, it's not unusual for the media to feature eulogies, critical examinations of successes or failures and intimate, interesting tales of the life of the figure in question.

Below is a compilation of most of the front pages which appeared on Monday night (with thanks to Nick Sutton at the BBC):

With our mainly right-leaning press, the reporting of Baroness Thatcher's death and impending funeral was never going to be confined to a few dignified articles towards the back of any of our newspapers.

Most have predictably given over front-pages, inside pages and whole pull-out sections to facts and comment with a definite political slant, to be sure, and occasional evidence of a partial rewriting of history, perhaps understandably.

Today's Mirror, (a left-leaning paper), front page questions the cost of Baroness Thatcher's funeral:

But the Daily Mail....

....the Daily Mail has eagerly, nay greedily, seized upon this opportunity to grind what must be the best-honed political axes known in journalistic history!

It has set its attack-troops onto the 'Lefties' and the BBC in equal measure and with real campaigning zeal.

Today's front page cynically depicts one small group of people in demonstrating their disapproval of the former Prime Minister and her policies:

This, with its accompanying article ('penned' by 5 journalists!) is just a sample of the articles which are appearing in the Mail and in Mail Online like bullets out of an automatic rifle.
Another is headed:

Left's chorus of hatred: Champagne in the streets, students union cheers and vile internet taunts

• Glasgow: More than 300 people attended impromptu street party
• London: Over 100 people gathered in Brixton to 'celebrate'
• Facebook campaign to take 'Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead' to number one
• Durham Miners' Association: Her death was a 'great day' for coal miners
• Second most trending topic on Twitter: #nostatefuneral
• NUS National conference reported to have cheered at news of her death

Many of the photographs and articles are designed to point an accusatory finger at those on the left of British politics (or of no particular political persuasion) who, unlike Editor Paul Dacre and the owners of the Mail, do not remember Margaret Thatcher with affection.

Birmingham Council refuses to lower flag to half mast and councillors flounce out of minute's silence as Tony Blair urges Thatcher critics to 'show some respect'

• Union Jack flag still flies high outside Birmingham's Council House
• Tories brand Labour leaders 'petty, mean and vindictive'
• Blair: Urged critics of Thatcherite policies to ‘show some respect’.

The Mail looks forward to the funeral with not a little trepidation (salivation?):

Will the haters try to wreck Maggie's send-off? Police plan massive security operation 'True Blue' for Baroness Thatcher's funeral

One message?

(Full article Here)

As for the oft-battered-by-Dacre BBC, the Mail gleefully shrieks:

Public anger at BBC bias: Viewers hit out at lengthy coverage of poll tax and miners' strike after Baroness Thatcher's death

• Viewers complain bulletins gave too great an emphasis to critics
• Twitter users accuse BBC of 'shameless' bias against the former PM
• One viewer said: 'You name the socialist, they've interviewed them'
• Another said the coverage was 'an absolute Left-wing biased disgrace'

But as David Cridland, writing for the blog Media UK, points out all is not as it seems in the original Daily Mail article.

Further evidence of the Mail's fabrication of evidence against the BBC's coverage of the death of Margaret Thatcher appears in the Media Blog.

With still a week to go before the funeral takes place, one wonders what heights these paroxysms of outrage and indignation from those at the Mail will eventually reach! Spontaneous combustion, perhaps....

Image from the Naked Scientist website

 

Speech, dear reader? - What speech?

Today, some of our tabloids' political journalists and bloggers found a speech by Ed Miliband in Ipswich great fun. Nothing wrong with that at all; except that, especially in Tim Shipman's case, the joke included the ridiculing of several young members of the audience.

Tomorrow, there would probably have been a vitriolic article from Mr Shipman attacking the policies announced in the Labour leader's speech today but for the sudden death of Baroness Thatcher earlier.

If we're really lucky, he may combine a eulogy for Baroness Thatcher with a thorough lambasting of Miliband! Either way, his readers will understand no more of Labour's proposals than they did yesterday.... And you thought newspapers were there to inform!

Tim Shipman, Daily Mail:

(Note the inclusion of the link to an image of the three young people he was ridiculing.)

