“Hunt” Rhymes With…

I am truly baffled by the Prime Minister’s apparent support of his ill-fated Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt.

Today, watching the Leveson Inquiry was like watching a broken man build his own scaffold and then get on up there, ready for the drop. QC Robert Jay was going to town, forcing Hunt to admit to being in favour of the BSkyB bid, lobbying the Prime Minister, texting and calling the Murdochs despite legal advice telling him not to do such things, and, more significantly, the level of contact between Hunt, Chancellor George Osborne and David Cameron throughout the whole debacle.

In the space of five hours, Hunt, Osborne, Cameron and James Murdoch managed to establish a web of text messages accounting to their direct and indirect communications with each other in the run up to the announcement of Jeremy Hunt’s new role as adjudicator of the BSkyB bid. The Guardian has an excellent time frame here.

Clinging on admirably now, the Culture Secretary surely has very little time left before he finds an acceptable reason to resign. One imagines that he will do so perhaps in order to “protect the Olympics from the vagaries of politics” or to address “pressures in his constituency”. Another ministerial inquiry on the scale of Liam Fox would add further scandal stains to the great Tory blotter.

However, by remaining in his position, and further, by bringing the PM on side, Hunt has provided Labour with an opportunity to strike a critical blow to the Tory stronghold in the Cabinet. Perhaps the Labour leadership will get itself together enough to take this golden opportunity to win a couple of votes and strengthen the Shadow Cabinet’s support within the party itself.

In a side note: Private Eye brought an interesting new perspective to the great media/politics tryst in their latest edition: Rupert Murdoch and Boris Johnson currently have a rather ‘close’ relationship. In contrast to the distaste shown by The Sun to the PM, it seems absolutely thrilled with BoJo’s ability to “talk to the ordinary man” and “identify with the people” (quite how he manages this, I am not entirely sure). So thrilled in fact, that it chooses to overlook his more frivolous leisure activities and directly contrast his everyman political prowess with the much-reviled “toff” Cameron. A possible up-and-coming special relationship destined for a pot-shot at the premiership? Quite possible, and with much of the current cabinet struggling to keep a close hold on political legitimacy, quite probable.

 

Leveson, You Tease.

Like many in the media and its fringe followers, I have been following the Leveson Inquiry’s latest developments with undisguised glee. Every day, a new morsel of scandalous truth and accusation is teased out about all the figures we love to hate. Once reticent politicos and businessmen are suddenly queuing up to get their voice heard as they try in vain to ensure that whatever they might be accused of, someone else will face the music first. There are some exceptions: Andy Coulson’s evidence this week may as well have been a Beatle’s mixtape for all the information that was gleaned from the ‘cross examination’… But on the whole, this entire debacle has come back to haunt those that called for it most, and provide the once cowering media with more than enough fuel for the fire.

Yesterday saw Rebekah Brooks take the stand once more to give evidence on her relationship with the Murdochs and their various international corporations, and with politicians, most notably with the Prime Minister. Although I was slightly aghast at the sheer concept of David Cameron signing off texts with “Lots Of Love” (no one wants to hear that!), the most troubling thing about her evidence was the way in which she was questioned. The language used, the questions asked, and the reportage of it was prejudiced at best, purposefully aggressive at worst. And I am not referring to her role as pantomime Evil Queen of Fleet Street. Rebekah Brooks was treated uniquely by the Leveson Inquiry and those reporting on it. Why? Because she is female.

