Murdoch’s Leveson statement that Brown phoned him and declared war on his company has been derided by the BBC who like to suggest he is lying….and claim John Major’s statement backed up Brown.
Whatever the phone records show Mandelson says there definitely was a phone call…and other calls Brown often made to ‘vent his feelings’….
Mandelson: ‘There would have been a number of [phone calls]— I mean, Gordon did not hold back in talking to Rupert Murdoch. He did telephone him, he had every right to do so, and when he thought that he was being traduced, as he did, by the Sun, he wanted to give vent to his feelings about that.’
Jay: Okay. You say in your book that Mr Brown was stunned by the news that the Sun had shifted allegiance, and that this grew greater, as it were, over the forthcoming weeks. Was it your assessment that Mr Brown was personally embittered by this?
Mandelson: I think he was greatly upset by it. I don’t think he should have been surprised, but he took these things very personally.
And as for John Major it seems even he may not be quite as honest as he is portrayed…apparently Truth is a grey area for Major
Why mention all this? Because the BBC, happy to call Murdoch a liar, has taken to its bosom its old enemy, the arch political spinner who used to be the ‘liar who took us into an illegal war’…step forward one Alistair Campbell.
The Today website has Campbell as its main story highlighting his claim that Murdoch rang Blair to urge him to go to war quickly….
‘Tony Blair’s former director of communications, Alistair Campbell, has said Rupert Murdoch telephoned Downing Street before the invasion of Iraq, in 2003, to warn of the dangers of delaying Britain’s involvement.‘
Mind you he says he did not actually hear the call himself but he did see Blair’s irritated reaction to the call.
The BBC were happy to take his word that Murdoch made such a call and said such a thing.
It was therefore Murdoch’s fault that we went to war.
Ignoring the fact that it was Blair’s policy to be a ‘Liberal interventionist’…ie go to war to impose democracy on ‘tyrants’ and that it was Blair himself who persuaded Bush to go down this road and not be isolationist…. Blair was already totally convinced about the need to go to war and had already committed Britain, subject to Parliamentary approval, to go to war in Iraq….remember the ‘Downing Street Memos’?
Text of the Christopher Meyer Letter – March 18, 2002 memo from Christopher Meyer (UK ambassador to the US) to David Manning (UK Foreign Policy Advisor) recounting Meyer’s meeting with Paul Wolfowitz (US Deputy Secretary of Defense).
‘1. Paul Wolfowitz, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, came to Sunday lunch on 17 March.
2. On Iraq I opened by sticking very closely to the script that you used the Condi Rice last week. We backed regime change.’
And…Blair and Bush ‘agreed’ on Iraq regime change in private April 2002 Crawford Ranch meeting.
So Blair was fully committed already…and Murdoch phoning sometime in March 2003 could hardly have been influential as the war began on March 20th. It can be assumed the decision to go to war was already pencilled into Bush and Blair’s diaries long before then.
In other words it perhaps could be suggested with some confidence that Campbell’s claims are merely an extension of Labour’s war against Murdoch and an attempt to smear him by association with the Iraq War….note Justin Webb’s attempt to tie Murdoch in with the ‘Neo Cons’ and US Republican Party….‘was he doing someone elses work…lobbying for the ‘Right’?‘
Campbell says ‘I am not saying remotely that there was anything like collusion.’…but he is just ‘putting it out there’…no smoke without fire….the Spinner knows how minds work.
Not only is this a piece of black propaganda but it illustrates the mendacity of the BBC who opt to call Murdoch a liar but present the slippery tongued Campbell’s word as Gospel when it suits their agenda.
A three line comment in Campbell’s diary has been spun into a major story about Murdoch’s attempting to influence government policy (and thereby lying at Leveson about never asking politicians for anything), and being in league with US Neo-Cons and lobbying on their behalf.
A more ridiculous story it would be hard to find….unless you listen to the Today programme regularly…..though the recent ‘Royal Jubilee Bus Farce’ still must top the bill for most ridiculous story ever to have graced a prime time current affairs programme.
First part seen here : http://order-order.com/2012/06/15/mandelson-swears-brown-made-war-call-to-murdoch/ on Friday.
‘the BBC who like to suggest’
The prefect complement to ‘the truth is a grey area’.
Except, perhaps, in a £4Bpa media monopoly that claims to broadcast trusted ‘news’.
Then it becomes a concern.
Murdoch phoning sometime in March 2003
The call was on March 11th, and it’s not even clear who was calling who. Blair had a debate in Parliament and a vote to win before he could do anything.
Campbell mentions this ‘urging to war call’ in a written submission to Leveson, but when questioned at Leveson
about this call, Campbell makes no mention of any urging to war. The Guardian sums up the evidence like this
3.06pm: Campbell is asked about Blair’s three phone calls with Murdoch in the run up to the Iraq war in March 2003.
Leveson asks what Blair was attempting to achieve with the phone calls.
Campbell explains that most non-Murdoch papers were against the war and Blair would have “appreciated the support” of Murdoch’s titles.
He says: “I wouldn’t overstate the significance of a couple of phone calls with Rupert Murdoch.
3.14pm: Campbell reiterates that the phone calls between Murdoch and Blair did not strike him as odd”
So what does Justin’s piece on Today amount to? A man of dubious reputation has a volume of diaries to plug and a bent broadcaster has a Murdoch to smear. It amounts to nothing more that that.
I understand that Campbell in his book serialisation, claims Blair thought Brown was brilliant but bonkers. He also said that Blair said he was going to sack him three times. So basically Blair let someone with the personality of Hannibal Lector become our PM, thank you Blair.