A journalist of fifty years standing offers a personal and independent assessment of the often troubled relationship between public figures and the British news media.
My aim is to try to monitor events and issues affecting the ethics of journalism and the latest developments in the rapidly-changing world of press, television, radio and the Internet.
Expect too an insight into the black arts of media manipulation. So spin-doctors, Beware!
Donald Trump’s cheerleaders in the UK’s right-wing newspapers delivered a master class in their gung-ho reporting of the surprise attack by US stealth jets to drop bunker-busting bombs on Iran’s underground nuclear facilities.
Daring military operations trying to right the wrongs of the world are an intoxicating brew for the British tabloids whose expertise in delivering bellicose coverage was so admired by then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher during the 1982 Falklands War.
“Stick it up your bunker” declared the Sun (23.6.2025) ahead of ten pages of reports on how the US had hit “Iran nukes in Midnight Hammer” attack – a front-page headline straight out of the playbook of the paper’s legendary former editor Kelvin MacKenzie.
Nigel Farage’s success in outflanking Keir Starmer when he pledged to reinstate winter fuel payments and child benefits reflected his innate understanding of how to enlist the UK’s dominant right-wing newspapers to help upstage political opponents.
A knack of knowing when to pounce on a wounded leader or a party in distress is an invaluable attribute in the jungle of British politics and is even more powerful if the opportunity chimes with the news media’s agenda.
For the last two decades Farage’s adroit positioning has helped to weaponize a succession of aggressive press campaigns.
Looking back at the year-long miners’ strike of 1984-85 through the images and caricatures of news cartoonists presents a vivid interpretation of an industrial dispute which tore the country apart.
From opposing media perspectives of left to right, the graphic portrayal of a confrontation which traumatised the mining communities is like an angry, unfolding tapestry.
Hundreds of illustrations were published including cartoons, caricatures and cartoon strips.
After failing to dent Labour’s general election campaign, Conservative supporting newspapers have found the new government an easier target.
From the start Keir Starmer and his ministers were so focussed on blaming their predecessors for leaving a £22 billion black hole that they relaxed their pre-election grip on trying to influence and manage the news agenda.
Unlike the early months of the Blair government, when Alastair Campbell immediately imposed tight control over the government’s information service, the incoming Starmer administration paid little attention to attempting to forestall potential attack lines from the Tory press.
A tantalising secret has finally been revealed about the source of a controversial “hit list” for pit closures which became a critical issue in the year-long miners’ strike of 1984.
Throughout the long dispute and its bitter aftermath, Arthur Scargill prided himself on his ability to obtain confidential documents from high-level sources about the future of the coal industry.
He always claimed the information he had received proved the accuracy of his predictions about the true intentions of Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her ministers.
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