‘The press no longer has the megaphone’
As the Leveson inquiry hears evidence from people who say their lives have been destroyed by dubious newspaper practices, Channel 4 News examines a changing media landscape.
Early in 2011, Daily Star reporter Richard Peppiatt resigned quite spectacularly from his job with a furious public swipe at his former employer and the practices he says he had to take part in to keep it.
His letter outlined some of the things he said he had had to do while at the paper, from innocuous tabloid japes such as dressing up as John Lennon or proposing to Susan Boyle (complete with bouquet of red roses) to writing stories about Muslim-only loos.
“When I left the Star I never dreamed that by the end of the year there would be an inquiry like Leveson about the experiences I had there,” he told Channel 4 News.
The Daily Star declined to comment when contacted by Channel 4 News. However elsewhere the paper has given a fuller response to the accusations in Mr Peppiatt’s resignation letter.
Witch-hunt
Celebrities like Steve Coogan are using their profile against tabloids to bite back. Richard Peppiatt
The Leveson inquiry was prompted by an outcry over revelations that the mobile phone of the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler had been hacked by the private investigater Glenn Mulcaire.
The roll call of witnesses to Lord Justice Leveson’s inquiry in part reads like a copy of The Stage.
The irony of that is the fact that it has led more people to follow its proceedings, a perverse reflection of the public’s thirst for celebrity news which arguably fed the very practices that led to the inquiry.
“People are tuning into the inquiry to see people like Hugh Grant give evidence against the tabloids and I think there’s an irony here. His profile has to a certain extent been built up by these papers and now he and other celebritities like Steve Coogan are using it against them to bite back,” Mr Peppiatt told Channel 4 News.
“What’s happened with the Leveson inquiry is that the press no longer has the megaphone and it doesn’t like it. Some papers are screaming ‘Witch-hunt!’ and are complaining about being put under scrutiny but this is the sort of thing they have been doing for years.”
Anything that comes out of the inquiry that makes it harder to sell papers will only serve to harm the newspaper industry further Patrick Foster
However, as was proved by the recent conviction of two Pakistani cricketers for match fixing, it is also clear that same tabloid scrutiny has also uncovered stories which are most definitely in the public interest.
Integrity
In its terms of reference it is easy to identify the genesis of Leveson as the phone hacking scandal which led to the closure of News International’s flagship tabloid the News of the World.
But it also has the task of making recommendations: “for a new more effective policy and regulatory regime which supports the integrity and freedom of the press, the plurality of the media, and its independence, including from government, while encouraging the highest ethical and professional standards”.
Richard Peppiatt says there is a a tacit acknowledgement in the industry that some newspapers are not just in the business of what we might call news: “Are newspapers necessarily journalistic? I certainly think that in the last ten years or so there has been a ‘tabloidisation’ across all media.”
‘News’ is entertainment?
Before the inquiry proper started, former Sun editor Kelvin Mackenzie pointed out that newspapers are businesses therefore they have to make money. Patrick Foster, former media correspondent for The Times and now a media commentater agrees and warns the inquiry may have negative consequences.
He told Channel 4 News Lord Leveson’s inquiry could actually damage the future of newspapers: “Newspapers are an ailing industry, in which there has never been a bigger battle for readers.
“Whether we like it or not, there is great public appetite for the kind of celebrity tittle-tattle about which Hugh Grant and Steve Coogan complain.
“Quite apart from the national newspaper market, women’s magazines that are focused on celebrity gossip sell in excess of three million copies a week.
“Anything that comes out of the inquiry that makes it harder to sell papers will only serve to harm the newspaper industry further, and drive publications further downmarket.”
And Richard Peppiatt agrees that ultimately, media content is driven by demand: “We live in an ‘infotainment’ society where people have a short attention span. You have to include salacious stories to keep up.”