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Brooks at Leveson: an insight into how the Sun exploited the political endorsement of the Murdoch press
Nicholas Jones
DATELINE: 13/5/12
Having been disadvantaged so often by the ability of the Murdoch press to deliver politically-inspired exclusives, I found Rebekah Brooks' testimony to the Leveson Inquiry a telling confirmation of what I and most other journalists had always suspected: the Sun and the News of the World had no scruples when it came to exploiting the privileged access which their editors enjoyed in return for the political endorsement of their papers.
Unless a Prime Minister or relevant minister was prepared to comply and give their backing to the latest editorial campaign, the story line could just as easily be turned against the government of the day. But surprisingly often – despite Rebekah Brooks' denial that threats were ever made – the Sun and the News of the World succeeded in gaining precisely the ministerial support they were seeking.
Brooks was challenged repeatedly (11.5.2012) over the role she played behind the scenes in gaining government backing for a succession of campaigning initiatives – from the "Sarah's law" campaign to identify paedophiles, to the sacking of Sharon Shoesmith over the "Baby P" affair and finally David Cameron's decision to order the Metropolitan Police to re-open the files on the missing youngster Madeleine McCann.
Although the inquiry's counsel Robert Jay QC failed to question Brooks on the impact of these manufactured story lines on the behaviour of the rest of the news media, she perhaps inadvertently gave the clearest possible exposition of why both Labour and Conservative spin doctors have always been so keen to adopt a policy of divide and rule when dealing with journalists.
My first experience of the ease with which the Sun (and also then the Sunday Times) could by-pass the official Whitehall machine and obtain access and information denied to other journalists was during the industrial disputes of the 1980s.
Margaret Thatcher and Rupert Murdoch had the shared mission of defeating the British trade union movement, an objective laid out so clearly at their hitherto secret lunch at Chequers in February 1981. Time and again, especially during the 1984-5 miners' strike, the Sun and the Sunday Times exploited their preferential access to ministers to obtain exclusive stories denied to other labour and industrial correspondents.
Providing equal access to all journalists is an anathema to a spin doctor: it gets in the way of trading planted stories with favoured news outlets. If in return a minister has occasionally to give his or her backing to the latest story-line being manufactured at Wapping that is a considered a small price to pay.
In the words of Alastair Campbell "divide and rule" is the only tactic to adopt; as long as he maintained the confidence of key journalists on some of the most influential newspapers, he believed the rest of the pack would have little alternative but to follow in the wake of the exclusives which he was releasing.
As deputy editor and then editor of the News of the World and then of the Sun Brooks he had become friendly with the former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair. His advisers and press secretaries were "a constant presence in my life for many years" and she agreed they had made sure that was the case; New Labour had embraced the media a different way and that had opened up new opportunities for journalists to gain access.
She agreed with Robert Jay that in return for the Sun's endorsement of Blair in three general elections, the paper had obtained scoops. " I would like to think we were the first to get scoops...it was down to Trevor Kavanagh and Tom Newton Dunn (political editors)." Jay: "They were fed to you?" Brooks: "Not all of them, no...Trevor Kavanagh and I had some good sources."
Jay inquired about the Sun's exclusive after the 2005 general election when Gordon Brown's hopes of becoming Prime Minister appeared to have been dashed because Blair had confided to the Sun that he would after all lead Labour for a full five more years and might fight a fourth general election. After Brooks refused to reveal Kavanagh's sources, Jay asked: "Was it Blair himself who planted this story in the Sun?" Brooks: "I cannot tell you that at all."
Brooks mounted a strong defence of publication in the News of the World of the names and photographs of known paedophiles as part of the paper's campaign in support of "Sarah's law" which she launched as editor in 2000 and which was continued by her successor Andy Coulson.
Despite being pressed by both Jay and Lord Justice Leveson to justify a sensationalised campaign which led to reprisals, the all-important follow-up questions were missed: How was it that News of the World managed to secure endorsement for "Sarah's law" from successive Labour Home Secretaries including Dr John Reid and Jacqui Smith and the Justice Secretary Jack Straw?
Jay did explore Brooks' behind-the-scenes role as editor of the Sun in calling for action over the death of "Baby P" and its successful campaign in 2008 for the dismissal of Sharon Shoesmith, Haringey's director of children's services. Brooks denied telling Ed Balls, then Children's Secretary, to get rid of Shoesmith or the "Sun would turn on him." But the editorial line was clear in calling for her dismissal and Brooks agreed that Balls was "under no illusion that was the point of the telephone call." The campaign attracted 1.4 million signatures and Shoesmith was sacked after twenty-six days.
Again Jay missed follow-up questions which were crying out to be asked: What prior discussions had there been with David Cameron who launched the Sun's campaign for Shoesmith's dismissal with a signed article and who became the only party leader to endorse calls for her sacking? What liaison had there been with Andy Coulson ,then the Conservative Party's director of communications, and who had worked with her on the "Sarah's Law campaign?
Brooks revealed that as editor of the Sun she had been "instrumental" in starting the process that led the paper to abandon its support for the then Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown at the 2009 Labour Party conference. She started having discussions in June 2009 with Rupert and James Murdoch about the paper's political realignment in case there was a snap general election.
