Steve Coogan spot on in asking where Paul Dacre is in all this. But his time is surely coming

  • Post

  • 9 July 2011

  • Posted by Alastair Campbell

  • 53

I don't know Steve Coogan but I thought he did a very good job on Newsnight last night, in particular in seeking to make sure the focus from the phonehacking scandal is not just restricted to the News of the World. He asked where Paul Dacre was in all this, and when I tweeted my support for this observation, I got the usual 'who's Paul Dacre?' queries from some. It is a measure of the success of the Mail Obergruppenfuhrer's deliberate policy of hiding away from a public profile that he is so well-known and influential within the media, (though even today they rarely write about him), yet so little known by the public. Rupert Murdoch has been something of a household name in many parts of the world for years. Now James Murdoch, Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks have reached that status where their names are echoing round pubs, cars, factories, kitchens and sitting rooms, and not in circumstances they would welcome. But Dacre can walk down any street in the country, whether in London and the Home Counties, or near his enormous Scottish country estate, without anyone batting an eyelid. He will however be a central figure in any public inquiry into the standards and practices of the modern press, because the Mail's influence has been so strong upon the rest of the media and because there is already the previous work of the Information Commissioner for a judge to have as a useful starting point when seeking answers as to why newspapers need to spend so much money on private detectives like Stephen Whittamore, Jonathan Rees, Glenn Mulcaire and many more. The Mail was the biggest user of Mr Whittamore. When police investigating a murder trial involving Mr Rees raided his home, they found invoices totalling thousands and thousands of pounds relating to inquiries into many public figures for many different papers. The inquiries on me, for example, were made by my former paper, the Mirror. As for Glenn Mulcaire, well we know a lot about him, but there is a lot more to come. So Mr Dacre and his Mail Group, whose coverage of the phonehacking scandal has been minimal until recent days -wonder why? -will be an important part of any serious and rigorous inquiry. It was reported last night that within minutes of David Cameron's announcement of a judge-led inquiry, and a review of press regulation, the Mail and the Telegraph were on the phone to Downing Street to complain. Number 10 should politely tell them to put any concerns in writing, and for the time being go away. Seemingly the Mail today is full of pompous and portentous articles peddling the Dacre line that anything but the toothless PCC would be an assault on the free press. This is as self-serving as their oft-stated line that the Human Rights Act is an abomination, and that judges are creating a backdoor privacy law, when what their real concern is that they should be allowed to fill their papers with celebrity trivia and stories of who is shagging whom. I would also be interested to know if at any point Dacre declares the interest that he holds the chairmanship, laughably, of an important PCC policy-making committee. Er, I doubt it, but then one of the reasons they are in the mess they are in is that they believe the standards by which they judge others should not apply to themselves. But for him and his generation which has so damaged journalism, that may well be about to change.

53 responses to “Steve Coogan spot on in asking where Paul Dacre is in all this. But his time is surely coming”

  1. It’s a fair question but, as a reformed Mail-man (I escaped in 2004 and was there when all this hackery was going on), I can honestly say I never came across it, even covering stories that would have benefitted greatly. I might be wrong – but I think a Mail reporter who was involved in this sort of shenanigans would have been sacked on the spot. For all its faults, it did not condone phone hacking, certainly not in any open way anyway.

  2. It’s hard, really hard to do this but…very small light font here, a whisper…this govt could be known for ‘doing the right thing’ with the UK press…and serving the readers, the public, the victims, well. Phew, back to normal mode now.

    I have followed this story via AC’s blog and other online sources because I am so tired of listening to news bulletins and trying to remember what the stance of the source is…who are they serving? me or they?

    I have one newspaper I trust…and one blogger too.

    It is a slim window on our world. Clean up your act, dear UK Press Bods, and many readers will have real choice – the market could still be rich. Make your websites truly accessible – affordable options for online versions of the daily paper – and make your NEWSpapers less like a celebrity magazine. Stop dumbing down the news, pandering to a low calibre (idea) of readership – yes, you tabloids, make the news accessible to your market without sensationalising it. They will accept the truth, you know.

    Of course, we have to accept left, middle and right leanings but it is possible to write in a detached way, some of the time, if not all of the time.

    Clean up the news writing and the news gathering and you’ve got a future. Simples.

    I even wonder if newspapers are the best place for excerpts of anyone’s book (sorry AC).

