Let's Stop The Newspaper Hysteria
Peter Watt thinks we may come to regret what we wish for when it comes to newspaper regulation.
13 Feb 2012, 08:30
News International
There is no doubt that something unpleasant has been happening at in many newsrooms for many years now. Stories have come out that have just felt wrong as the levels of intrusion went up. The impact of revelations on family and friends seemed less and less important than the revelation itself. Sex, infidelity, drugs, stars, politicians – all seemed fair game and the greater the combination the greater the story was. And we readers lapped it up, we might pretend now that we didn’t but our dirty secret is that we did. The treatment of the McCann Family was a personal low point for me as the levels of hounding and speculation seemed to have no limits of taste. And yet if I am honest, despite my distaste, I was also hooked on the intrigue, the ins-and-outs. The tragic disappearance of a three year old little girl was in reality all but forgotten as the story unfolded and I consumed the details of the latest twist. I wasn’t alone in my private shame.
The legendary power of the tabloids meant that many lived in fear of being in their investigative spotlight. Whilst on the other hand the fear of not being in their spotlight was almost as bad for those seeking success. Whatever, certain editors had certainly become pretty untouchable and it wasn’t healthy.
And it seemed that as the impact of the 24 hour news cycle and the internet began to impact on newspaper sales faster and faster - standards fell further. The need to corroborate facts played second fiddle to the need to get a scoop. More and more column inches became full of rumour rather than fact and rent-a-quote briefings. I myself was aware of this going on during the ‘cash-for-honours’ and ‘Donorgate’ stories. I was involved in both and was amazed and horrified at the constant drip-drip of pseudo facts that appeared regularly about the progress of the cases. I remember reading on Boxing Day one year that I was to be arrested. And on another separate occasion that I was about to be charged. Neither was true but it was pretty unpleasant at the time.
But I was also aware of the way that politicians used the media. People had their favourite journalists that they would use. Business was conducted over dinner or a late night drink. It meant that the stories could be briefed and others spiked. It was all very cosy. I have no doubt that the same relationship existed with the police, lawyers, agents, military, business, in fact anyone who was or might be a potential source of information. And to be honest I am not sure that this was always particularly problematic, it is the way that news is generated and relationships with the media are both sensible and normal. What isn’t normal is the way that the line of acceptability was pushed.
We now know that many journalists used illegal phone intercepts, hacked emails and bribed people. In short they went too far in trying to get their scoop. I was personally warned in late 2007 to change the pin on my voicemail, so I can only assume that the practice of hacking messages was pretty rife back then. But we also know that it wasn’t just one journalist, one newspaper, or the titles of one owner. And we now know that there were crude attempts to keep all of this under wraps with ‘botched’ police and PCC investigations.
But where exactly does all of this get us? The Leveson enquiry increasingly resembles tax payer funded catharsis for anyone with a grudge. I am really no longer sure what it is all about or for. At the same time politicians seem to have forgotten their hitherto cosy relationship with the media. I don’t think it is just because they are enjoying the post expenses scandal of getting their own back – but I think it helps. It’s as if the lunches, drinks and benefits of journalist’s expense accounts never happened. No, they are all just shocked at the alley-cat morals of the media. Yeah, right!
And meanwhile journalists are being arrested, newspapers closed and circulations are falling. Where does all of this end? With the closure of The Sun? Perhaps The Times? Maybe it involves closing all tabloids, or perhaps when there is no newspaper left nationally? But the danger is that this leads to all investigative journalism being abandoned for fear of the law. Do we really want to be in the situation where journalists are arrested for paying public officials for information that proves corruption? We might prefer that the public officials whistle blew for altruistic reasons alone but are we really going to outlaw all but those motivated by non-financial reasons?
No one would say that excesses of hacking are justified. But let’s not throw the baby out with the bath-water here. It is beginning to resemble an Arthur Miller play. For God’s sake let’s stop the hysteria, the accusing and the burning. We might be enjoying the score settling right now but we will regret it in the long run.
Comments (1)
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'Where will it all end?' you ask...well hopefully with a new regulatory framework that prevents the kind of corrupt press practices that have caused so much damage to so many people. That is the point of the Leveson inquiry and there is nothing particularly Mccarthyite or hysterical about that.
As for 'tax payer funded catharsis for anyone with a grudge'...nonsense. Victims of this grotesque press culture have been given a chance to talk about their experience, and editors such as Paul Dacre and Kelvin Mckenzie have been allowed to defend their industry. It is ridiculous to describe the likes of the Mccanns as bearing a grudge. Ending the kind of persecution that the Mccanns endured does not amount to a crackdown on press freedom, however much Peter may have enjoyed the 'intrigue, the ins-and-outs' of their private hell.
The only hysteria I can detect are these desperate attempts from the likes of Peter and Trevor Kavanagh to discredit the reckoning that the Tabloids must now face.
14/02/2012 15:45