16 June 2002 – Just for the record, Prime Minister Tony Blair did not ask PressWise for advice before launching his attack on the three newspapers which accused him of trying to enhance his role at the Queen Mother’s lying-in-state. Had he done so, we would have counselled most strongly against referring the matter to the Press Complaints Commission.
This really was a no-brainer. With nuclear Armageddon threatening on the sub-continent, with riots in Belfast and suicide bombers in Israel, the life-span of a non-story like this one was bound to be measured in days; possibly hours. Provided it was allowed to die the death. One can forgive Mr Blair, with a politician’s reflexive hubris, for wanting to strike back at his tormentors. But what on earth was Alastair Campbell, a former journalist of great experience and some distinction, thinking of? Of all people he must have known that this was a battle that Number 10 could not win. And so it proved.
When the PCC predictably fudged the issue and persuaded Downing St to withdraw the complaint, the floodgates duly opened. Fleet Street chortled with delight and plunged the knife into the hapless Mr Blair again, and again, and again. Fruitless of the Prime Minister to produce a 29-page dossier proving his innocence. No one was listening. Attention was now focussed on Black Rod and the rumoured existence of a confidential memo from the palace official to the PCC which would blow Alastair Campbell et al out of the water. On Sunday it duly appeared, sort of, in the Mail on Sunday, and the baying hounds were surrounding their quarry once more. Acres of newsprint covered the nation’s breakfast tables, and not one square inch of it offered a word of comfort.
This is a Prime Minister who has courted the media like no other; who has consented to vast concentrations of ownership, and is currently engaged in sweeping away restrictions on overseas competition to the undoubted profit of those who are now attacking him. A Prime Minister, moreover, who has assiduously protected the toothless self-regulation practised by the PCC and exempted the press, alone among the media, from oversight by the nascent Ofcom. And just look how they reward him!
Such ingratitude must be deeply wounding. It would be interesting to be a fly on the wall the next time Mr Murdoch or any other media baron pops in for tea at Number 10. Mr Blair would be wise to stock up on long spoons.
In the meantime, since we are a charity devoted to helping the cause of those afflicted by unfair or unethical media behaviour, we will be happy to offer our services to the beleaguered Prime Minister when next he needs them. No charge, of course.
Bill Norris
Associate Director
(Bulletin No 67)