The Proprietors Come Forward

Michael Hedges April 26, 2012 Follow on Twitter

There is an obsession in many circles with that select set of individuals who principally own big media companies. Some are reclusive and others thrive on attention. Few are at a loss for opinion on the way the world works and, certainly, the way it affects their business. And they do like things to be the way they want them.

The Leveson Inquiry hearings are offering a unique glimpse into the ways and means of big UK media owners. To a person they have clarified the toughness and resolve necessary, they say, to mind the business. It’s a serious bunch, the proprietors.

And they want to be taken seriously, which is their right, except when they can’t help being cheeky. That was Northern & Shell (Daily Express and Daily Star tabloids and Channel 5 TV) owner Richard Desmond in January when he told the hearings (January 12), formally known as the Leveson Inquiry into the Culture, Practice and Ethics of the Press, “everybody’s ethics are different. I don’t quite know what the word means.”

Mr. Desmond set himself apart from other UK media owners by withdrawing from the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) self-regulatory agency, on which Lord Justice Leveson will eventually pass judgment. And he is hardly in awe of other UK media barons. “I think a lot of these other groups don’t really understand that it is a business,” he told Lord Justice Leveson, “and, you know, there’s more to life than a chess correspondent based in Latin America.”

Colorful doesn’t begin to fully describe Richard Desmond, the detail obsessed businessman. “I'm not an editorial man. I'm an advertising man,” he said. “That's my area of expertise. Although I'm not so sure about that any more.”

After a break for testimony from employees of one media organization after another and repeat performances from celebrities maligned, so they say, by tabloids the Leveson Inquiry moved on to the more weighty: the intersect between the business of media and political influence.

Telegraph Media Group chairman Aiden Barclay, his testimony (April 23) indicated, was quite keen to keep Prime Minister David Cameron informed on economic issues, particularly taxes on high net worth individuals. The Barclay family – Aidan Barclay’s father Sir David and uncle Sir Frederick – own several ritzy hotels including the London Ritz in addition to the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph.

And, too, Mr. Barclay told the Leveson Inquiry he isn’t in “the habit of interfering with editorial matters” but once suggested to PM Cameron that if he “wanted to get the attention of the editor and wanted to get his message across in the most efficient manner, he should make a habit of phoning him on a daily basis and I recommended that's what they should do.” The Barclay family is noted for its low profile.

London Evening Standard, Independent, Independent on Sunday and new title i proprietor Evgeny Lebedev gave a far different perspective of the media business. The 31 year old son of Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev told the Leveson Inquiry (April 23) he “spent over £75 million Lebedev money over the last three years funding the Evening Standard and the Independent, so it's really expensive, it's a really expensive element of democracy that needs to be preserved at all costs.” The senior Mr. Lebedev co-owns with Mikhail Gorbachev the Moscow weekly newspaper Novaya Gazeta. Four of its journalists have been assassinated in the last decade.

“I’ve seen the other side,” said Mr. Lebedev.

“If the press becomes too feeble, then what we get is what I call a tyranny of consensus and everyone is afraid or thinks twice before a step will be made, a comment will be made,” he offered. “Politicians over-estimate the influence of newspapers. We do occupy the same orbit, we sort of circulate around the same planet.”

Greatly anticipated was the testimony of James Murdoch, News Corporation Deputy Chief Operating Officer. Leveson Inquiry chief interrogator Robert Jay led Mr. Murdoch through six hours of jungle hoops, asking about phone hacking, alleged cover-ups and the failed bid to buy outright pay TV company BSkyB. Consistently Mr. Murdoch denied knowledge of just about everything including the contents of the Sun tabloid. The company is very decentralized, he said, before pushing former executives further under the bus.

“I just don't think there's the very old-fashioned view of big media proprietors being able to dominate the landscape, I just think that's not the case anymore,” he said before Mr. Jay unleashed a torrent of captured emails between government advisor Adam Smith and News Corporation lobbyist Fred Michel. Mr. Smith was working for Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, the self-described “cheerleader” for News Corporation’s takeover bid for BSkyB. By appearances, the fix was in interrupted, however, by the unfortunate disclosure of rampant phone hacking by employees or agents of the new closed tabloid News Of The World and UK regulator OFCOM taking a deeper look at the deal.

James Murdoch endured another two hours of mostly softballs before Lord Justice Leveson adjourned. The day’s headline was written. Culture Secretary Hunt began seeking career counseling.

The next act of this drama was the first of two days testimony (April 25) by Rupert Murdoch. Mr. Jay proceeded through a history of Mr. Murdoch’s media involvement in the UK, briefly mentioning the Australian beginnings and the American present. In fifty years Mr. Murdoch has known all the politicians, some better than others. He never asked one of them for anything, he said. And never got anything, either.

Phone hacking was “lazy” practice, he said. Memory failed Mr. Murdoch several times, except for denying influence over anybody or anything. He does remember former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and not fondly.

Meanwhile, in another part of London, the aforementioned Culture Ministry special advisor Adam Smith resigned, breaking everybody’s train of thought. At the lunch break, the Guardian’s Dan Sabbagh overheard Mr. Murdoch whisper to his advisors “Let's get him to get this fucking thing over with today.”

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