#Media RSS feed Newspapers & magazines RSS feed World news RSS feed Iraq RSS feed Middle East RSS feed Politics RSS feed Alastair Campbell RSS feed Peter Wilby on the press RSS feed Turn autoplay off Turn autoplay on Please activate cookies in order to turn autoplay off * Jump to content [s] * Jump to site navigation [0] * Jump to search [4] * Terms and conditions [8] Mobile site Sign in Register Text larger · smaller About us * About us * Contact us * Press office * Guardian Print Centre * Guardian readers' editor * Observer readers' editor * Terms of service * Privacy policy * Advertising guide * Digital archive * Digital edition * Guardian Weekly * Buy Guardian and Observer photos * Subscribe Today's paper * The Guardian * G2 features * Comment and debate * Editorials, letters and corrections * Obituaries * Other lives * Sport * Subscribe Zeitgeist * Today's hot topics guardian.co.uk home ____________________ [Media.........] Search * News * Sport * Comment * Culture * Business * Money * Life & style * Travel * Environment * TV * Video * Data * Offers * Jobs * News * Media Series: Peter Wilby on the press Previous | Next | Index On the press My suspicions about official sources * + Tweet this + + Reddit + Buzz up * peter_wilby_140x140 * + Peter Wilby + The Guardian, Monday 23 July 2007 In the index to Alastair Campbell's The Blair Years, you will find entries for Kosovo and Afghanistan, but not for Iraq. So if you want to search for the inside story of how Campbell spun the war, you will have to plough through the press supremo's staccato prose. You will be disappointed.Campbell tells us little about what was, after all, supposed to be his main job: keeping journalists onside. Even the Sun's Trevor Kavanagh puts in only four appearances, while distinguished commentators such as the Independent's Steve Richards or editors such as the Guardian's Alan Rusbridger don't feature at all. There are, however, a few revealing passages. One, for September 10 2002, reads: "Alex F called, really worried about Iraq . . . really on the rampage about the press as well, said we had to do something, they were out of control." It took me a while to work out that Alex F was Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager. Somehow, I find his role as a government adviser even more alarming than that of Rupert Murdoch, who also crops up more frequently than almost any working hack. But what struck me most was the assumption, when the powerful speak to the powerful, that the press should normally be under "control". The extent to which sports pages are controlled - so that football's corruption went unremarked until it was investigated by BBC Panorama - is a subject for another day. What concerns me here is control of political news. From 2002, New Labour got a hard time from newspapers, particularly over Iraq, and in his diaries Campbell never stops whining. Yet the press largely supported the Iraq invasion, and presented it as a success until growing anarchy made such a panglossian interpretation impossible. Even most of the war's opponents didn't question the main premise: that Saddam possessed WMDs which would soon include nuclear weapons. To this day, it is said experts were unanimous in believing Saddam posed a serious threat. That simply isn't true. Many well-informed people, including former UN weapons inspectors, were saying WMDs had most likely been destroyed (with only battlefield weapons possibly remaining) and Saddam was nowhere near a nuclear capability. The press mostly ignored them, both here and in the US. Why? As American academics argue in When the Press Fails, a book published by the University of Chicago Press this year, newspapers favour "simple, dramatic narratives". Governments are best placed to provide these, particularly on foreign policy where secret intelligence material and diplomatic manoeuvring are crucial. When a body of opinion inside government - or inside the mainstream political process - challenges the official version of events, journalists will present competing analyses. But dissidents from outside the establishment lack the standing and resources to sustain an alternative narrative. Unless they have a leading position in a significant opposition party, anyone who is out of office, even if they were once in office, can be depicted as out-of-touch, deranged and embittered. American journalism's greatest triumph, Watergate, merely proves the point. Deep Throat, without whom the story would have died, turned out to be No 2 at the FBI. The US press, which critics such as John Lloyd of the Reuters Institute would like our papers to emulate, has the bigger problem. It propagated bigger lies - for example, that Saddam was linked to 9/11 - with greater success and, because it lacks the competitive spur of the UK market, presents a more homogeneous view. To some extent, the US press is a victim of its virtuous insistence on rigour. American journalists have it drummed into them from youth that everything they write must be properly sourced. Whatever the evidence to the contrary, newspapers tend to assume, on most subjects, that official sources are the most "proper" ones. Even the best British papers have no cause for complacency, however, and unlike the New York Times and Washington Post, they haven't apologised for misleading readers. What was going