    • I think their ‘doing the right thing’ has been enforced and depends on who exposed what finally drove them to that edge Shirley!

      I’m sure it’s also advantageous that it’s they who’re doing it (even if under this level of duress from the left) as some of their supporters will be heartbroken about the demise of the NoW.

      I wasn’t all that keen on Steve Coogan’s demeanour, he forced McMullan in to being defensive whereas on Newsnight on Monday (or Tues?) night with AC he was full of remorse about his own past actions ( …. as befits).

      Coulson ‘resigned’ from NoW only 6m before joining Tories.  I’m very concerned in case he was still acting for NoW and feeding them about Cabinet opinions re BSkyB….. the ultimate insider hacking job.

      ——————————

      Elsewhere on the forum today someone has whittered on about Coulson being knocked about what are only ‘allegations’ ….. to whoever that was ….. he has admitted stuff, divvi.  I wish I could have resisted that Scouse insult but I couldn’t.

  3. Totally agree. These people hold to much power and are not accountable to the people of this country. Why should democratically elected politians bow to these peoples own self interest. All they care for is there is own position of power and the wealth they generate from their commercial activities. Thats why the BBC is so important. Its accountable to the people of this country, but not controlled by the state, whether you like it or not, this is the healthiest form of media ownership. Its about time, these interest groups understand that decisions should be taken in the National/Public interest and not the interest of a reactionary right wing cheerleader.

  4. It feels like our version of the Arab Spring! The old dictator trying to hold on to power and suddenly everybody feels able to say all the things they were too frightened to say for the last 30 years!

  5. While we’re at it, do you think it would be pertinent to ask Nick Robinson, Political Editor at the BBC, to reveal the name of his source at News Corp who told him that Rebecca Wade was now ‘family’ and that Ed Miliband should back off from his demands to have her sacked.

    Threatening politicians, it would appear, is not limited to the tabloid press.

  6. All valid points Mr C, but have I missed the blog where you put up your hands and admit that you were more guilty than most in selling your soul to Murdoch to gain favourable coverage in the Blair years?

  7. Daily Mail is owned by Daily Mail & General Trust founded in 1922.
    It is the second most powerful newspaper group in Britain after News International (NI). Some people say it has more influence in Downing Street than the Murdoch empire.
    Daily Mail has a circulation of 2m+. Associated Newspapers also include the Mail on Sunday plus Metro which prints 1.3m copies. The magnate behind the Mail is Viscount Rothermere.
    The group also owned Evening Standard until 2009. There has been some talk of a merger with Express recently.
    After the closure of the NoW the Mail on Sunday has most to gain. The tabloid had 2.66m readers.
    Who were these people? Mainly working class. 52% men, most in their mid-30s, and 61% in social classes C2, D and E. A third from London and the south-east.
    But also the Sunday Mirror is planning to take readers from the NoW.
    For many the NoW has been a second purchase.
    When in 1995 Rupert Murdoch closed Today (mid-market), it had 582,000 readers. The Daily Mail and the Express picked 129,000 readers. Only 22% of people chose an alternative.
    So it seems that only 800,000 NoW readers may seek to switch to another paper.
    The chairman of the Daily Mail & General Trust, Lord Rothermere (Jonathan Harmsworth), has been assured by Mail´s editor-in-chief Paul Dacre that Mail titles do not hack.
    But the Mail titles have employed private investigators in the past.
    As for NI, Rebekah Brooks has said that the worst is yet to come. The spotlight must now also switch to James Murdoch.
    It is also worth noting that George Osborne encouraged Mr Cameron to hire Andy Coulson. (British economy, by the way, appears to have stopped growing.)
    The massive cover-up of the phone-hacking by the police, NI and the Tory-led government is the British version of Watergate.
    The Murdoch empire has claimed that it can determine the result of general election. Mr Cameron should not allow the BSkyB deal to go through.
    We will soon see whether the government runs Britain, or is Mr Cameron just a junior personnel of a huge media company…

  8. It is not the hacking that worries me. It is the fact that our politicians have effectively been blackmailed by a few individuals for the last couple of decades. If we had the Mafia running our country we would be appalled. What other secrets lie hidden because politicians have been frightened to expose them? Which government policies are not receiving proper analysis? Who can we trust to tell the truth if even our most able politicians deliberately mislead the public?

