[NUJ Bristol] Mandelson shoots the messenger

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The email that follows was sent to me from John Booth - ex PPS to Peter
Mandelson. The subject header of the email had been changed somehow en
route to 'special promotion'. A minor miracle that I didn't delete it.

Tony Gosling
secretary, Bristol NUJ


Hi folks

As well as my own piece (below) on the fate of the Hartlepool Mail editor in
the current New Statesman, here's one from another political viewpoint by
Stephen Glover in this week's Spectator. (I offered a piece and then a
letter to The Guardian, but neither has been accepted to date.)


Best regards,

John


New Statesman

10 March 2003


Monkey business in the north

John Booth

Harry Blackwood, editor of the Hartlepool Mail, is on "sick leave" and is
considering two job offers, one of them as a fitness instructor. New Labour
must hope he doesn't take it, because it would keep him in his home town.

Blackwood's paper is read by the constituents of Tony Blair and Peter
Mandelson. The widespread view in the north-east is that he is being forced
out of his job as a result of complaints by the two local MPs. Both deny
that they exerted pressure on Roger Parry, the chairman of Johnston Press,
which owns the Hartlepool Mail.

Why should Parry care about Blair and Mandelson? The answer is that Parry is
also UK chief executive of Clear Channel, a US media conglomerate. Both it
and Johnston Press has an interest in the Communications Bill currently
going through Parliament. Blackwood, who kept a detailed dossier of events,
says Mandelson threatened to intervene in that legislative process if his
head was not delivered on a plate.

This doesn't augur well for new Labour, especially as the Liberal Democrat
MP Norman Baker, who successfully pursued Mandelson over the Hindujas, is
now on the case.

By most accounts Blackwood's lively editorship had been a success. Tim
Bowdler, Johnston's chief executive, has confirmed that Mandelson contacted
him and Parry and added that his complaints about the Mail's coverage "have
been fully investigated and have not been upheld". The long-time Labour
Party president Keith Fisher says he told an investigating Johnston
executive that Blackwood had always treated him fair and square.

When Mandelson was forced to resign from the cabinet for a second time, the
Mail asked readers their reaction. It was headlined: "We've had enough."
Fair comment to most people, but not to the PM's pal apparently. Later,
readers questioned the result of a referendum to set up a directly elected
mayoralty. This was a Mandelson-backed new Labour initiative and in
neighbouring Sedgefield it was rejected. But in Hartlepool there was a small
majority in favour and the Mail reported the controversy over the surprising
9 per cent of ballot papers that were ruled invalid.

Then came the mayoral elections themselves. H'Angus the Monkey, an
independent candidate, defeated the businessman Leo Gillen, the official
Labour candidate and Mandelson's pal. The Mail's front page said: "Monkey is
our Mayor . . . and Mandelson says it's the Mail's fault." The paper
reported how the MP had berated Blackwood's deputy, Neil Hunter, after the
count. It was not the first time, as many reporters know, that Mandelson had
berated a journalist.

"We don't have a policy," Parry told Johnston executives and editors last
year, "on the desirability or otherwise of electing spoof jungle animals as
the mayor of industrial towns in the North East. But there is a danger. What
happens if one has axes to grind or a vendetta to pursue? We have a very
strong view of the way the editorial job should be done."

Hartlepool Mail staff now know what this means. One said: "Staff have an
incredible feeling of dejection. There is a feeling of dictatorship at the
paper. All the reporting staff are looking for new jobs."

Blackwood was born near the Mail offices, his children are in local schools
and his wife is a ward manager at the town's hospital. His brutal and very
public removal will do new Labour no favours. Blackwood has many friends,
and the circle is  growing rapidly. Few are closer than his fellow fitness
enthusiast  Ray Mallon, the mayor of Middlesbrough, the ex-policeman who
swept aside new Labour on the same night that H'Angus so riled Mandelson in
Hartlepool. This pair can locate better than most the bodies buried in a
region known for its political intrigue.=20

And what is the other job offered to the  angry, ousted (but hitherto
little-known) editor? Why, it is that of national newspaper columnist. Well
done, Peter. Who's a clever boy then?

John Booth was Hartlepool's Genuine Labour candidate in the 200l general
election. He is currently writing Creating the Truth: Tales of New Labour

---------


The Spectator=20

8 March 2003=20

  =20
MEDIA STUDIES

Did Mr Mandelson and Mr Blair conspire to get rid of a troublesome editor?

