Desmond knows profits, but won’t talk ethics
It’s been one of the most dramatic days yet at the Leveson inquiry into press standards and ethics – as the owner of the Daily Express and Daily Star, Richard Desmond, gave evidence.
Mr Desmond, who arrived at the inquiry with cigar in hand, declared he didn’t know the meaning of the word “ethical” – but certainly knew the value of profits.
He appeared unruffled by the increasingly testy questioning from the counsel, Robert Jay, insisting throughout that he was completely uninterested in politics and had no desire to influence his papers’ editorial line.
“We don’t talk about ethics or morals,” he claimed, “because we’re talking about a very fine line.” Instead, he maintained that his role was purely as a businessman, turning his media holdings into the most profitable concern possible.
Selling papers
Somewhat surprisingly, he denied that specific news stories had anything to do with increasing circulation: saying the only thing that sold more papers was sticking a DVD or a £5 note on the cover.
We don’t talk about ethics or morals. Richard Desmond
Earlier, the editor of the Daily Star apologised to the inquiry for the paper’s coverage of the Madeleine McCann disappearance, for which her parents received more than half a million pounds in damages. Mr Desmond conceded that there had been 38 libellous stories over four months, but after a slight tussle with mental arithmetic, claimed there must have been 65 or 70 “good stories”.
McCann outrage
But he provoked outrage from Robert Jay, as he claimed that the McCanns had been happy to see articles printed about them, until “new lawyers” came along, and they decided to sue. Jay accused him of a “grotesque characterisation”, adding: “Your paper was accusing the McCanns on occasion, of having killed their daughter.”
“There are views on what happened,” Desmond insisted, as he drew a rather tenuous comparison with theories about the death of Princess Diana, although he did eventually concede that he didn’t believe absolutely any opinion about anything should be published.
Press complaints
There was no love lost, either, for the Press Complaints Commission, which Mr Desmond described as a “useless body run by people who want tea and biscuits, and by phone hackers”, which he said had scapegoated his papers over the McCann affair. Instead, he said, his newspaper group was the only one to be “honest and straightforward”, by paying more than half a million pounds to Madeleine’s parents in a libel settlement.
A useless body run by people who want tea and biscuits. Richard Desmond
He described the inquiry itself as “the worst thing that’s happened to newspapers in my lifetime”.
No love for the Mail
But not the worst thing to happen to Britain. That, in Mr Desmond’s opinion, was the Daily Mail, which he faux-mistakenly called the Daily Malicious. But there were Freudian slips on the other side too: at one stage, laughter broke out in the room as counsel Robert Jay managed to address him as Mr Dacre – his arch nemesis, the editor of the Daily Mail.
“He’s the Fat Butcher,” Desmond retorted.
Dodgy geezers
As for his own titles, he insisted that the people of Britain !couldn’t get enough” of the Daily Star, boasting about its soaring circulation. On his evidence, when he bought up the papers he cleared out hundreds of “dodgy geezers” and chess correspondents based in Latin America, saving a paper which was “as British as roast beef” for a grateful nation.
Politics, he said, meant nothing to him. He’d talked about drums and music with Tony Blair, and supported him purely as a “good bloke”. Ethics, then, is a fine line, best kept shtum. Nothing, though, is ultimately as compelling as that financial bottom line.