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Hanson rails against 'destructive' media

Marianne Macdonald,Media Correspondent
Thursday 16 May 1996 23:02 BST
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Lord Hanson yesterday mounted a withering attack on "destructive journalism", accusing tabloid and broadsheet newspapers alike of lurid interest in the private lives of even minor public figures.

Television, by concentrating on personality and trivia at the expense of serious discussion, was potentially very damaging to our lives and beliefs and tends to destroy public trust, said the tycoon.

While journalism had engendered a situation where the public now generally disbelieved and disliked politicians, the reality was the opposite. Parliament, far from being awash with sleaze and corruption, "must be one of the most incorrupt in the world".

The chairman of Hanson plc, the industrial conglomerate, launched his attack in an article in the Spectator magazine yesterday.

"The tabloids thrive on damaging personal revelations, but the broadsheets are now not far behind in lurid disclosures of the private lives of even comparatively minor politicians and public figures," he wrote.

"With so much pressure and so few improprieties revealed, some of us, indeed, might take this as confirmation of the extremely high standards of most of our leading political figures.

"TV exacerbates the concentration on personality and trivia at the expense of serious discussion and analysis, but its tendency to unbalance and to displace what really matters goes much further and is potentially very damaging to our lives and beliefs. It tends to destroy public trust."

In the recent US Republican Party primaries, reporters on network news had six times the airtime than that given to the candidates they were supposedly covering.

"TV personalities now rule the roost. Legislators, politicians and businessmen - those who actually get things done - are treated as little more than a visiting cabaret, passing through the theatre. Destructive journalism fosters the belief that politicians routinely evade the truth and break their promises. It creates a climate in which trust in society as a whole dissolves, in which difficulties are magnified beyond all proportion, in which no one is believed to act except for the most self-centred of motives.

"In a way this reflects not so much maturity and worldly wisdom on the part of the media reporters, as an immaturity deriving from their never having had to do anything in the real world."

Businessmen were also affected by the vicious cycle of destructive journalism. "They are castigated for seeking profit, damaging the environment and much else besides. These are easy and emotional targets, making for dramatic television.

"While we hear a great deal about the damaging effects of roads and cars, we hear far less about the enormous strides made by car manufacturers in reducing pollution or about the benefits of better roads."

Cynicism, by its relentless questioning of the character and motives of those at the sharp end, weakened the nation, he added.

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How far should the press go?

Martin Amis, novelist

It is certainly a small-minded, mean-minded trait in the British character that thrives on people's private lives being exposed - but whether it is press-led or press-reflected, I am not sure. I would certainly like to see privacy laws tightened. It is hard to think of the benefit of some stories that appear in the press. I would have thought that information should be divulged on a need-to-know basis.

John Willis, director of programming, Channel 4

The tabloids may be too invasive, but there is a role which journalism plays on behalf of the viewer and reader in asking fair and proper questions in the interests of democracy. They are the testers of those who hold power and influence. If people are cynical about politicians it is because they have fairly low esteem, take cash for questions and have rather sordid private lives.

Adrian Noble, artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company

The lack of verification of information is what I find absolutely terrifying, because it tarnishes people's reputation. An example: The press picked up a story that the RSC had written to Jim'll Fix It to try and arrange an interview with Trevor Nunn. It was absolute bollocks, based on the fact that an actor had made a joke about it when Trevor came back from his first sabbatical in 20 years.

Andrew Morton, author of Diana: Her True Story

Everybody talks about the intrusion of privacy but it's always about the intrusion into the lives of the rich . . . I've never yet heard any newspaper discuss the intrusion into the privacy of the poor, the dispossessed, the dying. Does a mother of a child starving to death in Ethiopia want that picture shown on the evening news for the delectation of people watching? By definition, all journalism is intrusion.

Max Clifford, PR guru

It's the very pomposity of the man which is one of the reasons, shall we say, that the British public have the perception they do of so many politicians and leaders of industry. The fact is that in recent years so many of them have been seen to be sleazy, corrupt and hypocritical. That's not what the media have made up, that's what the media have shown up. If they have got an increasingly bad reputation ... you can't blame the messenger.

Fay Weldon, novelist and screenwriter

I have felt at the sharp end of this, and it's certainly not nice, but neither is going to work from 9am to 5pm. The fact that people stand outside your door and want to know details of your private life is not particularly nice and you would rather they didn't. At the same time, if you stick your head above the parapet you have to expect interest. If you take the benefits, you must expect to pay the price.

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