Stephen Glover

Our old friend Peter Mandelson is alleged to have engineered the removal of
Harry Blackwood, editor of the Hartlepool Mail, a newspaper in Mr
Mandelson=B9s constituency. Tony Blair is supposed to have made a telephone
call on Mr Mandelson=B9s behalf which may have been instrumental in Mr
Blackwood=B9s suspension. These and other allegations have been raised by
Simon Walters in two fascinating articles in the Mail on Sunday.=20

As is often the case on these occasions, the plot is a complicated one;
smoke swirls around the battlefield, and after a time it becomes difficult
to discern the key figures as they slog it out with claim and counterclaim.
I therefore intend to concentrate on the undisputed facts, which in
themselves appear to show Mr Mandelson in a very poor light.=20

It is a fact that Mr Mandelson has on at least three occasions complained
about Mr Blackwood=B9s editorship to his bosses at the Edinburgh-based
Johnston Press. It is a fact that in each instance Johnston Press conducted
inquiries which exonerated Mr Blackwood. It is a fact that on at least one
occasion Mr Mandelson complained about Mr Blackwood to Roger Parry,
non-executive chairman of Johnston Press.=20

It is a fact that last November Mr Mandelson had a lengthy meeting with Tim
Bowdler, chief executive of Johnston Press, in which he suggested that Mr
Blackwood was trying to destroy him. It is a fact that three days after this
meeting Mr Bowdler sent a letter to Mr Mandelson in which he referred to =8C=
a
threat=B9 which Mr Mandelson had made. It is a fact that sources I have=
 spoken
to in Hartlepool dispute Mr Mandelson=B9s contention that the Hartlepool
Mail=B9s coverage of the 2001 general election, and of the mayoral election
last year, was biased. It is fact that Mr Blackwood is now on sick leave and
that he has told me that he is so disenchanted with Johnston Press that he
will never be able to work for the company again.=20

All this we know for sure. It is fact. What we cannot be certain of is
whether Mr Blair really did telephone Roger Parry on Mr Mandelson=B9s=
 behalf.
Mr Blackwood says he was told this by a senior manager in Johnston Press;
the company denies the call took place. We have to treat with caution the
suggestion that Mr Parry may have been anxious to assist Mr Mandelson
because he happens also to be UK chief executive of the American media
company Clear Channel which stands to gain a great deal from the
Communications Bill that received its third reading this week in the
Commons. We also cannot prove that Mr Mandelson has actually brought about
Mr Blackwood=B9s downfall.=20

In response to the suggestion that he has, he told the journalist=B9s=
 magazine
Press Gazette somewhat smugly: =8CI would like to say =B3Yes=B2 and that the
inimitable style in which he [Mr Blackwood] edits the paper has caught up
with him. But I fear not. There is another problem.=B9 What might this be?
Sources say that the most damning charge which Johnston Press has been able
to come up with is that a television reviewer used the expression =8Cold
farts=B9.=20

Let us set aside all these unproven allegations, alluring though they may
be, and return to what has been established. Is it not damning, of both Mr
Mandelson and Johnston Press? Mr Mandelson has mounted a campaign against Mr
Blackwood whose coverage, while obviously not favourable to the member for
Hartlepool, has been in the opinion of many observers even-handed. He has
attempted to convince Mr Blackwood=B9s bosses that their editor has been
deficient, and they have mounted three inquiries which found no fault with
him.=20

What dim-witted and weak-willed fellows they must be to allow themselves to
be cowed by Mr Mandelson not once, not twice, but three times. After the
first occasion, any self-respecting newspaper group would have told Mr
Mandelson to take his threats and complaints elsewhere, and stood by its
editor.=20

Proprietors and editors on the national stage may recall Mr Mandelson
applying pressure and sometimes issuing threats. In his heyday, when he was
a member of the Cabinet and the government=B9s chief spin doctor, many great
men were flattered by the gossamer touch of Mr Mandelson=B9s hand on the=
 arm,
or discomfited by a menacing telephone call.=20

Readers may recall the famous case in November 1998 when the Express on
Sunday (as it then was) carried a photograph of Mr Mandelson=B9s partner,
Reinaldo Avila da Silva. When he learnt that the paper was intending to
publish the picture, Mr Mandelson tore into Rosie Boycott, the
editor-in-chief. Its proprietor, Lord Hollick, was soon on the telephone to
the deputy editor, who was none other than Simon Walters, the author of the
two pieces in the Mail on Sunday. Within a week or two, the job of the
editor of the Express on Sunday, Amanda Platell, was being offered around,
and within months Amanda was sent packing.=20

Plus =E7a change. Thank God, though, for men like Mr Blackwood. His
journalists believe in him, and every one of them has signed a letter of
protest to Johnston Press. He joined the Hartlepool Mail at the age of 17 as
a compositor and leaves it 30 years later as the editor, in which job he
served for three and a half years. Johnston Press is attempting to insinuate
that he was not up to the job, but few in Hartlepool appear to believe this,
and Mr Blackwood has just been paid a bonus of =A34,000.=20

He seems a cussed, stubborn and principled man, someone who could neither be
flattered nor intimidated by the likes of Mr Mandelson. He doesn=B9t want=
 any
government favours. He simply believes that editors and journalists should
stand up to politicians, which is what he did. Now, thanks to Peter
Mandelson and Johnston Press, he is gone.=20

ends



=A9 2003 The Spectator.co.uk


On more cheering things could I offer a plug for my old pal Eileen Anipare.
She is expanding her film-making business. Her work to date is wide-ranging.
She's made acclaimed art house films/DVDs on directors including Krzysztof
Kieslowski, Hal Hartley, Atom Egoyan and Bertrand Tavernier. She's also
produced pop and tourism videos and documents of lots of social events for
private clients. She can be reached at eileenanipare@onetel.net.uk and comes
highly recommended.

John


--

Tony Gosling
http://www.public-interest.co.uk
0117 944 6219

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