I know, just another feminist ‘woo Brooksy mon yourself’ rant, right? Except this isn’t a rant, and I feel nothing for Brooks, and don’t much enjoy her work. From the scathing comments on her ‘feisty red curls’ and ‘demure, Puritanical dress’ that said ‘innocence and lack of sophistry’ (a real statement!), to the endless questions about whether or not Rupert Murdoch sent her a pretty frock to wear in jail because she is his favourite minion. Cameron’s text messages signed ‘LOL’, pony or no pony, swimming pools, tea with the Murdochs, where did you get the frock from Ms Brooks, blah blah blah. I was glad that at least the QC managed to collect himself enough to actually ask what the content of those texts, meetings and emails happened to be once he had moved past such important details as whether or not they had two kisses or three. Brooks herself managed to face up to these questions with admirable patience, even calling QC Robert Jay out on his line of questioning, complaining that if she was a “Grumpy old man of Fleet Street” she would not have been treated in such a way. This is undoubtedly true, but then Rupert Murdoch probably also wouldn’t have bought said grumpy old geezer a horse. Leveson responded to Brooks by saying she wasn’t there to complain, but to answer the questions. Also correct, but the unnamed sources providing the basis of much of the questions, the language used to put them to her, and the way that they were delivered and received were inappropriate.

Yes, there is a vast amount of gossip involving Brooks, the Prime Minister, and Murdoch that undoubtedly could use a bit more light shed on it. Jay was right to bring these things to the Inquiry’s attention, and to seek clarification from one of the key players. But I don’t recall hearing such questions being asked of Rupert Murdoch during his last performance to the panel. Perhaps they had more important things to ask him, and didn’t find the time to slip in a quick question about whether the aforementioned jail house frock came with matching accessories. There are ways of asking a question that are gendered, and ways that are not, and the delivery of some of Jay’s questions yesterday were positively gendered, needlessly detracting from the strength of the evidence and information Brooks had to offer.

Now that all the bad-mouthing of her ‘flaming locks’ and ‘Peter pan collar’ has slightly abated, attention is being turned full beam on to emails purportedly from the besmirched culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, that appear to confirm his private interest in the ill-fated News Corps BSkyB bid. Harriet Harman has renewed calls for his resignation, and certainly following Leveson’s swift rebuke of Cameron’s attempt to pass responsibility for all investigation into Hunt’s conduct onto the Inquiry, the pressure is on the Prime Minister to call an internal investigation to prove him right (much as happened with poor old Liam Fox, who had the PM’s full support and who would probably have remained in his position if not for such an inquiry…). The PM is in a difficult situation: continue to support a culture secretary that people are losing faith in every day without any backing or evidence to demonstrate he acted fairly, or call an investigation and possibly lose yet another member of cabinet to the excesses of outside interests (and, more annoyingly, to Murdoch). Further, what could such an inquiry bring to light about other members of the Tory party cabinet members? We will need to wait and see, but at the pace the Leveson Inquiry is going, I don’t think we will need to hold out much longer before the next scandal breaks.

 

The Great Leveson Saga Continues…

Much alike the thousands of other newsjunkie journos out there left frothing at the mouth by the great public execution that is the Leveson Inquiry, I cannot help but have my small say.

Thanks to Avaaz.org for the arresting image…

Today, James Murdoch was called back to the stand as the (former) proprietor of News International to testify once more on his newspapers’ editorial and management and any involvement in hacking and illegal payments to public officials. He was also asked at length on the role of the UK government and regulatory bodies in the proposed take over of BSkyB by the Murdoch empire that collapsed in the wake of the scandal. Consistent with his previous testament, James stuck to his guns: he had no idea of the extent of the issue, he was not involved, and the News of Screws and Sun editors were, if not entirely, almost fully responsible. Further, Murdoch alleged that the editors appeared keen for him not to know anything, a fairly novel spin on the whole blame avoidance strategy. Although Leveson’s QC Jay seemed slightly incredulous at this allegation, having worked in a newsroom, the editor is king, not the owner. Reporters live by the editor’s law, and it is the editor, at the end of the day, that will make the decision as to what makes the headline the next morning, not the chairman of the board. The chairman will have influence in budget, the general ethos of the paper and so on and so forth, but in terms of the content itself, involvement is minimal.

