Catch21 Productions | Electoral Media Madness: Part 1: A few lines of thought.

Electoral Media Madness: Part 1: A few lines of thought.

I love Catch21. I love what we try to do in breaking down political issues for, granted, a younger audience, but I hope this extends to a wider audience in the future. An audience that I hope wants to understand not only the major political issues that are coming up in the year ahead but also the politics of politics. The swerves and turns that will come with mass media opportunism in staying ‘on top’ of the election cycle.

news crew Unlike any election before, this one will spin every single day on an endless cycle of headlines attempted to shock, partisan bloggers attempting to stun and management of policy decisions forced into digestible bite size pieces for the electorate in a way that will make them the right thing at the right time. We are not in some Orwellian dystopia but we cannot for one-minute listen to any idea without considering the way it is being communicated to us. Especially after some very strange antics I’ve seen this week on the part of some Journalists.

With that in mind, I have decided to keep up my blogging rights here on Catch21 with an eye on the media and how attitudes and styles are developed by certain news outlets, bloggers and journalists in the run up to the election.

A lot of events in the past week have brought me to this decision. We are entering a daunting period for journalism in this country. It has long been the case in America for example that journos and commentators with an agenda dominate the news. Careerism is rife in journalism (as in everything) but it seems particularly cynical and bitter to swallow when you see it first hand in the press.

Earlier this year I enjoyed a beer with a very bright young columnist from The Weekly Standard. He knew his stuff when it came to geopolitics, but kept coming back to his ambition to be a ‘talking head’. I can’t help think that when I see a ‘talking head’ that the ‘head’ in question is trying to be bigger than the story. On the ‘Right’ we have examples such as Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity and on the ‘Left’, particularly Keith Olbermann. Granted these are all American examples but I can’t help but think during the course of this election we will get a chance to see some of our very own.

Why have I come to this conclusion you ask? Well, as with most murky goings on, in my mind it seems to be originating from a slow but building assault on journalistic style from News International in the UK. Between the legendarily ruthless Rupert Murdoch and hard-as-nails by reputation new Chief Exec in Rebekah Wade (she did beat up ‘Grant Mitchell’), it seems that they are ready for a new kind of war against established standards of journalism set down in the UK. Most of these standards have come from the BBC, who seems to be the biggest target, but ironically are not innocent in this pattern shift themselves. Everyone is trying to evolve and remain the most viable outlet for the future in an ever-expanding media universe. Sensationalism by definition will play a part in this strategy.

This has been building slowly. First came the James Murdoch Speech at the Edinburgh Festival that articulated his fears of the scope that the BBC were trying to achieve, then came the ‘Leaders Debate’ initiative by Sky. What was crucial about this was that it aimed to take the initiative away from the Beeb that they have long run away with when it comes to election coverage. Domestic Politics came second to the driving need to make Sky News the most progressive ‘force’ going. If politics changes in Britain, Murdoch wants his stamp on it. Does he really care about Representative Democracy in Britain?

‘Progression’ when it comes to any Murdoch run corporation means nothing without the obvious attempt to rattle cages. First there was the decision of The Sun to back Cameron when it did. There was nothing shocking about their decision, but to do it hours after a keynote speech by the sitting Prime Minister demonstrated a new willingness to not just want to ‘back’ winners in the UK but help decide who they would turn out to be, much like the antics with Fox News in North America.

Sky News pushed me over the edge the morning after the endorsement in the way it covered a time that demanded impartiality if we were to gauge the true impact of any endorsement. Adam Boulton had a sit-down interview with the Prime Minister. Obviously it had been managed to demonstrate a serene PM as the Conference had broken up, but what became obvious was that the interview would be more about News International than it would be about Labour’s response to the The Sun’s endorsement of the opposition. Boulton, a journalist I have literally grown up learning the political process from, kept bringing everything back to personality and a gulf between the desire of the Labour Party for Brown to take part in the Leaders’ Debate and Brown’s natural and understandable hesitation at having his hands tied by what is still essentially a cable news channel, despite its growing reputation. Brown was increasingly rattled and the interview descended into a farce. Journalists are supposed to challenge politicians, but not like this. I wanted to count the amount of times I heard the phrase ‘Leaders’ Debate’ and then translate that number into kicks of my television screen so as to be sure I wouldn’t have to stick with watching Adam Boulton’s goofy smug expression. The final insult though came in the wrapping up of the interview, when it was a case of ‘Gordon Brown – thank you’, not ‘thank you Prime Minister’, as Brown sat there with a glare that suggested he was about to send Boulton back to London not with the press core but in a body bag. He’d been done, and he knew it.

It was journalistic arrogance from a man who obviously feels at a point in his career when he can make the story – in this case anger the man running the country – instead of simply being happy to report one. Later in the day Kay Burley when recounting the events told her viewers that Brown’s anger was a result of not eating his ‘three wheatabix in the morning’. This smarmy off-the-cuff approach was revolting and indicative of what will be an increasing attempt to dumb down real stories in the months ahead.

Of course, its not just Sky and News International that are and will continue to be the focus of my glare and eagle eye. It was shocking to see how many similar stories of Boulton’s incredibility there were last week. Andrew Marr becoming pre-concerned with stories of painkillers was probably the one that stood out. Its not a case that this question should not have been asked, but again Marr’s style of questioning was that of a man who knew he could get the whip-hand over someone who is probably the least media savvy person in the UK since Bagpuss. He didn’t want to interview he wanted to harangue. It became, like Sky later in the week, about the network getting the headlines. Something they certainly did.

This new attitude is set to run. With the Conservative Conference this week any slights that come their way will probably be about money…in fact just plain will be about money. This was proved by the Telegraph yesterday putting a £30,000.000 price tag on ‘Cam and Sam’ (my affectionate nickname for the next probable first couple of the UK – that’s now copyrighted) and Andrew Marr once again acting like a psychologist in trying to get Cameron to put his own price on his wealth. You’ve got to feel sorry for Labour, at least the Tories get questions about their easy living...they had to settle with drug addiction.

Channel 4 will later this week run a programme on Cameron’s Oxford days with our lovable Mayor of London taking on the role of his sidekick (Boris was a student there during the same time). I can’t help but predict that is going to further cloud over minds. Both major Conferences would have passed and what we will remember most will be anger, drugs, drink and people ‘gunning’ for a fight. This isn’t politics; it’s a Friday in Doncaster. I have not seen Channel 4’s show yet but I imagine it will try to paint a sinister undertone to the Conservative’s design on power. Programmes like that are not unique to this time but when taken into consideration alongside the other networks’ recent actions, it falls into a bizarre foxhole system of different channels circumventing the first Conference Season in a long time that we really do have to pay attention to.

We are the start of a long and strange period for political journalism in this country. I will watch it every step of the way and blog heartily for those who care to enjoy.

Simon.

PS. Okay, I’ve got to say this. Yes, David Cameron was in the Bullingdon club. Yes he was portly and yes he probably drank…well, port…But Oxford is my hometown, I’ve been to the Bullingdon. Skull and Bones at Yale it is not. It’s not that sinister.

We all do dumb stuff at university (I once slept in a bin) its what you do after the dumb stuff that counts.