MEDIA STUDIES
Hezza's xenophobic assault on the Eurosceptic press continues
STEPHEN GLOVER
All these thoughts passed through my mind the other evening as I watched Michael Heseltine defend the government's policy over beef on BBC 2's Newsnight. Mr Heseltine's role in life is to champion what- ever New Labour does in Europe, even while his own front bench is attacking it. This is a very odd state of affairs about which, sooner or later, something will have to be done. On this occasion, the former deputy prime minister assumed his habitual look of pained superiority. The whole busi- ness was unfortunate but in Europe you had to negotiate what you wanted. The European Commission was doing its damnedest to sort things out. The main cul- prit was the Eurosceptic press, which was owned by foreign proprietors — 'the Cana- dian Conrad Black and American Rupert Murdoch'. These men only appointed edi- tors on whom they could rely to parrot their line on Europe. Many Tories read this sort of thing, even in his own constituency, and far too many of them believed it.
Mr Hese!tine must have said this sort of thing a thousand times before. It is by far the most widely disseminated charge made by the federalists against the Eurosceptic press. In Mr Heseltine's mind, editors and journalists only do things because they are told to by their proprietors, or if they believe that is what is expected of them. It is probably Mr Heseltine's belief that I hm only writing this column because 'the Canadian Conrad Black', owner of The Spectator, wants me to. It is a bleak view, and one which wholly misunderstands the relationship between proprietors and their editors, and between editors and their readers. Hezza is a cynic, with a pretty low view of human nature. If I recall rightly, he believed that the last election could be 'fixed' for the Tories with the usual spend- ing spree and tax cuts. Perhaps he still believes that. Perhaps he still believes that if Kenneth Clarke had turned on the taps with a little more exuberance all would have been well. As he underestimates vot- ers, so he underestimates readers. In his view they are a rough and unsophisticated lot. He thinks that if newspapers tell them what to believe, they will go off and believe it. He cannot conceive that a majority of people are against the euro not principally because they have been instructed to be so by newspapers but because events have led them in that direction. And these events are not simply warped by the Eurosceptic press since they are also covered by the extensive non-Eurosceptic media. Nor does Hezza understand that newspapers do not like to be too far ahead of their readers on major issues for fear of losing their support.
He is equally wrong about editors. Do we really believe that Charles Moore at the Daily Telegraph or Peter Stothard at the Times or David Yelland at the Sun or Paul Dacre at the Daily Mail (a paper, inciden- tally, not owned by a foreigner) are all dumbly reciting their masters' views with- out any convictions of their own? Mr Hes- chine has got things the wrong way round. These editors are more Eurosceptic than their proprietors, sometimes significantly so. The fiercely anti-euro Paul Dacre was appointed editor of the Mail in 1992 by the late Viscount Rothermere, a devoted Europhile; the present Lord Rothermere is certainly no foaming Eurosceptic.
Some people have detected that Mr Black and Mr Murdoch are less opposed to European integration than they were. Cer- tainly they have been subjected to a charm offensive by Romano Prodi, President of the European Commission, who has had them both to lunch, and the German gov- ernment is said to want to make a friend of Mr Black. Of course, if these two propri- etors found their shifting views too much out of line with their editors they might do something about it. Or they might follow the example of the late Lord Rothermere and put up with it. In the end, editors are employed to maintain and, ideally, to increase circulation, not because of their views on any given subject. In a country made up largely of Eurosceptics, there is absolutely no evidence that Eurosceptic newspapers are shedding readers.
Mr Hese[tine is wrong about readers and editors. And there is also a nasty streak of xenophobia in these Little Europeans. I have not heard Hezza or his ilk complain about the Irish ownership of the increasing- ly Eurofanatical Independent titles. It is all right to be foreign if you are in favour of the euro, but not if you are against.
So much has been written about Michael Ashcroft and the Times that I don't propose to add much more. I'd say the honours were split about 50-50. I don't buy the idea of a secret agreement, put forward by my former esteemed colleague Andreas Whit- tam Smith in the Independent. Andreas believes that the support of the Times for the Tories may have been secretly promised for the next election. But would Mr Mur- doch make such a commitment? And would Mr Ashcroft or the Tories ask for it? A friendly leader on the eve of an election is by itself hardly worth having. Passionate support over many months certainly is, but that cannot be guaranteed by any agreement.
We are left with the question of Peter Stothard's future, which I last considered in detail on 26 June, inadvertently inducing in his delightful wife a touch of the vapours. Many newspapers were eager to assume that the deal with Mr Ashcroft marks the beginning of the end for the editor of the Times. The Guardian's report suggested that Mr Stothard had been kept out of a loop involving Mr Murdoch, Mr Ashcroft and Jeff Randall, the go-between who is also editor of Sunday Business. This account appears to have been a bit harsh on Mr Stothard. Indeed, I rather think he emerged from a problematic libel case in much better shape than he might have expected.
There is no reason to believe that this affair has cooked Mr Stothard's goose. As I wrote in June, Mr Murdoch's obsession is circulation which, after an enormous boost following a cut in the paper's cover price, has begun to dwindle a little. If the process continues, my old friend may be at risk, but I daresay that he will be with us for some time yet. With that thought I wish him a happy Christmas, along with all my readers.
Previous page
