Fishburn Hedges

26.01.2012

Does the media really influence the government as much as we think it does?

That was the question for Alastair Campbell, former director of communications and strategy to Tony Blair, and Chris Mullin, political diarist and former Labour minister.  Between them, they pointed to:

- The “corrosive” effect of the media often trivialising politics and turning it into a “soap opera”

- The effect of the media in influencing the type of person now going into politics – and how long they stick around

- The difficulty of having a rational discussion on issues such as Europe or welfare reform because the media skews the debate

- Likely recommendations from the Leveson Inquiry and their potential impact for the industry

Several themes emerged from the interesting and lively debate:

A changing media culture

A major issue for Alastair Campbell is that the media, in his view, is too preoccupied with trivialising and turning politics into a ‘soap opera’. They aren’t always interested in doing the job of actually informing the public.

Chris Mullin added that while the more ’serious’ end of the media can be an important ally, for example in supporting his campaign to secure the release of the Birmingham Six, it certainly wasn’t helpful to have The Sun branding him a ‘loony MP’ backing the ‘bomb gang’.

Both acknowledged however that while the British press is, at times, the worst in the world, it can also be the best– and sometimes in the same edition.

Has the media influenced how Ministers govern?

Both Campbell and Mullin agreed that while they couldn’t help but consider the likely media reaction to any new policy announcement, they never let it block their plans. Although Campbell did concede that welfare reform was an area where they did ‘absorb’ too much of the media criticism.

For Campbell though, the main side-effect of the media culture is the influence it has had on the type of person choosing to enter politics– and how long they stick around.

For Mullin, it’s a simple case of knowing, as an MP, that there is a range of issues – drug policy for example - on which it is simply impossible to have a sensible debate.

Who holds the power?

Campbell has no qualms about characterising the effect the media can have as ‘corrosive’. However he puts a great deal of faith in the British public, firmly believing that the press does not represent public opinion and doesn’t have as much influence over how people vote as you might think – they make much more ‘sophisticated judgements, based largely on their own lives’. Mullin backed this view.

Although conceding that at times the relationship between media and government has been overly close – and even ‘corrupt’ (something that in his view started back with Margaret Thatcher and knighthoods for media moguls), Campbell argued that Labour didn’t win the 1997 election because The Sun backed New Labour - rather  The Sun backed Labour because they were going to win. 

Both conceded that it’s not black and white when it comes to the media, and that mistakes were made by those in power.

Campbell admitted that New Labour took too much of the ‘mindset of opposition campaigning’ into Government with them, which influenced the way they approached the media.

Looking at the unprecedented media attacks on Gordon Brown at the last election, Mullin claimed that he may have precipitated much of that himself, having tried to use the media for his own gain.

Importantly though, Campbell was quick to point out that he would never want the media to stop challenging, or asking the difficult questions.

The Murdoch effect

Inevitably the role of Rupert Murdoch came up within the discussion. Against the charge that they spent too much time and effort on Murdoch, for example attending the 1995 trip to the Hayman Island to meet his editors, Campbell stated that they took a realistic view and knew that neutralising the Murdoch press had to be a key strategic objective. Having lost four elections in a row, it would have been foolish to take such a risk the fifth time round.

The ‘L’ word

Finally, the discussion turned to the Leveson inquiry into media ethics. Campbell mused that it is a statement in itself that the inquiry, which in the past may have taken ‘and finally’ or diary story slots in the national news, is now front page fodder.

That’s not to underestimate the importance of the inquiry though, he added 

In Campbell’s words ‘Leveson has to lead somewhere better – if it doesn’t, we should all pack up and go home.’

For a full video of the event please visit our Vimeo page

Visit our Media and Government microsite for more discussion