You don't have a free Press - get used to it
Home truths from the seaside from Michael Wolff
The Guardian columnist, Murdoch biographer, Newser.com founder and all-round Mr Angry Michael Wolff was invited to give his thoughts on the media at the Names Not Numbers festival in Aldburgh.
The event brings together movers and shakers, thinkers and doers for three days of debate on everything from food to philanthropy and from foreign affairs to philosophy. This year the theme is 'What matters' and for the media session, Wolff was in conversation with Peter Bale, digital vice-president of CNN Britain needs to come to terms with the fact that it doesn’t believe in a free Press, Michael Wolff told the Names Not Numbers festival on the Suffolk coast today.
Any regulation, whether imposed by the state or by the industry, meant the Press could not be free, he said, and the debate in this country exposed the astounding cultural gulf between Britain and America. “I’m thinking ‘Oh my God, what is going on here?’ “The US position is no regulation of the Press. It’s the 1st amendment, the constitution. There are no laws. It’s never an issue. It doesn’t come up in any circumstance; the idea that the Press could be regulated just doesn’t come up.” Wolff was speaking at the media session of the three-day festival, which is organised by Editorial Intelligence. Asked why he thought there was such a different approach between the two countries, Wolff said: “It could be fundamental Britishness, the polite thing; class; hierarchy. It isn’t about freedom of the Press. You don’t believe in freedom of the Press. You have to come to terms with this. Most of the world doesn’t - and that includes you.” On the Leveson inquiry and the aftermath, he pointed to the limits of the remit – which did not include the internet – and continued: “You can regulate til the cows come home. It’s irrelevant. It’s a tiny part of the English language market.” Wolff argued that there was no difference between the public interest and what interested the public, and he dismissed concerns about intrusions of privacy and the treatment of victims of crime. “I don’t care about the concerns of Milly Dowler’s parents – it’s sentiment. They weren’t damaged by what the Murdoch Press did. They were damaged because their daughter died.” On criticism of front page photographs of Mick Jagger after the death of his girlfriend L’Wren Scott, he said: “Mick’s grief? Give me a break. I was rolling around on the floor. “We have to accept that people are going to get hurt. Ultimately, you have to ask ‘are they damaged?’ You can’t protect people’s feelings.”
Wolff on Murdoch“He’s just a great character, whether he’s right or wrong. Nobody in the world has held power as long and as successfully as Rupert has.
“If he makes the bet I think he’ll make, that print is the ultimate distress asset that can be bought for pennies on the dollar, he will win.” So Rupert with have the last laugh? “No. I’ll have the last laugh on Rupert. I am the only person outside his family and closest executives who has a relationship with Rupert. I can really, really, really get under his skin.” |
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Wolff on...Journalists
They start to see themselves as politicians – who do they know? Who do they have to be nice to to get on. It’s not what I do. The New York Times when as a copyboy It was dirty and grey, everyone had a tic. It was an unhappy place. It’s still an unhappy place. Tina Brown I can’t help myself. There’s something about Tina. I’m sure she’s a lovely person...but her motivation is incredibly transparent, comical. It’s impossible to miss the cravenness. It’s a fascinating career: enormous success, abject failure. That’s inherently interesting. The media industry The most influential industry of our time...but it’s all 'me, me'. You rise in the media because you make it about you – you rise to the light. Writing I think ‘Can I write this sentence? Does it resonate? Does it move people? And, at some point, is it true?' For more on the Names Not Numbers festival, click here |
The encounter in the lift
Wolff had little contact with Murdoch after the publication of his 2008 biography The Man Who Owns The News. Today he recalled a fleeting confrontation at the News Corp headquarters in New York
The door opened and there, 9” away, was someone who looked familiar. He looked in great shape.
Then I realised who it was and thought ‘Shit!’
I could see what he was thinking. It was in his eyes. He thought ‘Shit!’
There was no place to go, so sheepishly, flirtatiously, I said ‘Hello Rupert’.
My arm automatically reached out.
He looked at me.
Then he threw up his arms in revulsion.
He went in, I went out and as we passed, he brushed past me.
I thought ‘He’s in great shape. This guy’s going to last forever.
Leveson - an expensive hiding to nothing Public inquiries cost a fortune and change little
Press regulation: history, hyperbole and hysteria We need to protect the free Press, but bringing Churchill into it is a bit over the top
Parliament, hacked off and self-regulation of the Press It's been agreed between MPs and Hacked Off with not input from the newspaper industry, but if Maria Miller says it's self-regulation, it must be
A new regulator? Yes please After all, it worked for the banks, the police and the energy companies
Press regulation: history, hyperbole and hysteria We need to protect the free Press, but bringing Churchill into it is a bit over the top
Parliament, hacked off and self-regulation of the Press It's been agreed between MPs and Hacked Off with not input from the newspaper industry, but if Maria Miller says it's self-regulation, it must be
A new regulator? Yes please After all, it worked for the banks, the police and the energy companies
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