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| The middle-aged men of the press must keep pace with seismic social change, or be left behind | The middle-aged men of the press must keep pace with seismic social change, or be left behind |
| (about 20 hours later) | |
| Defensive, self-interested reporting of equality campaigns will leave national newspapers looking behind the curve | |
| Sun 14 Jan 2018 14.00 GMT | |
| Last modified on Mon 15 Jan 2018 00.16 GMT | |
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| Hear that rumble; feel that tremor. It’s tectonic plates shifting. 2017 was a year of aggressive activism. 2018 will be even more so. | Hear that rumble; feel that tremor. It’s tectonic plates shifting. 2017 was a year of aggressive activism. 2018 will be even more so. |
| Equality and social justice campaigns have noticeably gone up a gear: think #MeToo, gender, race, mental health, disability. Finally, after years denying there was a problem or defending the status quo, authorities in government and other areas of public life appear to be listening. So how will a British media famously sluggish about addressing demands for social change, much less for change and diversity within the industry itself, cope? The omens aren’t uniformly good. | Equality and social justice campaigns have noticeably gone up a gear: think #MeToo, gender, race, mental health, disability. Finally, after years denying there was a problem or defending the status quo, authorities in government and other areas of public life appear to be listening. So how will a British media famously sluggish about addressing demands for social change, much less for change and diversity within the industry itself, cope? The omens aren’t uniformly good. |
| When Theresa May moved to freshen up her cabinet by bringing in more women and minorities, the Mail’s take was: “Massacre of the middle-aged men.” The Times highlighted the “white men booted out in May’s push for women and minorities”. The Telegraph also went for the familiar: “‘Tokenism’ claim as women and ethnic minorities gain in reshuffle.” | When Theresa May moved to freshen up her cabinet by bringing in more women and minorities, the Mail’s take was: “Massacre of the middle-aged men.” The Times highlighted the “white men booted out in May’s push for women and minorities”. The Telegraph also went for the familiar: “‘Tokenism’ claim as women and ethnic minorities gain in reshuffle.” |
| Credit, then, to the Sun. Its leader said the prime minister should have gone even further. “It is great to see a flood of women and black and ethnic minority MPs promoted to ministerial roles. One question: some plainly have the talent for the top jobs. Why were they not propelled straight into the cabinet on Monday? It would have shown more intent, imagination and courage than the haphazard tinkering we got instead.” A shining Sun, in this regard at least. Who would have thought it? | Credit, then, to the Sun. Its leader said the prime minister should have gone even further. “It is great to see a flood of women and black and ethnic minority MPs promoted to ministerial roles. One question: some plainly have the talent for the top jobs. Why were they not propelled straight into the cabinet on Monday? It would have shown more intent, imagination and courage than the haphazard tinkering we got instead.” A shining Sun, in this regard at least. Who would have thought it? |
| The danger is that as national newspapers in particular report on equality campaigns, they still appear woefully behind the curve. So much of the reshuffle coverage looked like the product of middle-aged white men lamenting the fall of other middle-aged white men with the subtext of “there but for the grace of God”. | The danger is that as national newspapers in particular report on equality campaigns, they still appear woefully behind the curve. So much of the reshuffle coverage looked like the product of middle-aged white men lamenting the fall of other middle-aged white men with the subtext of “there but for the grace of God”. |
| Look too at the initial coverage of the army’s new campaign to broaden its appeal by promoting itself as an organisation that gay people and minorities might want to sign up to. “Colonel who led British troops to war in Afghanistan slams ‘political correctness’ of £1.6m diversity drive,” said the story on Mail Online. Indeed, there was pushback. Progressive change isn’t always popular, and a reasonable media will try to capture both sides of the debate. | Look too at the initial coverage of the army’s new campaign to broaden its appeal by promoting itself as an organisation that gay people and minorities might want to sign up to. “Colonel who led British troops to war in Afghanistan slams ‘political correctness’ of £1.6m diversity drive,” said the story on Mail Online. Indeed, there was pushback. Progressive change isn’t always popular, and a reasonable media will try to capture both sides of the debate. |
