Dial M for Murdoch: News Corporation and the Corruption of Britain by Tom Watson Page B
Authors: Tom Watson
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Vaizey promised the party would force the BBC to publish the salaries of its highest-paid performers; 10 in July that year, Cameron said he intended to remove the policy-making powers of Ofcom, the media regulator; 11 and in October, Jeremy Hunt, his shadow Culture Secretary, said the Tories would abolish the BBC Trust, the governing body of the corporation. 12
These policies coincided with the demands of the Murdochs, explicitly outlined by James Murdoch in his MacTaggart lecture to the Edinburgh Television Festival in August 2009. Openly and uncompromisingly, the heir apparent to the Murdoch dynasty identified the BBC as the enemy of free and dynamic programming offered by the likes of BSkyB. ‘The scale and scope of its current activities and future ambitions is chilling,’ he protested. ‘Being funded by a universal hypothecated tax, the BBC feels empowered and obliged to try and offer something for everyone, even in areas well served by the market.’ The BBC was lavishing large salaries on entertainers such as Jonathan Ross that no commercial broadcaster could afford, its news website was unfairly competing with national papers, and the BBC Trust had an ‘abysmal record’ in limiting the corporation’s creep. As to Ofcom – which two months before had ordered BSkyB to cut its rates for selling sport and films to rivals – Murdoch complained that it was placing ‘astonishing’ burdens on commercial broadcasters. In the most significant portion of his remarks, he said: ‘There is an inescapable conclusion that we must reach if we are to have a better society. The only reliable, durable, and perpetual guarantor of independence is profit.’
The demand was clear: the government should hobble the BBC and Ofcom and give a freer run to commercial broadcasters, such as BSkyB. The Conservatives’ announcements between the meeting on the yacht and James Murdoch’s broadside in Edinburgh showed how much Cameron and Murdoch were beginning to appreciate one another.
Rebekah Wade, who with James Murdoch had encouraged the rapprochement , was the powerbroker. In the summer of 2009, Wade was at the height of her power. She had been told by Rupert Murdoch that she would shortly become NI’s chief executive, responsible not just for the Sun, but also the News of the World, The Times and Sunday Times ; and in June, her marriage to Charlie Brooks had confirmed her position at the centre of political and media power. Guests at the reception at Clarkson’s home included Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, David Cameron, George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Will Lewis, editor of the Daily Telegraph , her pop star neighbour, Blur bassist Alex James, and all the most powerful Murdochs – Rupert, James, Elisabeth and Matthew Freud.
But as they partied, a reporter on a rival newspaper was preparing an explosive story.
One Determined Reporter
Very relaxed
– a spokesman for David Cameron, giving his response to Nick Davies’s story on Gordon Taylor, July 2009
Nick Davies, a 56-year-old investigative reporter with a swirl of receding white hair, eschewed regular contact with executives at the Guardian . His contract stipulated he had to write only twenty-four substantial features a year ‘or the equivalent in time and effort’ – which meant that unlike the vast majority of journalists he could stay on one story. Working from his home in Lewes, East Sussex, he responded by exploring the hidden sides of British life: poverty, failing schools, drug addiction and child prostitution. Frustrated by the misreporting of the Iraq War , in 2007 he wrote a book about falsehood and distortion in the media, Flat Earth News , which contained a chapter on Steve Whittamore – and described how Fleet Street newspapers illegally obtained criminal records, car registration details, ex-directory numbers, mobile phone records and bank statements.
Davies then had two strokes of luck which led him towards a bigger scandal.
These policies coincided with the demands of the Murdochs, explicitly outlined by James Murdoch in his MacTaggart lecture to the Edinburgh Television Festival in August 2009. Openly and uncompromisingly, the heir apparent to the Murdoch dynasty identified the BBC as the enemy of free and dynamic programming offered by the likes of BSkyB. ‘The scale and scope of its current activities and future ambitions is chilling,’ he protested. ‘Being funded by a universal hypothecated tax, the BBC feels empowered and obliged to try and offer something for everyone, even in areas well served by the market.’ The BBC was lavishing large salaries on entertainers such as Jonathan Ross that no commercial broadcaster could afford, its news website was unfairly competing with national papers, and the BBC Trust had an ‘abysmal record’ in limiting the corporation’s creep. As to Ofcom – which two months before had ordered BSkyB to cut its rates for selling sport and films to rivals – Murdoch complained that it was placing ‘astonishing’ burdens on commercial broadcasters. In the most significant portion of his remarks, he said: ‘There is an inescapable conclusion that we must reach if we are to have a better society. The only reliable, durable, and perpetual guarantor of independence is profit.’
The demand was clear: the government should hobble the BBC and Ofcom and give a freer run to commercial broadcasters, such as BSkyB. The Conservatives’ announcements between the meeting on the yacht and James Murdoch’s broadside in Edinburgh showed how much Cameron and Murdoch were beginning to appreciate one another.
Rebekah Wade, who with James Murdoch had encouraged the rapprochement , was the powerbroker. In the summer of 2009, Wade was at the height of her power. She had been told by Rupert Murdoch that she would shortly become NI’s chief executive, responsible not just for the Sun, but also the News of the World, The Times and Sunday Times ; and in June, her marriage to Charlie Brooks had confirmed her position at the centre of political and media power. Guests at the reception at Clarkson’s home included Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, David Cameron, George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Will Lewis, editor of the Daily Telegraph , her pop star neighbour, Blur bassist Alex James, and all the most powerful Murdochs – Rupert, James, Elisabeth and Matthew Freud.
But as they partied, a reporter on a rival newspaper was preparing an explosive story.
One Determined Reporter
Very relaxed
– a spokesman for David Cameron, giving his response to Nick Davies’s story on Gordon Taylor, July 2009
Nick Davies, a 56-year-old investigative reporter with a swirl of receding white hair, eschewed regular contact with executives at the Guardian . His contract stipulated he had to write only twenty-four substantial features a year ‘or the equivalent in time and effort’ – which meant that unlike the vast majority of journalists he could stay on one story. Working from his home in Lewes, East Sussex, he responded by exploring the hidden sides of British life: poverty, failing schools, drug addiction and child prostitution. Frustrated by the misreporting of the Iraq War , in 2007 he wrote a book about falsehood and distortion in the media, Flat Earth News , which contained a chapter on Steve Whittamore – and described how Fleet Street newspapers illegally obtained criminal records, car registration details, ex-directory numbers, mobile phone records and bank statements.
Davies then had two strokes of luck which led him towards a bigger scandal.
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