  9. I find it grotesque that you, who should be hiding in shame and atoning for your part in a wrong war that killed tends of thousands, who hoodwinked the British public with an Internet-copied ‘dossier,’ who licked the arses of all at Wapping while your erstwhile craven boss Blair cosied up to Big Rupert, has the temerity to pontificate on the morals of the press.  You are a pissed old hack who went off the bottle and nailed your colours to the mast of rogues.  Why the hell anyone would want you to speak at their events when you should be at The Hague along with the Serbs and assorted other bad bastards baffles me.  So Dacre’s a cunt – live with it.  He doesn’t pretend to be anything else and the people who buy his paper like it.  Your mark in history will be that of a bullying mini Joe Goebbels without the charm.

    • Evidence is that less people died in the Iraq conflict than is the common assumption and a lot less died in the years since the invasion than would have died under Saddam. Neither accepting the reasons for war or condoning it.

    • We all have different opinions and standpoints, Dan. We all have jobs to do, and we serve our employers to the best of our ability. AC was employed to serve TB well and that he did. Your abuse of AC is unnecessary and unpleasant.
      Many of us disagree with much that he has done and stands for, but when the history is written, AC will be proved to have been the finest at his job over decades.
      When you reduce your contribution to abusive guttersniping you achieve nothing. The debate conducted on this blog is better than that.

  10. Alistair, please continue to target Dacre – a truly evil man  – and the Daily Heil, a cancer on the British body politic. How they have avoided attention to date over phone hacking when the Information Commissioner’s report of 2006 had the Daily Mail in at number one with a bullet.

  11. The canaries have started singing and it can’t be long before other papers are implicated. But part of the difficulty in bringing matters to light, of course, is that many victims of phone-hacking or other forms of illegal privacy invasions, don’t want it known that they’ve been spied upon. Terrified of arousing interest, they won’t sue or breathe a word, but continue to live in fear of exposure. I personally know of one case. There must be hundreds more.

    As an anti-Murdoch activist (for DemocracyFail), this week has been one of the most amazing – and sleepless! – of my life. Steve Richards summed it up neatly in The Independent, “If there is an election tomorrow, which party leaders would want the endorsement of Rebekah Brooks? A week ago they would have died for it.”

    As a Labour member, I’m overjoyed that my party has been, frankly, liberated. Having complained in recent months, often bitterly, that the shadow cabinet were being reticent and cowardly over Murdoch and BSkyB, I understood the Catch 22 they were in. Now it seems that, under Ed Miliband, the party can do what it believes to be right for the country, not what is right for Rupert Murdoch.

    And thank you, Alastair, for your persistency in all this – even though it attracts the usual brickbats. It’s played a larger part than many people realise in bringing about the current state of affairs. Above all, it’s given many of us the confidence to carry on. And onwards we plough. So much more to do.

  12. The canaries have started singing and it can’t be long before other papers are implicated. But part of the difficulty in bringing matters to light, of course, is that many victims of phone-hacking or other forms of illegal privacy invasions, don’t want it known that they’ve been spied upon. Terrified of arousing interest, they won’t sue or breathe a word, but continue to live in fear of exposure. I personally know of one case. There must be hundreds more.

    As an anti-Murdoch activist (for DemocracyFail), this week has been one of the most amazing – and sleepless! – of my life. Steve Richards summed it up neatly in The Independent, “If there is an election tomorrow, which party leaders would want the endorsement of Rebekah Brooks? A week ago they would have died for it.”

    As a Labour member, I’m overjoyed that my party has been, frankly, liberated. Having complained in recent months, often bitterly, that the shadow cabinet were being reticent and cowardly over Murdoch and BSkyB, I understood the Catch 22 they were in. Now it seems that, under Ed Miliband, the party can do what it believes to be right for the country, not what is right for Rupert Murdoch.

    And thank you, Alastair, for your persistency in all this – even though it attracts the usual brickbats. It’s played a larger part than many people realise in bringing about the current state of affairs. Above all, it’s given many of us the confidence to carry on. And onwards we plough. So much more to do.

  13. Never mind the attacks on the celebs, what about the tabloids relentless attack on the sick and disabled. Who is defending them from constant onslaughts ? Who is reporting correctly about the situations regarding Atos and the DWP and the failure of the Nursing and Midwifery Council to protect the public ? 

  14. Did I mis-hear Matthew Parris on Any Qs?
    Lots of chatter going on IRL meant it was interrupted a lot but I’m sure he tried to say Murdoch et al have far less influence than people are claiming.