| The key is the tone and framing. Does the reporting seem open to debate, or defensive and self-interested? | The key is the tone and framing. Does the reporting seem open to debate, or defensive and self-interested? |
| The Times ran a cartoon equating gay Britons with the leather-jacketed, moustachioed figures from the 1970s disco group Village People. | The Times ran a cartoon equating gay Britons with the leather-jacketed, moustachioed figures from the 1970s disco group Village People. |
| That’s the pitfall. The press would do well to avoid it, or we might spend a game-changing year looking off the pace and silly. | That’s the pitfall. The press would do well to avoid it, or we might spend a game-changing year looking off the pace and silly. |
| Should journalists know their place? | Should journalists know their place? |
| Now that we’ve reconciled to the fact that Toby Young will not, as a quangocrat, guide the destiny of university students, as his backers so improbably hoped, another question presents itself: are journalists actually good for anything but journalism? | Now that we’ve reconciled to the fact that Toby Young will not, as a quangocrat, guide the destiny of university students, as his backers so improbably hoped, another question presents itself: are journalists actually good for anything but journalism? |
| No one doubts that Young had the intellectual capacity to perform a public role. But what he also had was a journalistic and social media past that effectively disqualified him. And that can be a shame if it deters journalists from seeking to use their talents to do other things that could lead to public benefit. | No one doubts that Young had the intellectual capacity to perform a public role. But what he also had was a journalistic and social media past that effectively disqualified him. And that can be a shame if it deters journalists from seeking to use their talents to do other things that could lead to public benefit. |
| I recall Anthony Browne – once of the Observer, then an apparatchik of Boris Johnson’s when the make-believe foreign secretary was a make-believe mayor of London, and for five years thereafter head of the British Bankers’ Association – explaining his transition with the plea for acceptance as “a recovering journalist”. | I recall Anthony Browne – once of the Observer, then an apparatchik of Boris Johnson’s when the make-believe foreign secretary was a make-believe mayor of London, and for five years thereafter head of the British Bankers’ Association – explaining his transition with the plea for acceptance as “a recovering journalist”. |
| Is it journalism itself that casts an enduring, debilitating stain, or just a particular kind of journalism? After all, there are “recovering journalists” in parliament, in trade bodies, in government departments, in many a quango. And that’s not surprising, for the skillset of the moderately proficient journalist – the ability to discover facts, the instinct for checking, an eye for prose, a respect for deadlines, and the reporters’ belief that even the improbable might just be doable – is both valuable and transferable. | Is it journalism itself that casts an enduring, debilitating stain, or just a particular kind of journalism? After all, there are “recovering journalists” in parliament, in trade bodies, in government departments, in many a quango. And that’s not surprising, for the skillset of the moderately proficient journalist – the ability to discover facts, the instinct for checking, an eye for prose, a respect for deadlines, and the reporters’ belief that even the improbable might just be doable – is both valuable and transferable. |
| The problem here was that Young was not just a journalistic controversialist but a particular strain of controversialist. These practitioners do not merely seek to gain attention through iconoclastic views or counterintuitive positions. Instead, they mine outrage and associate with others who do likewise. Katie Hopkins is their high priestess, and as she spirals to earth (last seen writing for an obscure rightwing Australian website) she embodies their limitations. Young, aside from his writing and tweeting, also took to hanging out with dodgy eugenicists. | The problem here was that Young was not just a journalistic controversialist but a particular strain of controversialist. These practitioners do not merely seek to gain attention through iconoclastic views or counterintuitive positions. Instead, they mine outrage and associate with others who do likewise. Katie Hopkins is their high priestess, and as she spirals to earth (last seen writing for an obscure rightwing Australian website) she embodies their limitations. Young, aside from his writing and tweeting, also took to hanging out with dodgy eugenicists. |