Tim Gatt ITV:

The 'Harry' in that tweet is Harry 'Height of Sartorial Elegance' Cole, @GuidoFawkes blog, The Sun and Spectator.

Update: An article in tomorrow's Mail by Shipman and John Stevens gives a cursory appraisal of Miliband's speech, preferring to accentuate the idea of a split amongst Labour MPs - a theme being pushed by most of the media.

Never mind - Mail readers may never know the details of the opposition leader's speech but will be grateful that Shipman gleaned so much amusement from the physical appearance of a few young people in the audience.

Further update, 9th April: At least someone was listening..!  From Rafael Behr in the New Statesman.

A Sun Reader's Lament

With abject apologies to the poet John Betjeman, I felt compelled to adapt his poem, 'A Subaltern's Love Song', after reading a tweet from The Sun's political editor yesterday:

  

A Sun Reader's Lament

Mr T. Newton Dunn, Mr T. Newton Dunn,

Furnish'd and burnish'd by R. Murdoch's Sun,

What strenuous efforts you make in a plea

To deny any influence - you with me!

Words dirty, words haughty, oh! weakness of ploy,

To bid us all swallow the murder of joy,

With carefullest carelessness, daily you won,

We are weak from your onslaught, Tom Newton Dunn.

Mr Tom Newton Dunn, Mr Tom Newton Dunn,

How mad I am, sad I am, ashamed that you won,

Despite warm-hearted public, we read in the press,

The 'fury' we feel against those who have less.

The scent of the conifers, sound of the bath,

The view from my bedroom of moss-dappled path,

Struggles with the vision and fine-wrought lie

Of a world observed through Murdoch's Sun's eye.

From the desks of your newsroom there is power to distort,

The reader drawn in by bare breasts and the sport,

While reason lies somnolent, does not question The Sun,

Nor those who dupe wilfully, Mr Tom Newton Dunn. 

~

'They come over here and nick all our houses!' - Really?

Today's Sunday Express takes a break from gloomy weather portents (for once, right this week!) or contradictory reports on the beneficial/harmful effects of statins to return to an old favourite topic - immigrants.

These headlines presage a speech to be given by David Cameron on Monday when he will reassure the nation that no longer will newcomers to our country be able to jump the social housing queue.

The Mail on Sunday also flags up the PM's speech:

But just how much truth is there in the story that immigrants get preferential treatment by councils when housing is allocated?

From what I can find out, not much - if any!

Mythbuster: Immigration - the Real Story - Red Pepper December 2012

More evidence can be found in the links below, although most are from 2009:
Report - Social Housing Allocation and Immigrant Communities - EHRC - 2009
Queue-jumping Immigrants are a Myth, Says Study - Independent June 2009
Housing 'Not Favouring Migrants' - BBC News July 2009
New Immigrants Occupy Just Two Per Cent of Socila Housing - Report - Evening Standard July 2009

The Express and other tabloids have long been exaggerating the impact of the immigrant population on public services housing, jobs and welfare:

A visit to the Full Fact website and a quick search under 'immigrants' takes you to a far more well-informed source of the truth!

The leaders of all three major political parties are vying with each other to appear tough on immigration. This is partly because of the apparent surge in popularity of UKIP who never flinch in their attacks on the EU or immigration.
An example of UKIP's propaganda:

(Image via Political Scrapbook)

That 29 million is more than the combined populations of both countries!

Are our politicians, in their eagerness to impress potential voters by introducing stricter curbs on the rights (or perceived rights) of people wanting to settle in the UK, not in grave danger of merely fuelling false impressions, encouraging ever greater division and hatred?

There are other voices being raised, however:

From today's Observer

Immigration Fears are Being Stoked by Politicians, Says Bishop - Observer

Sticks and stones may hurt my bones, but words ..?

I watched every minute of every day of the Leveson Inquiry into the ethics of the press.

I listened to evidence from politicians, journalists - national and regional - editors, owners of papers, union members and leaders, photographers, representatives of the Police service and Justice systems, people from fact-checking internet sites, celebrities and ordinary men and women from all strata of society.