on at Abu Ghraib, for example? Most Iraqis - and they should know - would call it torture. So would most continental newspapers. But analysis by American academics shows the term was used far less frequently by the British press (including the Guardian) and hardly at all by the US press. In both countries, official sources insisted incidents at Abu Ghraib were "abuses", committed by "rogue elements". None of this would matter so much if the press showed signs of learning lessons. But the official narrative on Iran - that it is striving to acquire nuclear weapons while arming terrorists in Iraq - is as unchallenged now as the narrative about WMDs before the Iraq war. So is the narrative that all violence in Iraq is caused by a combination of al-Qaida, Iranian meddling, sectarian fanaticism and Saddamite fascism. The possibility that much of it involves an authentic nationalist uprising, which just wants a united Iraq with the Americans out, is ruled inadmissible. Seumas Milne's report in the Guardian last week was a rare exception. I do not know enough about Iraq to be sure the official narratives are untrue, any more than I could be sure the WMD claims were untrue - though, on the latter, my instincts proved correct. What I do know is that I would like to read the rival narratives more often. Whatever Campbell and Ferguson think, the more the press is out of control, the better. Manipulating content is nothing new "Never believe what you read in the newspapers" is familiar advice. My neighbours learned years ago that they shouldn't believe what they see on the television either. A TV news crew visited my home in the late 70s during the 11-month lockout of the print unions at Times Newspapers. We hacks were still fully paid but had nothing to do. We must, the TV people insisted, be gardening. I pleaded I had been writing a book and should be filmed at my typewriter (as it then was). But, no, I was dragged out to prune the roses, to the incredulity of neighbours who had previously seen only unpruned roses and rampant weeds. So the news that the BBC and other companies have been manipulating the results of gameshows was not, to me, surprising. TV's factual output - and I suppose gameshows count as factual - is almost wholly contrived. It's hard to get concerned about the "noddies" on TV news and documentaries, whereby the interviewer's questions and his or her supposed reactions to the answers are filmed separately after the interview. But many viewers are indignant when told of this device. More worrying are the TV documentary makers, inspired by John Birt's "mission to explain", who turn up to interviews with a script. They have slotted each interviewee into a defined role, where he or she is expected to express a predetermined opinion, as though it were an episode of Coronation Street. All the same, there's something indecent about newspapers' glee at what the Sun called "Beeb's shame" and their call to "sack the complacent jobsworths" (the Sun again). Newspapers have a long history of running dodgy games - stories of rigged spot-the-ball contests were once legion - but I do not recall many heads rolling. * Print this Printable version * Send to a friend * Share * Clip * Contact us * larger | smaller Email Close Recipient's email address ____________________ Your first name ____________________ Your surname ____________________ Add a note (optional) _________________________ _________________________ _________________________ _________________________ _________________________ Send Your IP address will be logged Share Close Short link for this page: http://gu.com/p/d584 * Digg * reddit * Google Bookmarks * Twitter * del.icio.us * StumbleUpon * Newsvine * livejournal * Facebook * Mixx it! Contact us Close * Contact the Media editor editor@mediaguardian.co.uk * Report errors or inaccuracies: reader@guardian.co.uk * Letters for publication should be sent to: letters@guardian.co.uk * If you need help using the site: userhelp@guardian.co.uk * Call the main Guardian and Observer switchboard: +44 (0)20 3353 2000 * + Advertising guide + License/buy our content Media * Newspapers & magazines World news * Iraq · * Middle East Politics * Alastair Campbell Series * Peter Wilby on the press More from Peter Wilby on the press on World news * Iraq · * Middle East Media * Newspapers & magazines Politics * Alastair Campbell More comment Related * 4 Feb 2008 Campbell's media critique is only half the story * 25 Jun 2003 Straw rounds on Campbell * 9 Mar 2003 The spies and the spinner * 9 Jul 2007 Campbell's diaries: key extracts * Print this Printable version * Send to a friend * Share * Clip * Contact us * Article history Email Close Recipient's email address ____________________ Your first name ____________________ Your surname ____________________ Add a note (optional) _________________________ _________________________ _________________________ _________________________ _________________________ Send Your IP address will be logged Share Close Short link for this page: http://gu.com/p/d584 * Digg * reddit * Google Bookmarks * Twitter * del.icio.us * StumbleUpon * Newsvine * livejournal * Facebook * Mixx it! Contact us Close * Contact the Media editor editor@mediaguardian.co.uk * Report errors or inaccuracies: reader@guardian.co.uk * Letters for publication should be sent to: letters@guardian.co.uk * If you need help using the site: userhelp@guardian.co.uk * Call the main Guardian and Observer switchboard: +44 (0)20 3353 2000 * + Advertising guide + License/buy our content About this article Close Peter Wilby: My suspicions about official sources This article appeared on p7 of the MediaGuardian section of the Guardian on Monday 23 July 2007. It was published on guardian.co.uk at 08.40 BST on Monday 23 July 2007. guardian jobs Find the latest jobs in your sector: * Arts & heritage * Charities * Education * Environment * Government * Graduate * Health * Marketing & PR * Media * Sales * Senior executive * Social care Browse all jobs ____________________ Search Senior Business Development Manager Brighton | Salary dependent on experience MADGEX LTD Find your MP Find your constituency [Aberavon...................................] Go Enter an MP's name ____________________ Go Enter postcode ____________________ Go About this search | Browse the map On Media * Most viewed * Zeitgeist * Latest Last 24 hours 1. [Julian-Assange-arrives-at-002.jpg] 1. WikiLeaks: Julian Assange claims to have Rupert Murdoch 'insurance files' 2. 2. PCC to investigate Daily Telegraph's covert recording of Lib Dem MPs 3. 3. Jeremy Hunt resigned to judicial challenge over BSkyB bid 4. 4. Today's media stories from the papers 5. 5. WikiLeaks: Julian Assange 'faces execution or Guantánamo detention' 6. More most viewed Last 24 hours 1. PCC to investigate Daily Telegraph's covert recording of Lib Dem MPs 2. Julian Assange 'happy' after extradition hearing - video 3. Today's media stories from the papers 4. WikiLeaks: Julian Assange claims to have Rupert Murdoch 'insurance files' 5. Jeremy Hunt resigned to judicial challenge over BSkyB bid 6. More zeitgeist What is Zeigeist? What is Zeitgeist? Zeitgeist is an experiment in showing trending news, topics and articles from the Guardian. Find out more in our blog post. Last 24 hours 1. [Thunderbirds-003.jpg] 1. It's not all FAB in the Thunderbirds camp 2. 2. Midsomer spells doom for Indiana Jones 3. 3. Government silent on claim that News Corp's Sky bid will go to Competition Commission 4. 4. Mail on Sunday executive turns to PR 5. 5. Jeremy Hunt: I will review ITV ad rules 6. All today's stories Politics news on Twitter Follow all the top political stories of the day on Twitter with the Guardian and Observer's politics team Auto update every minute On | Off * GdnPolitics GdnPolitics: Conservatives act to stop Labour peers derailing voting referendum bill http://t.co/axDEcuH < 3 days of debates scheduled about 9 minutes ago * datastore datastore: Benefits, public and private sector: welcome to the ultimate local government spreadsheet http://gu.com/p/2mcyg/tf about 23 minutes ago * GdnPolitics GdnPolitics: See our politics liveblog for the latest reactions to Ken Clarke's announcement of three prison closures http://bit.ly/dP8hA3 about 1 hour, 54 minutes ago • Find more politics tweets from our team • Follow our politics team on a Twitter list Bestsellers from the Guardian shop * Classic Oxford Black * Classic Oxford Black * Buy one pair, get one free on 12 designs for only £35 (plus p&p.) * From: £38.95 * Visit the Guardian reader offers shop * Green & ethical shopping at Guardian ecostore Latest news on guardian.co.uk Last updated less than one minute ago * News Hundreds killed and 1,000 missing in Brazil landslides Guardian Bookshop This week's bestsellers 1. Mennonite in a Little Black Dress 1. Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen £7.19 2. 2. Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada £7.99 3. 3. Treasure Islands by Nicholas Shaxson £11.99 4. 4. Ultimate Guide to Mad Men by Will Dean £6.99 5. 5. How to Live by Sarah Bakewell £7.19 Search the Guardian bookshop ____________________ (Submit) Search Sponsored features * * More from Peter Wilby on the press * Latest: 13 Jul 2009: How the press responded to the tabloid phone-hacking scandal * Next: 30 Jul 2007: Peter Wilby: Up to our necks in hype * Previous: 2 Jul 2007: On the press: Peter Wilby on Harriet Harman's election as Labour's deputy leader Peter Wilby on the press index Related information Media * Newspapers & magazines World news * Iraq · * Middle East Politics * Alastair Campbell Al-Jazeera airs 'fiction' says Campbell 31 Mar 2003 The British government faces an uphill battle countering the 'complete fiction' constructed by the Arab media about the war, Tony Blair's chief spin doctor Alastair Campbell claimed in a TV interview today. By Julia Day. * 8 Jul 2003 'And in conclusion, we have not come to a conclusion' * 9 Jul 2003 BBC rejects deal on naming dossier source * 14 Jul 2003 Is Phil Bassett the new Alastair Campbell? * 18 Jul 2003 Timeline: Dr David Kelly Campbell 'disturbed and dangerous', says journalist 21 Jul 2003 12.45pm: Alastair Campbell is 'out of control', according to the Mail on Sunday's deputy editor following a bruising face-to-face encounter with the No 10 spin chief. By Julia Day. * Hot topics * Television industry * Newspapers & magazines * Digital media * Guardian archive * License/buy our content | * Privacy policy | * Terms & conditions | * Advertising guide | * Accessibility | * A-Z index | * Inside guardian.co.uk blog | * About guardian.co.uk | * Join our dating site today * guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2011