Minor Mistakes and Little White Lies

So, the News International flagellation continues unabated. There's no sign that their competitors or politicians want to focus on other media organisations that we know have been at least equally guilty of using dubious information gathering methods, so it's not going to move on any time soon. But I note that the anti-News International lobby have a new bit of spin.

It's a cunning line, based on the reported words of Rupert Murdoch in the Wall Street Journal earlier this week. Murdoch, referring to News Corp's handling of the crisis since it broke, said they'd handled it well with only and few "minor mistakes". I've now seen this has been reinterpreted by some (BBC reporters and Labour politicians, including John Prescott, so far) as meaning the accusations against the News of the World (such as the accessing of Milly Downler's voicemails) were minor mistakes. Clever. There will be many that may disagree that News Corp have handled the crisis well with only a few minor mistakes, but no one would agree that the accusations regarding the accessing of innocent private individuals' voicemails, including victims of crime, are minor mistakes. Indeed, it's a line that, had he actually said it, would add to the public outrage and focus it more sharply on Rupert Murdoch himself. Which is, of course, their agenda.

After Gordon Brown's dodgy claims regarding The Sun this week we can see that the, mostly politically motivated, anti-News International campaign is resorting to lies and smears to progress it's agenda. It may seem like natural justice for the press, and I wouldn't be too bothered, if it wasn't for the fact that all this energy is being focused on one organisation, mostly because it upset a political party when it turned it's back on them. The worry is the wider problem in the press generally won't be addressed. What we need is the same tenacious focus on The Mirror, People, Mail etc. No one seriously suggests they've not been using similar methods as the News of the World. It will be interesting to see if Labour MPs maintain the same level of passion and indignation and the BBC continue wall to wall news coverage, when the story moves on to the non-News International papers and, God forbid, Labour papers like the Mirror and People.

Spinning Tears

There has been a lot written about whether or not the interview with Gordon Brown (due for broadcast on Sunday) is an electioneering stunt or not. Few doubt his tears are genuine over the loss of his new born baby, 8 years ago but the timing of the interview, so close to the general election, raised eyebrows.

Now, call me naive, but when I first heard about the interview, and the weeping, I didn't think it was an overtly political move. Sure, they were attempting to show Brown's human side, but it seemed too cynical to suggest this was blatent electioneering.

However, the subsequent heavy leaking, last weekend, of the details of the interview, focusing primarily on his emotional responses, makes it look more like a spin operation. It looked like they wanted an early blast of coverage followed by a second, after the broadcast.

My expectation, therefore, was that we'd hear nothing more until after the broadcast this Sunday. But no...

Enter arch-spin meister, Alastair Campbell on Andrew Marr's show last Sunday. That performance ensured continued discussion throughout the week about not just Campbell's "tears" (I didn't actually see any) but Brown's, and general discussions about men showing emotion in public etc. All very attractive coverage for a party that has already identified the female vote as a potential growth area for them. Personally, I think it was a mistake. Most of the women I know were turned off by what they saw as Campbell's insincere emotional acting. But you can see how Labour spin doctors are thinking. They'll be hoping Brown's weeping will be more heart rending for being genuine and about an undeniably tragic event.

So, after all this I'm starting to get cynical. But really, would Mr Brown really stoop so low as to use this personal tragedy for political advantage? I still couldn't believe that. I despise the man for how he's run (and ruined) this country, bullied and lied his way through government etc. But this? No. It can't be.

But today I notice that, despite having comprehensively covered the same details last weekend, the BBC is now plugging the story again, two days prior to the broadcast and adding nothing significant to what was spun to them a week before.

This smacks of further spinning by Labour and acquiescence by the BBC. This goes for any other channel that covers this story so needlessly today or tomorrow. I note the BBC website had the story up as the main headline in their political section. Is a rehashing of week old news really the most important political story today?

It's not as if this is even self publicity for a BBC programme as the interview will be going out on ITV.

It is still shocking just how easily manipulated our media is by this government.




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