| All this makes for fiery copy, but it comes at a price. Maybe good will come of this. Perhaps, in future, Young and his shock jock ilk will think harder about how the outrage they mine might impact them further down the line. | All this makes for fiery copy, but it comes at a price. Maybe good will come of this. Perhaps, in future, Young and his shock jock ilk will think harder about how the outrage they mine might impact them further down the line. |
| Mail rail no more for Virgin Trains | Mail rail no more for Virgin Trains |
| In the increasingly vexed matter of the Mail versus Virgin Trains, the judgment famously voiced by Henry Kissinger comes to mind: it’s a shame they can’t both lose. Neither seems an appealing champion. | In the increasingly vexed matter of the Mail versus Virgin Trains, the judgment famously voiced by Henry Kissinger comes to mind: it’s a shame they can’t both lose. Neither seems an appealing champion. |
| The widespread lament over Virgin’s decision to no longer sell the Mail onboard its trains is that it is censorship. And yet, if forced to choose, it seems just as easy to rank the right, in a free society, of even Richard Branson and his lieutenants to run his railway as he deems fit and to curtail the onboard sale of the Mail – with due regard to the consequences – above those cries of censorship. | The widespread lament over Virgin’s decision to no longer sell the Mail onboard its trains is that it is censorship. And yet, if forced to choose, it seems just as easy to rank the right, in a free society, of even Richard Branson and his lieutenants to run his railway as he deems fit and to curtail the onboard sale of the Mail – with due regard to the consequences – above those cries of censorship. |
| Those unable to last a journey without the wit of Littlejohn or the lifestyle guidance of Sarah Vine remain free to buy a copy to take on board. Mail readers are loyal, so they will do so. And phones aren’t banned at all, so there’s no risk to any whose craving is all things celebrity and Mail Online’s so-called “sidebar of shame”. If we accept the Mail’s own reaction to the Virgin announcement, that only 70 papers a day were sold that way anyway, one concludes that the dissemination of its material and its particular worldview will hardly be affected at all. | Those unable to last a journey without the wit of Littlejohn or the lifestyle guidance of Sarah Vine remain free to buy a copy to take on board. Mail readers are loyal, so they will do so. And phones aren’t banned at all, so there’s no risk to any whose craving is all things celebrity and Mail Online’s so-called “sidebar of shame”. If we accept the Mail’s own reaction to the Virgin announcement, that only 70 papers a day were sold that way anyway, one concludes that the dissemination of its material and its particular worldview will hardly be affected at all. |
| And another thing that should please the Mail: it believes entrepreneurs should be free – unhindered by unions, bossy regulators or superfluous external forces – to take the risks and consequences that come with the pursuit of profit. And surely that is what Virgin is now doing. If a sufficient portion of its passengers judge the move to have been a bad one, they will show their displeasure and the company, guarding its bottom line, will have to think again. | And another thing that should please the Mail: it believes entrepreneurs should be free – unhindered by unions, bossy regulators or superfluous external forces – to take the risks and consequences that come with the pursuit of profit. And surely that is what Virgin is now doing. If a sufficient portion of its passengers judge the move to have been a bad one, they will show their displeasure and the company, guarding its bottom line, will have to think again. |
| Virgin said it had decided the Mail was “not compatible with the VT brand and our beliefs”. Many may not like that judgment, or Richard Branson, but here’s the thing: Virgin does indeed have a brand and a right to protect it. By the same token, Liverpool newsagents had every right, after the misreporting of the Hillsborough disaster, to refuse to stock the Sun. | Virgin said it had decided the Mail was “not compatible with the VT brand and our beliefs”. Many may not like that judgment, or Richard Branson, but here’s the thing: Virgin does indeed have a brand and a right to protect it. By the same token, Liverpool newsagents had every right, after the misreporting of the Hillsborough disaster, to refuse to stock the Sun. |
| The media has a hard-won, much cherished right to publish its material. We can all get behind that. But there’s no law forcing third parties to sell it. | The media has a hard-won, much cherished right to publish its material. We can all get behind that. But there’s no law forcing third parties to sell it. |
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