MEDIA STUDIES
`We're going to expose,' said the Labour spin doctor to the man from the last loyal Tory paper
STEPHEN GLOVER
The Labour party has squared the right- wing press — almost. Rupert Murdoch's Sun is safely on board, and the Times will at least not be hostile. Come the day, it may even support New Labour. All that cultiva- tion of Mr Murdoch has paid dividends. As for the Daily Express, it will not be unfriendly. Its chief executive, Clive Rol- lick, is a Labour peer and something of a mate of Tony Blair, as he was of Neil Kin- nock before him.
None of Lord Rothermere's newspapers has yet endorsed Mr Blair, though the Lon- don Evening Standard may well do so. It is unlikely that the Daily Mail, the most important one, will heap much, if any, manure on the Labour party. Mr Blair's lunches and dinners with Lord Rothermere and his editors have worked splendidly. His Lordship apparently prefers him to John Major. He travels often between his home in Paris and London and, being a great dog-lover, he is cross with the Tories for not doing more to relax the rabies laws.
But there remains one paper, the Daily Telegraph, which steadfastly refuses to flirt with Mr Blair. (I must here declare an interest as a columnist for the Telegraph.) The newspaper's support for the Conserva- tive party is cause for some surprise, as well as disappointment, among Labour's appa- ratchiks. Now there is evidence that disap- pointment has turned to anger. Last week Alastair Campbell, Mr Blair's press secre- tary, referred to Robert Shrimsley, the Daily Telegraph's political correspondent, as `Mr Stoogely' during a Labour party brief- ing. This was not the first time that a Labour apparatchik has picked on a senior Telegraph journalist in public.
Last November Peter Mandelson, Labour's 'Prince of Darkness', remarked, `Here comes George Jones, straight from Conservative Central Office,' when Mr Jones walked into a Labour party briefing. The explanation for Mr Mandelson's rude- ness was that Mr Jones, the Telegraph's political editor, had that morning written a story about a new Tory document alleging that Labour had made promises which, if implemented, would cost £30 billion. This Tory claim may have been a piece of baloney, but Mr Jones was doing no less than his duty in reporting it. He walked out of the briefing.
To understand Labour's increasingly vit- riolic attitude towards the Daily Telegraph it is necessary to delve into its relations with right-wing journalists over the past two or three years. When Alastair Campbell was appointed to his job in 1994 he was on friendly terms with a number of prominent right-wing journalists. He realised that some of them were more than a little fed up with John Major and the government. His strategy was to form an alliance with some of these people who, in their own way, wanted to get Mr Major out every bit as much as Mr Campbell and his boss, Mr Blair, did.
One can think of some right-wing jour- nalists who have not disappointed Mr Campbell's hopes. Simon Heifer, the Daily Mail's resident bower boy and perpetual scourge of John Major, is perhaps the most notable example. He never wavers in his contempt. It seems that for a time Mr Campbell hoped that Charles Moore, in 1994 editor of the Sunday Telegraph but now at the helm of the Daily Telegraph, would also be a dependable partner in any anti-Major alliance. At the time of the Tory leadership contest in July 1995, Mr Moore stated clearly that it was time for Mr Major to pack his bags and go.
But in supposing that Mr Moore could be a long-term ally, Mr Campbell mistook his man. Mr Moore's fundamental philo- sophical loyalty was to the Tory party, and when it became clear that Mr Major was going to stay as its leader, and that more- over he might shift his policies in a direc- tion more congenial to Mr Moore, there could be no doubt of the outcome. Time and again, the Daily Telegraph has criticised the Tories on specific issues without desert- ing the higher cause. It has not hesitated to pick holes in Labour's proposals. For what it is worth, Mr Blair and his cronies appear never to have progressed as far in their charm offensive with Conrad Black, propri- etor of the Telegraph, as they did with Mr Murdoch and Lord Rothermere.
About six months ago it seems to have dawned on Mr Campbell and friends that the Telegraph could not be won over to the anti-Major camp during the election. But instead of accepting this as a fact of life, Mr Campbell has begun to treat the newspa- per's journalists with special obloquy. Aside Classifieds — pages 52 and 53 from the two examples I have already men- tioned, I am told by a member of the lobby that Telegraph journalists are 'daily abused' by Mr Campbell and his staff, and that they are subject to 'a constant process of intimi- dation' by these Labour apparatchiks. The constant refrain is that they are working for a newspaper in the pocket of Conservative Central Office. How Central Office would laugh at this, given the frequent criticisms which the Telegraph's editorials make of the Tories.
Last week Mr Campbell was particularly upset after the paper splashed with a story about strained relations between the CBI, the employer's organisation, and the Labour party. He said to one member of the Telegraph's staff last Thursday, 'We're going to expose you.' What could this possi- bly mean? Surely there couldn't be any connection between this threat and a col- umn by Mr Campbell's close friend (and Labour supporter) Roy Greenslade in Monday's Guardian? Strange to relate, on Sunday Alastair Campbell told a non- Telegraph member of the Lobby about Mr Greenslade's piece which was to appear the following day.
Under the headline, 'Sad ethical decline of the Daily Torygraph, the PM's last friend in Fleet Street', the piece contained a remarkably comprehensive list of recent Telegraph stories which were supposedly anti-Labour. Anti-Labour columns and edi- torials were thrown in for good measure. Some may think Mr Greenslade's — or should I say Mr Campbell's? — allegations of bias a bit rich in view of the fact that his paper, the Guardian, had spent much of the previous ten days trying to blow the Tories out of the solar system with their mostly reheated stories about sleaze.
I am sure that the Daily Telegraph and its political staff can look after themselves. They need no help from me. What interests me about this tale is that Labour, at any rate as evinced by Mr Campbell, is both rattled and not very nice. Almost the whole of the Tory press has been squared bought off, I suspect, in the case of Mr Murdoch and the Sun — but that is not good enough for New Labour. They want everything, and if they do not get it they are more than capable of turning rather nasty. I just thought I would point this out in case anyone runs away with the idea that Mr Blair's party is run by a lot of awfully nice chaps.
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