Salon.com > Toby Young

Three cheers for Murdoch!

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 22:20:00 +0000

British journalists love nothing more than a big, fast-moving story, so we're understandably excited about the fallout from the News of the World phone-hacking scandal. Just today, Andy Coulson, the paper’s ex-editor, was arrested, while Clive Goodman, the paper’s former royal correspondent, was rearrested. There’s talk of reams of emails being deleted at News International’s Wapping headquarters, and Rebekah Brooks, the company’s chief executive, is hanging on by her fingertips. It’s thrilling. This is what we live for.

Yet many of us are waking up to the fact that it could result in some of our cherished freedoms being curtailed. There’s no First Amendment in Britain, no constitutional guarantee of press freedom. The prime minister, David Cameron, gave a press conference this morning, in which he tried to put some distance between himself and the Murdoch empire. (Andy Coulson used to be his communications director, and he was a guest at Rebekah Brooks’ wedding.) He announced that there would be two official inquiries – one into the phone-hacking allegations and why the initial police investigation uncovered so little evidence of wrongdoing, and one into the ethics of the press. He also said the press could no longer be relied upon to regulate itself, and his government would create a new independent regulator. “It is vital that a free press can tell truth to power,” he said. “It is equally vital that those in power can tell truth to the press.”

Can the beloved William save the monarchy?

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 10:01:00 +0000

Political journalists in Britain have been poring over the memoirs of Tony Blair and his most trusted lieutenants in recent days in an attempt to discover why the ex-prime minister hasn't been invited to the royal wedding. This looks awfully like a snub, particularly as his two Conservative predecessors -- Margaret Thatcher and John Major -- are both on the list. The official explanation is that Thatcher and Major are members of the Royal Order of the Garter while Blair is not. But no one believes it of course.

The diaries of Alastair Campbell, Blair's press secretary, may contain a clue. In the section dealing with the death of Princess Diana he notes how well the prime minister went down on the BBC News after hailing her as the "People's Princess." "It was a very powerful piece of communication," he says. "The People's Princess was easily the strongest line, and the people in the studio afterwards were clearly impressed and felt he had really caught the mood." Campbell used to be credited with coining that line, but one of the revelations in his diaries is that Blair came up with it himself.

Scorned on the Fourth of July

Sat, 03 Jul 1999 16:00:00 +0000

As a Brit living in America, this isn't my favorite time of year. This weekend I'll be expected to celebrate what, from my point of view, was a catastrophic military defeat. Imagine living in Vietnam and having to smile benevolently every
year as millions of Vietnamese hold a huge party to celebrate the fall of Saigon.
That's how I feel about Independence Day.

It's always astonished me how little sensitivity Americans display toward their
former colonial masters. Nazi Germany was, by any measure, a far more loathsome
enemy than the British Empire -- yet most Americans would be hard pressed to identify what V-E Day is, let alone celebrate it. Why can't you extend the same tact and magnanimity to Britain that you display toward
Japan? You haven't even bothered to nominate a day to celebrate America's Cold
War victory over Russia, yet on July 4 you crow over the defeat of our tiny
little island like Yankees fans at the conclusion of another successful World
Series.

I'm not asking you to politely refrain from mentioning the War of
Independence for fear of offending us -- though that's a courtesy you extend to
almost everyone else -- but do you really have to let off fireworks? Couldn't you
make do with a parade of some kind?

Star what?

Fri, 14 May 1999 16:00:00 +0000

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, the new "Star Wars" movie didn't suck. It was called "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) and some critics -- Pauline Kael -- preferred it to the original. No such luck this time around. According to a few early reviews, "The Phantom Menace" is even worse than "Return of the Jedi" (1983). Nevertheless, industry analysts are still predicting it'll gross more than $100 million by the end of the Memorial Day weekend and eventually overtake "Titanic" to become the highest-grossing movie of all time. It's as if Obi-Wan Kenobi had performed a Vulcan mind trick on the entire population of the world. (Note to "Star Wars" fans: I know the correct term is "Jedi mind trick." I deliberately got it wrong to annoy you.)

For those of you who haven't been completely enslaved by the media-industrial complex, here are 10 reasons not to see it.

1. The episodes are in the wrong order: Part I