    I might also be mis-remembering why he left Parliament; wasn’t it because he didn’t want media exposure of his being gay to impact negatively on his party?

    Perhaps I did mis-hear.

  15. I agreed with the first part of your post But then sank into despair when you mentioned the BBC. Would this be the same BBC that takes in £3.5 billion of taxpayers’ money but won’t tell us how much Paxman is paid (hint:min 4x more than the PM). Would this be the same BBC whose DG admitted has a “left-wing” bias? The list is endless. As I’ve said before, buying or advertising in newspapers is a CHOICE. It always has been & always will be. OTOH, you can’t buy a TV without having to provide your address details to the store/shop.
    The 1 bad thing that’s going to come out of this press review is that the BBC is going to be left untouched & even made to look “whiter than white”. The truth is that the BBC is as corrupt as all the others.

    PS: I do not buy or read the Daily Mail or Mail on Sunday.

  16. Isn’t there some sense in not speaking too soon?

    We know that because stuff has finally come out the mega shredders (or furnaces?) are already in action at Wapping.  Surely it should become isolated as a crime scene?

    There would have been little point in speaking too soon when it would have been spitting in the wind/ignored and there would have been a horrible cruelty if the shocking revelations about the exploitation of the missing Milly Dowler had been exposed before her killer could be properly tried and her parents know what they needed to. 

    Those revelations have been the tipping point.  Re snoop activity in the past I have left it to others who’re actually interested in horrible gossip to absorb or ignore. 

    I’ve chosen ‘ignore’, it has been impossible to do so re the exploitation of just one missing child, never mind the others whose families might have been similarly misused.

  17. Well said. I doff my cap to you, sir. May I just add that Herr Goebbels has started to refer everyone to the “feral press” speech that his old boss TB made as an indication that the last Labour govt. already knew that the press was out of control. And I had a look at that speech and was completely astonished.
    Here you have a Labour PM who won by a landslide in 1997, with the help of the Murdoch press. And what does he do? He waits 10 years and just 2 weeks before he quits both PM & MP jobs, he makes a speech on the “feral press”. Why? Could it be because he had no need of press support any more? If he felt so strongly about the “feral press”, why not take action in 1997 when he had the British people eating out of his hand?

    • You surely must recognise the deterioration of the press over the last 14 years? The specimen on newsnight debating with Steve Coogan last night would defy anybody to think of a lowly enough description for how he portrayed himself.
      How would you characterise the events of this week? Most of us would sign up now for strong press regulation, and perhaps a return of capital punishment for a chosen few of the bastards!

  18. Apparently Ed Miliband has received an email threatening “we will make it personal “.

  19. There was much I admired about Gordon Brown and, having read detailed accounts of the banking crisis, I thank God that he and Darling were in charge when that crisis happened. But on the debit side is Brown’s close friendship with Dacre. In addition to frequent meetings, he went to the theatre with him and invited him to the funeral of his daughter. It seems to me to have been a closer relationship than Blair’s with Murdoch. Not that it did him much good politically.
    But Brown is not alone in cosy-ing up to the Mail group. Tony Benn sold his diaries to them. And Ken Livingstone, who claims to hate the Mail group with a vengeance, worked as a restaurant critic for the Mail’s then sister paper the London Evening Standard.

    Nick Davies, the Guardian journalist who was instrumental in exposing the current hacking scandal, wrote an excellent book on the press called Flat Earth News. It has a fascinating chapter on the Mail. Its staff claim that Dacre, whose paper constantly fulminates about language on the BBC, struggles to utter a sentence that doesn’t contain the ‘c’ word, to the extent that his staff call his discourse “the Vagina Monologues”. Other examples of Mail hypocrisy are legion.

    Much comment has focused on the risk that Miliband has taken over this issue. But I think Cameron will also incur the wrath of both Murdoch and Dacre (neither of whom probably liked him much anyway, nor forgave him for failing to win a majority at the election.) The politicians, in so far as they achieve a consensus on inquiries and regulation, are now ‘all in this together’. That raises the question of which leader Murdoch and Dacre will endorse in coming years, assuming that after revelations yet to come anyone will ever take them seriously again.

  20. Had a look through the mail this morning !
    It is obvious that its hacks have been breifed (probabaly by Dacre) to counter with the line of Hypocrisy. With pokes at Alistair Hugh Grant  and Max Mosely ,plus anyone else who has openly had a go at the press this last week.