But the announcement resulted from a collective decision taken in September after further discussions with Sun's new editor Dominic Mohan and political commentator Trevor Kavanah and political editor Tom Newton Dunn. "Yes I was instrumental in that...but it was a collective view...that we would distance ourselves from the Labour Party." Although Jay discussed with Brooks the advance warning which James Murdoch gave to David Cameron that the switch would be made in September, she was not asked whether Coulson had played a role behind the scenes.
Brooks denied that as chief executive of News International she had spoken to either the Prime Minister David Cameron or the Home Secretary Theresa May during the Sun's campaign in November 2011 to persuade the government to order a review into the disappearance of the youngster Madeleine McCann.
Jay asked if she had requested the Prime Minister's intervention because the "Sun had supported him at the general election?" Had she gone further and warned Cameron that unless No.10 ordered a review, the "Sun would put the Home Secretary on the front page every day until the Sun's demands were met?"
Brooks: "No, I didn't say to the Prime Minister that I will put the Home Secretary on the front page...I know Dominic Mohan or Tom Newton Dunn will have spoken directly to the Home Office."
Lord Justice Leveson: "Were you part of a strategy that involved your paper putting pressure on the government with this sort of implied or expressed threat?"
Brooks: "I was part of a strategy to launch a campaign to get a review for the McCanns...but threat is too strong...We were trying to persuade them."
Jay: "The government yielded to your pressure?"
Brooks: "Perhaps convinced by our argument."Whatever the true of nature of the "pressure" that was used by the fifth day of the serialisation of Kate McCann's book Madeleine, the Sun achieved the result it desired and the front page trumpeted the paper's success: "PM: I've reopened Maddie files." (Sun, 13.5.2011) David Cameron's letter to the McCanns was reproduced on an inside page alongside a signed article from Theresa May saying that she "welcomed the Sun's role in making sure that her case is not forgotten."
During her day long testimony to the Leveson Inquiry, Rebekah Brooks' denials often flew in the face of what had in fact been published by the Sun and the News of the World. But given her evidence of how easily governments were encouraged to help write the headlines of the day for the Murdoch press, future ministers should take heed.
Colluding with one media group at the expense of their competitors – and failing to provide equal access for all journalists – is the start of a slippery slope that can end in a degree of collusion that has stained British journalism as well as British politics.
12.5.2012
ends
Last modified: Sunday, May 13, 2012
Your comments:
Do you honestly believe the McCann's phones weren't hacked? The biggest selling story in decades and they weren't hacked??? Do me favour, I'm not that simple. Rebekah Wade/Kemp/Brookes knows EVERYTHING. And has done since day 1. How else do the Murdoch's papers get away with what they do? Blackmail. That's how. We've seen enough evidence at Leveson. Off with their heads!.
Posted by: Kat'spyjamas: 14 May, 2012 11:22:00
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World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
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The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
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This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
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The media’s job is to inform and entertain us but we rely on them too to tell us what our rulers and representatives are up to. In the run-up to the Iraq war the government used spin and disinformation in the media to create panic and mislead people. The truth is coming out now, but we need stronger, more independent media to be able to scrutinise governments and make informed choices.
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Previous stories
Leveson Inquiry
Coulson at Leveson: a former spin doctor's master class in closing down unhelpful questions
It's not just about Murdoch - the whole system needs fixing
New Podcast: post Murdoch where is Leveson Inquiry going?
After Leveson… What future for the media?
NUJ responds to Murdoch's evidence at the Leveson Inquiry
Leveson Inquiry: Rupert Murdoch off the hook over alleged illegal payments to public officials
Leveson Inquiry shock news: Rupert Murdoch says his political influence was just 'a myth'
Now we come to the dark heart of this strange affair
Leveson Inquiry: Rupert Murdoch and son to appear
Money talks: no wonder so many rival journalists were beaten by the Sun's exclusive stories
If the Sun hates attacks on press freedom, how must it despise itself!
Jeremy Hunt calls for regulation of press content free of political interference...but no promise that politicians will refrain from meddling in media ownership
Iraq War: "Implacable support" of Murdoch press a key factor for Blair
Women's groups - Leveson must back ban on sexualized images in media
Ofcom and BSkyB bid: We should have looked at News Corporation's political influence
Leveson Inquiry: PCC chief says appetite for fresh start
Chilling effect on BBC journalism of licence freeze: a warning to Leveson Inquiry
Co-ordinating Committee for Media Reform call for change
BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten rebukes David Cameron
Opinion: "Leveson: reasons to be wary of press promises"
Cameron's links with the Murdoch press: only superficial probing at Leveson
Press Freedom: a democratic rubric
Leveson Inquiry edges closer to Cameron
James Murdoch 'shown damning email'
Rupert Murdoch met David Cameron at Downing Street twice during BSkyB bid
The Leveson Inquiry: Should We Care?
Leveson Inquiry kicks off but ministers could still act
Ditch the PCC: CPBF backs inquiry into the ethics and culture of the press
