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June 14, 2007
In the dying days of his political career Tony Blair has a few words on the media. Much of what he says is true. He is critical of the 24 hour news cycle, instant forms of journalism, views the media as feral beasts that eschews balance or proportion, and raises the need for more regulation and accountability.
The result is a media that increasingly and to a dangerous degree is driven by "impact". It is all that can distinguish, can rise above the clamour, can get noticed. Impact gives competitive edge. Of course, the accuracy of a story counts. But it is secondary to impact. News is rarely news unless it generates heat as much as, or more than, light. Second, attacking motive is far more potent than attacking judgement. It is not enough for someone to make an error. It has to be venal. Conspiratorial.
And:
The fear of missing out means today's media, more than ever before, hunts in a pack. In these modes it is like a feral beast, just tearing people and reputations to bits. But no one dares miss out.
Blair acknowledges that the media is deeply into interpretation of what a politician says and devotes reams of commentary to its significance.
It is true that the media face intense competitive pressures; that commentary trumps facts; that a politician's error always becomes part of a venal conspiracy; and that hidden meanings matter more to the media than what a politician actually says.
What Blair doesn't address in his speech to the Reuters Institute is the way some sections of the media engage in politics. In picking in the Independent in the UK he ignores the way the Murdoch Press in Australia and Fox News in the USA frames issues for a conservative audience, beats them up and does so by aggressively casting the other side as enemies to be destroyed. Oh, and the media stars use of anonymous sources in the Canberra court to further the right wing agenda; or the way they are more interested in influence than reporting.
Blair was largely dismissive of the democratising, diversifying potential of new media, preferring to emphasis its downside; ignored the way ministers leaked to selected journalists, downplays the politicians' more manipulative approach to supplying news; or lied about the Iraq war dossiers and the Hutton report.
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Blair does not consider the role of the press in the cultural wars. An example is the Australian's recent editorial Reality bites the psychotic Left which claims that the left is 'trapped in a parallel political universe out of touch and far removed from the mainstream where the real Australian discourse takes place'. It then says:
The Murdock Press in Australia has waged that kind of war for a decade or more.