Leveson inquiry becomes a media circus
Jim Marshall says the original purpose of the Leveson inquiry is becoming lost in an increasingly morass of celebrity style trivia…
Arguably, there is only one story at the moment: the never ending story of the Leveson Inquiry.
Last week the star witnesses were Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks – and the previous week the great man himself, Rupert Murdoch, appeared with his not so great son James.
Phew, what fun! The suave Robert Jay QC has been leading the attack for the ‘old republic’ against the ‘dark empire’ of News international and there has been much verbal jousting, stern questioning and even a bit of flirting – though not with Rupert Murdoch I hasten to add.
Yes, indeed great fun. But that’s about it. Now this inquiry seems to be turning into something of a media circus.
(Also, is it me, or is the rather self-satisfied and slightly sneering approach of Robert Jay QC making him an increasingly irritating individual? In fairness, lawyers are not always the most endearing characters; it’s not without cause that it was once said: “My definition of utter waste is a coachload of lawyers going over a cliff with three empty seats”).
The problem is that the original purpose of the inquiry is becoming lost in an increasingly morass of celebrity style trivia – e.g. “How close was Rebekah to Rupert?”; “How often did she speak with Tony Blair and how irregularly with Gordon Brown?”; And of course the headline issue: “Did David Cameron sign off his texts to Rebekah with LOL?”.
Apart from confirming that politicians tend to ‘suck up’ to important and influential members of the press (as if we didn’t know that already), has this got anything to do with the inquiry’s originally stated purpose? In case you need reminding, this was to address: ‘the culture, practices and ethics of the press, including contacts between the press and politicians and the press and the police’ – with the requirement to then go on and look at the allegations relating to News International and finally the regulatory framework for the press.
Part of the dilemma here is that the inquiry cannot encroach into areas where there is an on-going criminal inquiry, which covers a fair amount of ground and many of the leading protagonists in the affair, including Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson.
In fact this week Rebekah Brooks was charged with conspiring to obstruct justice in the News International hacking case. She announced: “As the details of the case emerge people will see today as an expensive sideshow, and a waste of public money.”
Strangely, she wasn’t talking about the Leveson inquiry, which, in my view, has become the sideshow and an increasingly extravagant waste of public time and money. Whereas the resulting court cases are potentially more likely to provide more telling details on the behaviour of the press, the police and even some politicians. (Perhaps she was misquoted, which would be ironic if true!).
At the same time, the public continue to display a fair degree of indifference to the process – it may have devolved into fun and light entertainment, and Robert Jay QC may have become the ‘Simon Cowellesque’ star of the proceedings, but it’s really not much of a viewing alternative to Britain’s Got Talent or The Voice when it comes to genuine light entertainment. So, will it please stop trying to be a celebrity chat show and get back to its real and proper purpose?
… Oh, and the only newspaper story of any real significance this week is the publication of separate circulation figures for the Saturday editions by the ABC for the first time ever.
Many of the figures are dramatic – overall 10.4 million sales on a Saturday compared with a weekday average of 8.1 million; over 760,000 Saturday sales of the Telegraph, compared to slightly over 500,000 weekday sales; and a Saturday figure of nearly 2.7 million for the Daily Mail and over three million for The Sun.
Of course we were already largely familiar with these figures but there is nothing like official industry confirmation to highlight a trend of huge long-term significance for the newspaper industry. Well done to the ABC for getting agreement to the publication of this data (though Mike Ironside did rather smugly point out that the NRS have been publishing separate Saturday figures for around 15 years).