Stephen Glover: Why the kid gloves for Mr Desmond?

Media Studies: Most newspapers are disinclined to pick a fight with an established proprietor

News in pictures
News in pictures
On Facebook
From the blogs

The future of academic publishing

These are the most uncertain times in living memory for academic publishing. After decades of bumpin...

Books with soundtracks: no, really, this one works…

Books with soundtracks. The idea is so glaringly obvious, and so obviously feeble, that I hesitate t...

Criminalising squatting: Is it worth it?

Squatters haven’t received the most glowing press over the past year. Various cases of displaced pro...

Would you be willing to profit from selling Nazi surgical equipment?

Imagine for a moment that, for whatever reason, you find yourself to be in possession of a case of m...

Last Friday, Richard Desmond bought the television channel Five for £103m and there was barely a murmur of protest in the media. Yet his purchase of the Daily Express in December 2000 created a terrific hullabaloo. Many thought that a man whose fortune was founded on pornography might not be a proper person to own a national newspaper. The Guardian had doubts, having produced evidence linking Mr Desmond with hardcore pornography. It discovered that a company owned by him had registered a website which promised live heterosexual sex, live lesbian sex as well as other images portraying a sex-crazed woman of 78, another who was pregnant, and another who went by the name of Anal Annie.

Despite this and other pieces in The Guardian, and effusions against Mr Desmond in the Daily Mail, he got the Daily and Sunday Express, as well as the Daily Star, with a helping hand from Tony Blair and Alastair Campbell, who believed he would keep the paper in the New Labour camp (he did, though not for long). Nonetheless, he remained a controversial character for some time.

Not any more, it seems. His purchase of Five was reported briefly by the Mail and The Times in their business pages without any hint of anxiety or reproach. The Daily Telegraph had run a short non-judgemental piece the previous day. The Independent carried a fair-sized item. Only The Guardian pushed the boat out, with a full page of news and comment that lacked its former spirit of censure. You might think newspapers no longer care about Mr Desmond's past as a pornographer because he is a changed character. In fact, although he has sold his pornographic magazines, he still owns several lucrative pay-TV sex channels which, while perhaps not featuring the likes of Anal Annie, pump out extreme stuff. These are available on Rupert Murdoch's BskyB satellite system.

Why the differing responses between 2000 and now? Perhaps newspapers sense that attitudes to pornography have changed. After all, one of New Labour's most striking legacies is a lap-dancing club in every city. Millions of people are said to ogle hardcore sex on the internet night and day. The old – and to me still wholly persuasive – argument that pornography is inevitably degrading to women is heard less from feminists, churchmen and politicians.

There is a further explanation for Mr Desmond's easy ride. Most newspapers are disinclined to pick a fight with an established proprietor, and the Murdoch-owned titles are hardly in a position to throw stones in view of Sky's role as a platform for Mr Desmond's sex channels. More than this, there is a sense of wariness. When the Mail inveighed against him nine years ago, the Express responded with a long article about the wild oats sewn by its proprietor Lord Rothermere, which led to a non-aggression pact between the two newspapers that has mostly endured. The Telegraph retains memories of Mr Desmond's explosion at a meeting during which he accused its executives of being Nazis.

Some newspapers are rather frightened of Richard Desmond. He plays by rougher rules, and they would rather not engage with him. This is regrettable because there are greater public interest issues around his acquisition of Five than there were with the Express titles. We make a choice in paying for a newspaper. Moreover, there was never any prospect of his turning the staid Daily Express into a smut sheet. Five, by contrast, is beamed into every sitting room, and has a history as a home of soft porn. One turn of the ratchet and your children might be watching things you would prefer them not to on terrestrial TV.

I have no idea whether Mr Desmond has any such intentions but, given his background, it is surely a matter of legitimate public concern. But who is concerned? Not Ofcom, which is apparently waving the bid through. Not the newspapers, and very few MPs. Meanwhile, a Prime Minister who frets about your children's consumption of chocolate orange slices seems wholly unruffled by Richard Desmond's acquisition of channel Five.

