TIM GOPSILL
Not just the papers ; Tories take the BBC
THE PUBLIC spectacle of George Osborne ’ s venality and greed was gripping enough , but there were even worse things about his taking the editor ’ s chair at the Evening Standard .
The Standard already had a nasty right-wing evening newspaper monopoly in London – a Labour-voting city – and George Osborne is likely if anything to make it more oppositional to the Tory government if he uses it to pursue his lavishly anticipated vendetta against Theresa May .
So it ’ s not the Tories tightening their grip on the press that ’ s new , but that the grip is on the BBC as well . The “ populist ” right-wing slant of BBC news is a growing pain , which an influx of Fleet Street establishment figures goes some way to explain .
The editor that George Osborne succeeds , Sarah Sands , is moving to edit the BBC Radio 4 Today programme . Her Evening Standard was a mouthpiece for Boris Johnson as Mayor of London , and in the election to succeed him the paper front-paged all the crude and stupid Tory accusations of jihadi connections against the inoffensive Labour contender Sadiq Khan .
Just because he ’ s a Muslim , that ’ s all ; so now we have Donald Trump politics directing the Today programme .
Sarah Sands had never worked in broadcasting – just as Osborne has never worked in newspapers – but was eased into the job by head of news James Harding , the Tory press ’ s “ enemy within ” at the BBC . He was a newspaper editor , at Murdoch ’ s Times , and has brought a succession of prominent figures from national papers into key editorial positions at the BBC .
BBC journalists are not happy about this . Amid reports of rumbling mutiny one told Press
Gazette : “ He has lost the dressing room . He doesn ’ t have team news on his side .” James Harding ’ s imports include two senior colleagues from The Times and business correspondents from the Sunday Times and Sunday Telegraph . And then there is the media editor , Amol Rajan . He ’ s a former editor of the Independent , the one who drove the paper into closure ( though it still totters along online ) in March last year , 10 months after it defied its 30-year tradition of non-partisanship to call for the re-election of the Tory / Lib-Dem coalition in the 2015 poll .
This was an idiotic call anyway , since the coalition wasn ’ t standing in the election . No
doubt it was the brilliant idea of the proprietor , Yevgeny Lebedev , who also happens to own the Evening Standard and has just hired George Osborne .
Yevgeny worked his way up as the son of Russian oligarch Alexander Lebedev , who bought the papers and gave them to his spoilt brat as a present . Yevgeny likes nothing better than seeing his face , and name , in print . He gets the paper to set up glitzy events for him
This issue went to press on March 19 and was edited by Tim Gopsill , 07769 928 795 , timgo @ btinternet . com Design : editionpublishing . net • Printed by Swallowmax Ltd , 43 Aden Road , Enfield EN3 7SY
AWKWARD SQUAD
TIM GOPSILL
to be photographed hobnobbing with west London society . He writes plodding first-person articles about his exhilarating social life and his exciting adventures .
Glossy magazines are full of fulsome profiles of this wretched man , as if he was a genius rather than a narcissist who happens to own newspapers . The journalists flatter him too . “ It has been an absolute pleasure to work for him ,” said Sarah Sands .
Now she ’ s been airlifted into a decisive role at the BBC it does make you wonder : if she can ’ t resist the adolescent whims of a preening creep like Yevgeny Lebedev , how is she going to stand up to the more substantial figures who make rather greater demands of the BBC ?
Of course politicians are unscrupulous and proprietors are vain , but the worry is the journalists . Why should they have to kowtow to these people ? It ’ s like an Evelyn Waugh novel 100 years on .
Inside knowledge can be so valuable
THERE ARE certainly worries about Amol Rajan ’ s media reporting , though it may not be surprising that his reports tend to represent the national paper editor ’ s point of view .
In January he covered the controversy around Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Bill – the law , not yet activated , that could in rare circumstances lead to publications being made to pay both sides ’ costs in a libel case if they had failed to sign up with an officially-recognised press regulator .
All the corporate press are dead against this law , naturally , which Rajan reported at some length . He allowed one dissenting voice : a
Lebedev : Social life
brief interview with Max Mosely , the motor racing tycoon who is funding the only recognised regulator , IMPRESS , through a labyrinthine structure that protects its independence .
Mosley made his point that , at present , gaining redress from the national press is only possible for the rich ; a laudable contention , though it was emphasised that Mosley is immensely rich himself , which rather made him seem a hypocrite . But there was not a word from or about the countless poorer people
BBC
Osborne : Vendetta
who have been denied such redress over the years , nor from victims or other critics of the press ’ s intrusive and irresponsible behaviour . Nor was there any declaration that media editor Rajan had been involved in this story himself , which he had .
Amol Rajan : media reporting from the editor ’ s point of view
As editor of the Indy he has been accused of suppressing a story on the private life of then Culture Secretary John Whittingdale , who allegedly had an affair with a sex worker . The story was well known in media circles but none of the red-top papers wanted to embarrass Whittingdale , who
HM TREASURY
was about to pronounce on the enactment of Section 40 !
The Indy was on the verge of publishing – the story being not so much Whittingdale ’ s sex life as on the suppression of what would seem to be very a tasty tabloid tale .
In October 2015 Rajan attended a Society of Editors meeting with Whittingdale and other editors . On his return to the office he had the story pulled , “ on editorial grounds ”, he explained . Shortly afterwards , Whittingdale announced he was “ not persuaded ” to enact Section 40 . He may , though , have been persuaded not to , but that ’ s an angle that media editor Rajan didn ’ t cover .