Far more interestingly though, Murdoch has begun the inevitable: the hanging out to dry of our public officials. Too long entangled in the Murdoch web, these politicians, policemen and others have nowhere to run. The Murdochs owe them nothing: their business in the UK continues to grow, immune on the markets to the public scandal affecting the reputation of their newspapers by the strength of their broadcasting companies. Hell, Rupert Murdoch has even launched the Sun on Sunday…a rose by any other name and all that…

And so it has begun with the culture secretary. Jeremy Hunt has taken the stage and become the first cabinet minister to face the music. The Guardian has an excellent run down of the whole horrible affair here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/apr/24/jeremy-hunt-murdochs-bskyb-bid

In these emails, the culture secretary appears to have direct influence in the lobbying of government for a smooth takeover of BSkyB by the Murdoch conglomerate. His enthusiasm seems so apparent, in fact, that it was ‘uncomfortable’ for Murdoch. Describing himself rather crassly as a “cheerleader” for the Murdochs on his website, Hunt has nigh-on destroyed his defense that he was not personally involved, but was the subject of an aide’s indiscretion. Hunt says that if he was indeed unduly biased towards the Murdoch takeover of BSkyB, he would have approved the deal. Because he didn’t approve the deal in the wake of the intense public backlash caused by the Dowler scandal, he is claiming he could not have been biased. However, what sensible politician would fly in the face of such vehement public opinion in the name of smooth economics? At a time when it looked likely that the Murdoch empire would crumble entirely before the gleeful eyes of the legions of cowed officials, it would have been completely nonsensical to try and prop the Murdochs up rather than allow their ambitions to crash and burn, hopefully along with the rest of the empire. How the tables have turned!

With a paper trail a mile long, Hunt is not in a good position. the PM has done his bit and said he gives Hunt his full support, a statement he also trundled out at the outset of the Andy Coulson and Liam Fox debacles, a mere few days before their resignations. Will Hunt follow? Even if he was not directly involved, his office had a culture in place that such involvement was likely, encouraged, and, crucially, extremely well-documented. Allowing that kind of thing to occur right under your nose is not exactly stellar, particularly when you are in a fairly dispensable ministerial position. If Liam Fox and Chris Huhne can both go with relatively little fuss, then Hunt’s departure could well be carried off with an equally minimal impact on the government’s reputation as a whole. However, if Hunt was to resign now, in the days running up to his ‘moment’, the Olympics, then it could carry a larger impact on the public’s opinion of the government, and the international opinion. Additionally, if Hunt goes, then who will be next? There have been many murmurings about ministerial meetings with the Murdochs, not least our own First Minister’s offers to act as a ‘lobbyist’ for the BSkyB bid.

FM Salmond has been linked to the Murdoch dynasty before, meeting Grand Master Murdoch a surprisingly high number of times (surprising because no one realized Salmond would be given so much credit by Murdoch, not because it was a high number). His apparent offer of using his influence on Westminster to facilitate the growth of the Murdoch monopoly is quite damning for any political figure, never mind the leader of the Scottish government. I will be very interested to see how Salmond’s role will be portrayed and dealt with in the course of the inquiry, as if it should be revealed that the FM took part in some dubious ‘smoothing’ of the process for the Murdochs, he will be liable for the same fate as Hunt now faces. The whole question of the Independence Referendum schedule and terms could, potentially, be at stake in this. A leader is a rather different kettle of fish to a lowly minister, especially when that figure is crucial to the Scottish Nationalist Party’s leadership and agenda in UK politics.

Rupert Murdoch’s evidence will be extremely interesting to watch tomorrow, not least because he has a little less Public Relations veneer about him than his son. James has extricated himself from the business as far as possible, limiting his liability for exerting any influence on his business, editors or any one else working within News International. Rupert cannot excuse himself from the party, but his power and influence far outweighs that of his son, giving him greater clout and capability to shop whomsoever he should choose of his former ‘allies’. Mere months ago Rupert Murdoch and his son were hate figures being quickly disowned by the men who loved them most as they scrabbled to save their own reputation. How the tables have turned! Oh, the great power of the Media!

At the end of it all, once the Leveson Inquiry has been wrapped up and forgotten, you can bet your bottom dollar that public officials will still be happy to ‘liaise’ with the Murdochs. They have little choice, whereas the Murdochs can, for the time being, take revenge, and have their cake and eat it.