Red Robbo journalism

Some commentators believe that Britain’s journalists are as powerful – and sometimes as dangerous – as the ‘Red Robbo’ union barons of the 1960s and ‘70s.

During the 1970s Derek Robinson, nicknamed ‘Red Robbo’, was blamed for much of the industrial action that blighted British Leyland. Throughout that decade much of British industry was made uncompetitive by militant trade unionism.

Martin Kettle, a Guardian leader writer, is worried that many journalists are becoming today’s Red Robbos. Comparing the union barons of the 1960s to today’s press barons, Kettle noted “a parallel belief that the law has no place in their affairs; a parallel conviction that self regulation is all that is required; a parallel belief that government action in this field is malevolent; a parallel contempt for public opinion; and a parallel cadre of barons who do not accept that anyone else has rights to set against their own.”

FT journalist John Lloyd agrees that Britain’s fourth estate is guilty of a stealthy coup d’etat. Writing for The Observer, Lloyd says that many politicians also agree. But they’re too frightened to voice their concerns “because of several different kinds of fear”. Lloyd identifies these fears as: “fear of loss of media support (no interviews, no endorsements); fear of exposure (what have they got on me?); and fear of a hostile campaign.”

One politician has voiced his concerns, however. Notably, it is a politician whose ‘front-and-centre’ days are behind him. Former Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd has complained that Britain is “becoming a nation of strong journalists and weak politicians”.

The bad behaviour of strong journalists

And the strong journalists, Lord Hurd worries, do not use their position well:

• They over-interpret - whipping up minor incidents into crises – like the unseemly row between Ken Livingstone and an Evening Standard reporter. Livingstone made some unfortunate remarks after a party. But an unfortunate incident became a global drama as the Chief Rabbi and world newspapers picked up the case. London’s Olympic bid was said to be in jeopardy.
• Red Robbo journalists are always playing the blame game. After Princess Diana’s death, newspapers demanded that the Queen display the same kind of sentimental remorse that they had deemed appropriate. During the Asian tsunami tragedy they quickly descended into fussing over whether Tony Blair should or should not have stayed on holiday. Was this really the main issue when 200,000 people had just died? The trouble with demanding scalps everyday on every matter is that no-one listens when a resignation call is really justified.
• There is no consistency in their coverage. The same newspapers that denounce over-regulation are the first to demand government action against every passing ‘outrage’.
• There is a lot of error in reporting. Occasionally journalists are caught out big time. In America, bloggers are exposing the inaccuracies of the old, mainstream media. Within Britain, Piers Morgan’s faked prisoner abuse photographs cost him the editorship of The Mirror. Lord Hutton found the BBC had erred in suggesting that the Prime Minister had knowingly lied about going to war with Iraq. Most of the time the press aren’t held to account, however. Most people who know something about a story that appears in the press will say it contains inaccuracies, half-truths or lacks context. Newspaper diaries – and their trade in tittle-tattle – are often the worst offenders.

The weakness of politicians

Nonetheless, many politicians are in thrall to the media. Government ministers often make their announcements to the media before they make a statement to parliament. Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s spinmeister, was thought to be much more powerful than anyone in the New Labour Cabinet, bar Blair and Brown. Tony Blair and Michael Howard fly half-way around the world to speak to Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp. One of Michael Howard’s first acts as Tory leader was a lunch with Richard Desmond, proprietor of Express newspapers. Tony Blair met Piers Morgan on a regular basis when the latter edited The Mirror.

Interviewed by Steve Richards on Radio 4’s Week in Westminster programme, Lord Hurd admitted that the Major governments constantly ran scared of the press. He recounts how Prime Minister Major often complained about newspaper stories. John Major once rang him at 7am to complain about a front page story in The Daily Express. Nearly all of such newspaper stories would be forgotten and become the wrapping for the next day’s fish’n’chips, - if politicians put the stories into proper perspective. But insofar as politicians are knocked off course by such stories, they can have a lasting effect.

Comments

[Mike]

Hi Toby,This global news map has ineded driven a lot of online conversations last week. It is a good reality check that shows how much is left to do with environmental issues.If not on your reading list already, I highly recommend you to have a look at this , which explores human responses to environmental issues and the issues behind the state of news coverage of climate change. A MUST read.Enjoy, and, as always, thanks for the interesting thoughts and posts,Perrine

[Trevion]

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