Blair: British media are like 'a feral beast'

[T_i_B]

Source: Daily Telegraph

Tony Blair has launched a scathing attack on the UK media describing it as "a feral beast, just tearing people and reputations to bits".

He said fierce competition for stories meant that the modern media now hunted "in a pack". "In these modes it is like a feral beast, just tearing people and reputations to bits," he said. "But no-one dares miss out."

He acknowledged that New Labour had spent too much time in its early years trying to influence media coverage but said the Government's approach had been necessary due to the "ferocious hostility" towards Labour. However, he accepted that the "inordinate attention" paid to courting and persuading the media had fuelled cynicism.

While insisting that he was not complaining about the coverage he gets as Premier, Mr Blair claimed there was less balance in journalism now than 10 years ago.

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/12/nmedia112.xml

[Solly Mack]

1. Oh poofy on him

[acmavm]

2. Gee Tony, I don't think they had to look too hard to find bad news

to print about your lap dog performance with the Chimp.

What a cry baby. His 'legacy' isn't going to be as he himself sees it. Of course, he's a nasty bit of goods anyway, untrustworthy, sneaky, pandering, anti-democratic, delusional about HIS master and the thugs that pull his strings. He is getting what he deserved.

[Olney Blue]

3. Hey! I like Will Ferrell.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. He complains about The Independent, not the Mail or Sun

See my rant in the UK forum: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=191&topic_id=21519&mesg_id=21519

He's a hypocritical bastard. He set Campbell on the BBC hoping to destroy its reputation. He's lied and spun his way through his premiership. He's sucked up to the Mail, and Murdoch, and complained about the BBC. He loves biased media. Just the (large amount of the) media biased towards him.

[LeftishBrit]

5. Disgusting!

I agree that some of our media - e.g. the Daily Hate-Mail and all the Murdoch-owned media - does pander to the lowest common denominator. But he's not complaining about that; he just doesn't like anyone criticizing him!

[mdelaguna2000]

6. At least Tony has a way with words when he complains...

..."feral beast"...not bad! The pack behavior about ANS and now (ug) Paris is perhaps not Tony's complaint but worth complaining about.

[Rydz777]

7. And what about the American media? More like a slobbering

Basset hound that responds well to the command "Heel!"

[bemildred]

8. What a witless toad. nt

[Matilda]

9. They gave him an easy ride in the lead-up to the Iraq invasion.

I remember watching on the BBC world service a press conference Bliar gave, justifying the impending
invasion on the grounds that they had to get rid of Saddam and his state-sponsored terrorists because
they had to be prevented from staging another 9/11.

Nobody called him on the spurious Saddam-9/11 link, not one. They just sat like good little dogs,
waiting for crumbs of wisdom to drop from Bliar's mouth.

No, there wasn't much sign of balanced journalism then either.

[T_i_B]

10. Some did, some didn't

The RW press did give him an easy ride over Iraq but the left wing press (with the exeption of the Observer) most certainly did not.

And as Muriel_volestrangler points out, Blair is singling out the Independent for special criticism here. The Independent is a left wing paper that opposes the Iraq war. Now I don't think that the Independent is perfect, and I'm having a debate about that in the UK forum, but they do take a pop back at Blair on today's front page about this.

Would you be saying this, Mr Blair, if we supported your war in Iraq?

[Matilda]

11. I know and respect The Independent,

but at the press conference that I watched live - a full room of probably about 100+ reporters -
not one challenged Bliar on his statements connecting Saddam to 9/11. Some asked questions, but
they were not in the least critical of Bliar's statements. I can't tell you what newspapers were
represented, nor which journalists were there on behalf of their papers, but nobody at all challenged
Bliar.

I'm talking only of this press conference, not of published articles by journalists such as The
Independent's Robert Fisk and others who were highly critical of the invasion. That is why I was
so shocked by the acquiescence of those in attendance at this press conference - from articles I
had read, I expected some attempt at honest criticism of what they were being fed by Bliar, but it
didn't happen.

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. Oh, the irony: broadcasters prevented from showing the questions after this

Answering questions, the Prime Minister made clear he was not calling for statutory controls but wanted the media to put its own house in order through tougher self-regulation. "If politicians lead this debate, we will lose it," he said.

Ironically, his lecture sparked a row with the media. Downing Street banned broadcasters from screening the questions he answered at the end of the speech after ITV News asked him whether he regretted the way intelligence was used in the run-up to the Iraq war.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2651051.ece

He's a control freak to the end.