The media & smearing Labour leaders. A long history
Some senior Labour figures are complaining that the media are ‘smearing’ Keir Starmer on what is known as #beergate. A sub text is the argument that the left are also to blame for this because they don’t like Starmer. The problem with this is that while that may be true to some extent Rupert Murdoch’s media outlets are not predisposed to carrying stories originating from the left who they dislike even more than Starmer.
Some of the complainees who have not been paying attention to the history of the Labour Party seem to think that smearing Labour and its leader is new. It is not. We need only think back to the Zinoviev letter in the 1920s to understand that. The idea that Labour leaders are linked to Russia has been a constant until recently(no one I think can claim Starmer is a secret friend of Putin). Harold Wilson was accused of being a Russian spy (this story originated in a faction of the security services- see Peter Wright, Spycatcher). While the old Soviet Union certainly had friendly relations with a few backbench MPs, the CIA had much better ones. That did not feature in the media.
Michael Foot was also smeared by the Times as being a Communist spy and won libel damages. Ed Miliband was smeared for having a left-wing father (Ralph) and for eating a bacon sandwich.
Jeremy Corbyn was subject to numerous smears, none with any serious foundation (in my view) and one can understand why the Murdoch’s et al had an interest in attacking him.
The point is that Labour leaders are invariably smeared by a right-wing media, and in the case of Corbyn some of the liberal media too.
Only one leader, Tony Blair, successfully grappled with this, but even that had a timebound success.
New Labour believed that winning an Election without Murdoch on board would be difficult.
As early as August 16th 1994 Alastair Campbell was recording in his diary:
‘I’d read an interview with Murdoch in Der Spiegel in which he said he could see himself backing Blair. TB said he was probably messing around. I wasn’t so sure. The right wing have had it with Major, and I think we can really make trouble. The aim should be to keep the left press on board, neutralise the Mail, and if possible get the S*n to back us’.
The S*n did end up backing Labour in 1997 and Campbell went on to write many pieces for Blair that appeared in the paper.
The point is that it suited Murdoch because while he may not have loved Blair (that much) he wanted to see the back of the Tories until they found someone more competent (in his mind) than Major.
Murdoch has long seemed to have favoured Gove to replace Johnson (in my reading anyway) and if Starmer is collateral damage to that I doubt he will feel concerned.
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