Some of the testimonies I heard made me angry, sceptical or downright suspicious.

Occasionally, I was very impressed by the obvious honesty and integrity many of the participants showed; at times I was utterly repelled by the arrogance, carelessness and refusal of the few to co-operate with the process.

One group of witnesses reduced me to tears.

This group was made up of people who have always been the subject of tabloid (usually, but not exclusively) articles deliberately written in such a sensationalist way as to appeal to the baser emotions of hatred, contempt or revulsion of their readers.

One particular group of people is supported by Trans Media Watch and their website can be found HERE.

The evidence Trans Media Watch gave at the Leveson Inquiry was for me at once upsetting, moving and compelling - but was barely covered by the press or wider media. This is a transcript of the evidence they gave. 
This submission gives details of many of the articles found in the tabloid press and the terrible impact on people involved.

There is a section in the document which describes the response, or lack of response, of the press regulator, the Press Complaints Commission.

Two days ago, a transgender teacher was found dead in her home. She is reported to have taken her own life. Some details have been reported in the New Statesman.

On December 20th last year, Richard Littlejohn got wind of this story and wrote an article about the teacher in the Mail. The article, after the news of the teacher's death broke today, has been altered to remove reference to the teacher by name. Too late.

The reasons for someone taking their own life are always complicated and I in no way suggest that Mr Littlejohn's words encouraged this woman to end hers, indeed there is no certainty at this stage as to how she died - but to have her private life exposed in that way and held up for public comment and disapproval cannot have helped her at an extraordinarily difficult time.

We have this past week witnessed the unedifying spectacle of the battle raging between elements of the UK national press, desperate to retain free rein to print whatever they like, and those who believe that tighter regulation of the behaviour of the papers is needed.

Is the case of Lucy Meadows further evidence that the recently agreed draft Royal Charter is the answer?

The Leveson Inquiry was not set up solely to deal with the outrageous phone-hacking scandal (phone-hacking is illegal anyway) but also to identify why phone-hacking went unreported, uninvestigated for so long. Lord Justice Leveson's remit also covered the ethics of the press and why the Press Complaints Commission seemed so inept at ensuring the privacy, reputation and human rights of individuals Like Lucy Meadows were kept sacrosanct.

The voices of many so regularly brutally used by certain newspapers and 'journalists' like Littlejohn to sell copies still go unheeded.

The Death of Lucy Meadows - Jack of Kent

Samaritans Website

The Sun is incandescent....

Front page of The Sun, post-George Osborne's budget speech, 21st March

Showing its disapproval of the budget speech delivered today by Chancellor George Osborne, The Sun left its readers in no doubt that they would gain cold comfort from the Treasury for the near future!

Do those same readers, however, understand the barbed comment behind the 'Budget Coverage as Approved by the Ministry of Truth' banner? 

Ostensibly, those words mean that The Sun's details are completely accurate, whereas those watching carefully the behaviour of the papers since the apparently unfavourable Commons vote on Monday on regulation of the press, will be aware of a deeper, more vengeful sentiment.

On the 18th of March, The Sun's readers were treated to a very impressive, but startlingly hyperbolic image and quotation from Winston Churchill:-

The overt warning appeared on the very night when the cross-party group of politicians met in a last-ditch attempt to settle on a system of press regulation. It was accompanied by this article. 

Tomorrow, many of the nationals, except for the Daily Express and the Mail, carry very strong front pages too (they can be seen on the left of this #pressreform page) although none have elicited such shock from many Twitter users as that from The Sun:-

It looks as though all MPs will need to watch their backs from now on.....except perhaps Michael Gove and those few Tory MPs who voted against the Royal Charter!

The Sun Deputy Editor Charged

Geoff Webster, Deputy Editor of The Sun has today been charged with allegedly signing off on payments by journalists at the paper to public officials in exchange for information.