A Society to Save Simon Heffer



The Daily Telegraph could not bring itself to report the release from an American prison of its former proprietor, Conrad Black. Is it embarrassed? Surely it won't be able to ignore his appeal and, if it ever comes, his rehabilitation.

A scarcely less enthralling saga is being played out within the Telegraph. After nearly a year's sojourn in Cambridge, during which he continued to write his columns for the paper, Simon Heffer's thoughts are turning to a possibly enhanced role when he returns to London. In a recent conversation with his friend Murdoch MacLennan, chief executive of the Telegraph Media Group, several possibilities were discussed. Might the editor of The Spectator (a sister publication) move aside for Heff? Or the supremo of the Telegraph's comment pages? The answer appears to be "no".

My impression is that Mr Heffer is not as appreciated as he should be, partly because his violently anti-Cameron pieces embarrass executives now that the Tories are in firmly power. Surely it is time to rally to his side. I feel about him as I would if some familiar monument were threatened by an iconoclastic town council, and would cheerfully contribute towards his maintenance.

For Mrs Brooks is an honourable lady



As I have mentioned before, Rebekah Brooks's entry in Who's Who? might be judged slightly misleading. The chief executive of News International says she studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, though in fact she was a language student there, and never took a degree.

Hats off, then, to an institution calling itself the University of the Arts London, which conferred an Honorary Fellowship on Mrs Brooks last week for her contribution to "the arts and the creative industries" (that must mean The Sun, which she edited for six years). It won't be long before Oxford is tossing honorary doctorates in her direction.

s.glover@independent.co.uk

Independent Comment
blog comments powered by Disqus

Day In a Page

The data goldmine: Why forgetting to log out can cost you dearly

Data goldmine: Have you forgotten to log out?

David Crookes finds out how much stolen Twitter accounts, hacked eBay pages and more are really worth.
The 10 best free games

The 10 best free games

From The Secret of Grisly Manor to Words With Friends...
Fear and loathing in London: The Death of Klinghoffer is staged in the capital for the first time

Fear and loathing in London: The Death of Klinghoffer

The ENO is staging the controversial opera in the capital for the first time
'Today, Rita could have signed up to Open University on Facebook'

'Rita could have signed up to Open University on Facebook'

The OU's famous fictional student wouldn't recognise the video-conferencing, social networking, flexible insitution it's grown into.
Kenya's coffee wars

Kenya's coffee wars

The boom in high-grade beans should be bringing rural Africa riches. Instead, it is fuelling a lethal crimewave
Billions of tons of water lost from world's glaciers, satellite reveals

Climate change

Billions of tons of water lost from world's glaciers, satellite reveals
Out of fashion: Designers finding new ways to sell their style

Out of fashion

Designers finding new ways to sell their style
James Lawton: Sadness and anger over the ultimate betrayal

James Lawton on Capello resignation

Sadness and anger over the ultimate betrayal
Tale of the trial: Laughter, anger... and bulldogs

Tale of the trial: Laughter, anger... and bulldogs

Redknapp's trial was the most remarkable and colourful case the modern game has seen. Sam Wallace, who was there for all 13 days, recounts the defining moments
Rhys Priestland: Praise for North star

Rhys Priestland: Praise for North star

The Wales No 10 may not be getting his kicks but he's not concerned... he plays with George North
Yayoi Kusama brings colour to Tate Modern

Colourful Yayoi Kusama

Japanese artist's retrospective at Tate Modern.
Church debate: Who'd be a bishop?

Church debate: Who'd be a bishop?

The General Synod debates women bishops again today. While they make up their minds, John Walsh weighs the palaces and puce robes against the political powerlessness
A tale of two cities: Portsmouth and London say happy birthday to Dickens

A tale of two cities

Portsmouth and London say happy birthday to Dickens
Pitch battle! Football league in Argentina renamed in honour of 'General Belgrano'

Pitch battle in Argentina!

Football league renamed in honour of 'General Belgrano'
Altar of Bones: A literary sensation – but who dunnit?

A literary sensation – but who dunnit?

The books world mulls over the identity of an acclaimed new author, but what drives writers to hide behind a nom de plume?