It’s genuinely good to see the Sun attacking Labour and supporting the Tories, and to see Lord Mandelson today complaining about bias is risible. However, I don’t want to be churlish ... but ... some aspects of this relationship make me uneasy. I know that many of you are going to roll your eyeballs, but hear me out. Just because the Sun is bad for Labour, doesn’t mean it’s entirely good for us. Here’s why:
First, let’s be realistic. The strategy of the Murdoch media is to find a man on the up (Blair, Cameron, etc), build him up further and destroy his opponents, in order to ride the zeitgeist and maximise its relationship with those in power, for the benefit of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. There’s nothing wrong or illegal in this, and I don’t share the Guardian readers’ views that Murdoch as the devil incarnate - in many ways he is an impressive man - but he extracts a price, and we don’t yet know what it is.
Second, the Sun’s change of heart changes nothing fundamental. It’s playing catch-up. The Sun’s position, unlike with Mrs T in the 1970s and 80s, is neither radical nor brave. They are following their readers, not leading them – which partly explains the OTT abuse of PM Brown. Third, there’s another reason for the OTT attacks; tabloid power is waining. The Sun needs to maximise its impact on the coming election for political and ad revenue purposes. If the Sun ain’t the story, it’ll hit its bottom line. Hence the reason to dump Brown the day after his speech – all’s fair in love and war (and advertising revenue). The same could yet happen to us. Both the above mean that the Sun has lost a lot of its clout. It’s not as important as it once was.
Next, Jonathan made the point earlier this week, but to watch a man being destroyed by a newspaper is an unpleasant abuse of power. Some may watch with glee, but I remember the 1990s when John Major was destroyed by The Sun, with the resulting landslide keeping Labour in power for three parliaments: to the massive detriment of Great Britain. In the process, we were repeatedly lied to over tax, sleaze, immigration, the size of Government, intelligence evidence was doctored to give us casus belli for war in Iraq, etc. The Sun became a PR machine for PM Blair, a shallow and vain individual who presided over one of the most dishonest and discreditable Governments in a century, and who was kept in power thanks to a booming economy, a compliant media (BBC and others as well as the Sun) and an unsucccessful opposition. The Sun’s conversation now is great, but I wish, for the sake of good government, the country and our future, that it had done its job of scrutinizing Government a bit better when we, the people, needed it.
Anyway, the courting has been successful, the Sun has jumped into bed with us. Not only that, but so keen is she to show us fidelity that she’s publically slagging off her former lover in a way that any slapper out on a Friday night would be proud of, and encouraging us to political biff Brown at the next available opportunity (“hit him Dave, hit him!”).
I hope those around David Cameron keep this relationship on their terms. Frankly, I wonder. It is not in anyone’s long-term interests, not even David C’s, for the Sun to became some hysterical cheerleader for us, only to turn when it believes its interests are best served by others. The Sun has proved rather better at manipulating politicians than politicians have of getting their way with her – especially young, professional politicians dependent in part on the media for credibility. Like any brassy, charming but ultimately selfish lover, the Sun will quickly cotton on to our Achilles’ heels.
Labour’s policy at the last election was win the media, smeer your opponents and lie. I work on the basis that Conservatives should and need to be better, and that relying on Bid Media to fight our battles is old school politics (just as this website is an example of new school politics).
It would be wonderful if one day a Government-in-waiting could win an election without owing favours to anyone, not least Big Media. Sadly, that’s probably a naive pipedream. In the meantime we’ll just have to hope The Sun doesn’t hog the duvet.
