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THE PAPERS’ WAR
Julian Petley is the Chair of the CPBF National Council
Julian Petley on the battle in the English PressMuch of the reporting in the British press of September 11 and its aftermath did a good deal to restore faith in British journalism. Most papers reported the events, both in words and pictures, with a breadth and depth that, in recent years, have been all too often conspicuously lacking from their shrinking foreign affairs coverage. Meanwhile, papers such as the Mirror, Guardian and Independent further distinguished themselves by carrying an extremely wide range of views on the bombing and the resultant 'war on terrorism' - views which were frequently, but by no means wholly, critical of the latter and especially of the British government's role in it.
Unfortunately, as press coverage of the James Bulger case all too clearly proved, there are no events too horrible to save them from being dragged by certain papers into their unceasing campaign against viewpoints - namely liberal ones - which have the temerity to differ from their own. Thus the inclusion by the Guardian and Independent in their comment pages of the occasional views which were critical of American foreign policy and sought to explain why Americans are so hated in certain parts of the world rapidly became the occasion for a tirade of abuse from the Murdoch press, the Mail and Telegraph against what Richard Littlejohn in the Sun summed up as the 'anti-American propaganda of the fascist Left press' and 'vile, racist, seditious rubbish'. Nor was it long before the attack was broadened to include another familiar hate object for certain papers - the public service broadcasters. Thus the Sun complained that 'the broadcast media - led by the BBC - have happily given hours of airtime to those who misguidedly feel they have a duty to undermine the war effort'. The papers' strictures presumably excluded its proprietor Rupert Murdoch's own Sky News channel, and had nothing to do with the fact that, as the owner of BSkyB, Murdoch is engaged in bitter rivalry with the terrestrial broadcasters.
So, whilst George Bush was busy declaring 'war on terrorism', sections of the British press declared war on each other and on the broadcasters. Nor could it be entirely coincidental that those most forthright in their denunciations of others for their criticisms of US foreign policy and of the closeness of the US/UK relationship were, in fact, North American owned. Thus in the Daily Telegraph (prop. Hollinger International) Charles Moore established his 'useful idiots' beach-head from which he could regularly open fire on deserters exhibiting what he called 'western defeatism' and his columnist Janet Daley perceived as 'intellectual decadence'. Elsewhere in the same paper Robert Harris set about the enemy within in the shape of the Guardian's new Comment editor, Seamus Milne, whom he termed 'a Stalinist Rip van Winkle', whilst in The Times Michael Gove evoked echoes of earlier conflicts in his attacks on the 'Guardianistas' and the 'Prada-Meinhof gang'. This, of course, was just the kind of campaign which Andrew Neil loved to launch at the Sunday Times, so it was hardly surprising to find him using the (British-owned) Sunday Business in order to turn the flame-thrower on the 'apologists for terror who dominate the opinion pages of the hard-left Guardian, henceforth better known as the Daily Terrorist'. Meanwhile the Sun alleged that the 'anti-American, anti-Tony Blair press' had 'pumped out anti-war propaganda as if they were the handmaidens of Osama bin Laden'.
However, the most savage and bloody battle in this particular campaign was not between tabloid and broadsheet, nor liberal and populist, newspapers, but between the country's two leading red-top tabloids: the Mirror and Sun. Right from September 11 onwards the Mirror appeared to have undergone nothing less than a Damascene conversion and to have re-discovered the values that tabloid journalism stood for before 'tabloid' became a dirty word, namely the ability to put across complex matters in a direct, readily comprehensible but yet unpatronising fashion, and a refusal to kow-tow to the 'official' line, even in difficult times, without simply lapsing into loudmouthed and loutish populism. Indeed, in a move which few in journalism ever expected to witness, it even re-hired John Pilger to comment on the war! All this was just too much for the Sun, whose front page headlines during this time of international crisis included 'Queen Has Rubber Duck in Bath', 'Phil Quits Eastenders' and 'Elton Fancies Girls'. Eventually, on 14 November, its pent-up fury exploded over two pages headed 'Shame of The Traitors', much of which was taken up by a vitriolic attack on its rival, which it accused of being so 'blinded by an illogical hatred of the United States' that it 'went into peacenik overdrive' and filled its pages with 'disgusting, obscene and treacherous rubbish'. And, just for good measure, on 16 November, a Sun editorial branded the Mirror 'corrupt, disgraced, morally bankrupt and spivvy'.
Unsurprisingly, the Mirror responded in kind, denouncing 'one of the most outrageously idiotic editorials ever published in a national newspaper' as 'mad, twisted and stupid' and 'an astonishingly bigoted rant'. Standard tabloid knock-about stuff, perhaps, but, much more importantly, the Mirror also utilised its lengthy editorial on 15 November to highlight the key journalistic principle at the heart of this row, arguing that what Sun editor David Yelland failed to understand is that 'the whole point of this war on terror is to preserve the very freedoms we enjoy, including the fundamental freedom of speech. Nor does he seem to understand the role of a newspaper. If a newspaper can't question the actions and policies of governments, it ceases to be a newspaper. If it cannot propose alternative ideas and views, it ceases to be a newspaper. If it doesn't respect the right of others to express beliefs it doesn't agree with, then it ceases to be a newspaper. If it just pathetically toes the government line on things as serious as war, it ceases to be a newspaper'.
Fine words indeed. However, the acid test for the Mirror, and for all other newspapers which appeared to have rediscovered their journalistic souls in the aftermath of 11 September (and which were rewarded for doing so by initial upturns in their circulation figures) is, quite simply this: will their new-found commitment to the values befitting the Fourth Estate survive the end of the current military action against Afghanistan, let alone of the rather more nebulous 'war on terrorism'?
Last modified: Thursday, December 6, 2001
Previous war reporting stories
28 November: Open meeting - Coverage of the (War) Crisis
War in Afghanistan - BBC Editorial Policy Guidelines
Free Press special issue - War in Afghanistan
1 November - NUJ meeting
4th November - Caryl Churchill's 'Far Away', plus Kika Markham reading from Tony Kushner's 'Homebody/Kabul'.
October 23 - MWAW rally at the BBC
How Carter and Brzezinski helped start the Afghan mess
ARROW calls for anti-war vigils on 11 November
US TV networks fall in line and salute
Media Workers Against the War
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Notices
Events & Announcements
World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
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.
DATELINE: 27/4/13
UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
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).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
CPBF Annual General Meeting
DATELINE: 1/3/13
Make a note in your diary
Saturday 13 July 2013 from 10.00am
NUJ HQ, 308/312 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1.
Leveson, media ownership, CPBF future work.
DOWNLOAD FREEPRESS NOW
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Download Freepress in PDF, ePub or mobi format. Issue 194 now available.
MEDIA FOR ALL CONFERENCE
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Papers from the Media for All Conference
MEDIA MANIFESTO
DATELINE: 26/3/10
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
War Reporting
28 November: Open meeting - Coverage of the (War) Crisis
War in Afghanistan - BBC Editorial Policy Guidelines
Free Press special issue - War in Afghanistan
1 November - NUJ meeting
4th November - Caryl Churchill's 'Far Away', plus Kika Markham reading from Tony Kushner's 'Homebody/Kabul'.
October 23 - MWAW rally at the BBC
How Carter and Brzezinski helped start the Afghan mess
ARROW calls for anti-war vigils on 11 November
US TV networks fall in line and salute
Media Workers Against the War