• BBC News - The Sun's Geoff Webster to be Charged Over Payments to Officials
• Deputy Editor of The Sun is Charged With Paying £8 000 to Public Officials...... - Mail Online
• The Sun's Deputy Editor Geoff Webster Charged....... - Independent
• Sun Deputy Editor Charged..... - Guardian
• Sun's Deputy Editor Charged Over Payments to Officials - Telegraph
• Deputy Editor of Murdoch UK Tabloid Charge Over Payments - Reuters 

Whistleblower - new leads for Police

Reports began to surface last night in the media of a surprising development which could make life difficult for Rupert Murdoch and News International, David Cameron in Monday's Commons debate on press regulation and the industry itself.

David Cameron, Rupert Murdoch - image from Guardian

From the Guardian:-

( Full article HERE )

From the Independent:-

( Full article HERE )

This new bombshell landed soon after it became known that, following the arrest and questioning of four serving and former editors at the Sunday Mirror on Friday, a former Daily Mirror Editor, Richard Wallace had been questioned under caution.
From the Guardian:

Richard Wallace and Tina Weaver at Leveson Inquiry - Guardian image

 ( Full article HERE )

Trinity Mirror Asks High Court to Dismiss Alleged Phone-hacking Claims - Guardian
Phone-hacking: First Serving National Newspaper Editor Arrested - Guardian

From the Mail Online:

( Full article HERE )

The Sunday papers will, no doubt, be full of the work of journalists desperate to make their case before the politicians debate and vote for a system of press regulation favourable to them.

Will the papers resort to smears against MPs, hoping to sway their votes?
Will they try to paint Hacked Off as a bunch of underhand, unscrupulous schemers out for revenge?

It will be fascinating to see which strategies they choose in a final push to preserve what they see as 'Press freedom'.....

Tweaking the tails of Mail and Sun has consequences...

Yesterday David Cameron put an abrupt end to cross-party talks to resolve differences over the form press regulation should take after the Leveson Inquiry Report. The decision will now be determined by votes on amendments made in a Parliamentary debate on Monday next, 18th March.

Clegg, Cameron and Milband - image from Daily Express

Cameron's decision has come as a surprise to many who thought that an agreement was close :-

(The Guardian's account of Cameron's press conference very soon after he informed Clegg and Miliband of his decision to abandon the talks can be found HERE)

Over the past few months, since the Leveson Report was published and attention turned to David Cameron who would make the ultimate decision about whether to adopt the recommendations or not, there has been a cacophony of dire warnings about the consequences of bringing in new draconian measures to curb the 'free press'.

The most stentorian, hyperbolic voices raised have been from the right-wing press - both 'quality' and tabloid. Countless articles written, opinions solicited and heard on TV screens - most with dire warnings of what would happen to investigative journalism in particular should Parliament plump for 'state regulation' of the press. ('State regulation' of the press is not on the cards, in any case!)

David Cameron himself has become a target for the more mischievous, some would say unprincipled, journalists who write increasingly dark pieces about 'stalking-horses' and 'leadership bids'. Designed no doubt to rattle the PM and show him in no uncertain way that their support for him and his leadership is dependent on the decision he makes about press regulation!
Boris Johnson Fails to Rule Out Future Leadership Bid - Telegraph
Cameron Dismisses Talk of Theresa May's Leadership Challenge as 'All Rubbish - Mail Online
David Cameron In Peril as Discontent in Tory Ranks Rises - Telegraph
Theresa May Unveils Her Manifesto For Party's Future - The Sun

These 'rumours' and cleverly targeted insinuations have not escaped the notice of the PM himself - from HuffPo:-

Then, following yesterday's sudden withdrawal from talks by Cameron, came this:-

(Full article HERE.)

Today, the Daily Mail has reset its sights and Ed Miliband and Hacked Off are now in its crosshairs:

(Full article HERE.)

A reply from Hacked Off is reproduced HERE by the Inforrm Blog.


Earlier this week, this knocking-copy appeared in the Sun:-

(Full article HERE.)

Past examples of the way newspapers can deliberately smear opponents in an attempt to sway public opinion or influence policy are given here:
News International Have Issued EIGHT Corrections to Stories About Gordon Brown in Just Six Months - Labourlist

It will be fascinating to watch the headlines this weekend - especially in the Sundays!