    They didnt even lead with the phone hacking stuff !.It was way into the paper before they made any real comment either way

    They like all other Cameron boot lickers are struggling with  the fact that the public at large have had enough of being fed a daiily dose of shit by the likes of the Mail

  21. You were never a Mailman – you were a casual freelance shifter who spent five minutes on the paper before moving on to become a low-grade PR and blog poster (one who ‘likes’ his own comments to boot). One of the most pathetic aspects of this debacle is nonenties like Richard Peppiatt (a few months on the Daily Star) and Paul McMullen (left the NoW 11 years ago and now runs a pub) setting themselves up as media pundits. Rather than add to the embarrassment, why don’t you go back to your seaside cafe and pour yourself a cup of tea, mate.  

  22. Hang On you and your buddy Bliar sucked up to Murdoch more than anybody . You have no right to comment on this as you have played a major role in the destruction of decent journalism in the UK.

  23. Cameron is no fool and knows that plays well in the public arena…For him to say that Coulson is a friend when is about to be arrrested…What does he know that we do not?Or what does Coulson know that he`s scared of?

  24. As well as the News International shredders there are the banks’ shredders.

    The banks have procedures and time limits for retention of things such as paid cheques and electronic files of bank statements.

    It’s been over 10 years since I was in the game but it’s likely much of the paperwork to prove who paid what to whom held by the banks will have been disposed of by now. Almost a certainty for the 2002 – 2003 stuff.

    Pity. It’s just the way the banks work.

  25. As a former Associated person, I can say that dubious practices certainly went on in Derry Street. Phones were hacked any money and other gifts were given to police officers. Admittedly these illegalities were done ‘in the public interest’ and not willy-nilly as appears to have been the case at the Screws, but illegalities they certainly were.
    How on earth do you think ex-directory numbers, CRO checks, vehicle registrations and a host of other things were sourced?

  26. Coogan was heroic, although against a villain as sleazy, stupid and blatantly unrepentant as McMullan, there were times when I wondered if this former tabloid journalist was actually a spoof character of the sort created by Steve Coogan. But it would be a wonderful moment for politics and democracy if this heralds the beginning of the end of the stranglehold that the right wing media have over our politicians. Men like Dacre and the Barclay brothers – and the weasels who spread poison on their behalf – have done untold damage to our society over the past 30 years. Now we have an opportunity to correct the balance, and it mustn’t be wasted.

  27. I am quite amused by the number of right-wing “trolls” that have been dispatched post haste to Mr. Campbell’s blog site in the last couple of days!

    Obviously some people, somewhere are getting very worried indeed!

  28. Lots of great information in your post for us all, Olli I.  Thank you.
    I’ve heard of Paul Dacre, but know next to nothing about him, but I shall attempt to find out more via Google. Unless he’s one of the “untouchables” of course.

    Your mention of Lord Rothermere had me smiling for possibly all the wrong reasons.  For those of us who were around at the time, who could possibly forget the ridiculous “Bubbles” Rothermere?
    Allegedly, the Matt Lucas character in “Little Britain” i.e. the grotescue fat perma-tanned old bag, was based not so losely on Lady R.  In fact as I recall the character was even called Bubbles.

  29. A wrong war, what utter crap you talk, ALL war is wrong, ALL war is illegal you can’t pick and chose which wars are OK, so if the Iraqi war is wrong then so was WW1 and WW2, war is war you can’t vote for it to be legal, so stop talking bollocks.

    Mr Campbell is far more articulate, intelligent and thought provoking then you Mr Smith, it must stick in your claw to be out witted, out talked and out thought by what was it you called him… a pissed old hack.

    What wouldn’t you give for someone to ask for your views in life. Jealousy is such an easy shade of green to wear for some.

  30. Alastair, my mother and several relations have been buggered up with immune system problems, and I have somethjing or other, scleroderma or MS or something, it is plain to see. but thankfully not rheumatoid arthritis, which my mate up the road Steve got at 18! He has had more joint replacements than old wooden chair. Brilliant cricketer and rugby player when young – heartbreaking for him and everyone close to him.

  31. You can still make for a lot of giggles Aitch.

    Have a good day 🙂

    Am off to see mah bwoy, DiL and their daft spaniel.

  32. I’m sure the banks’ IT systems archives hold intelligence going back more than 6yrs (or I hope they do).

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