When you read this the most important thing that you have to know is that Oborne is a supporter of Miliband and is anti-Murdoch and the right-wing press. Only days ago he wrote a glowing panegyric on behalf of the leader of the Opposition claiming he has led the political debate…whereas in fact Miliband has hidden in a left wing comfort zone pandering to his 35% with announcements that are designed to catch the mood and news headlines but would be highly unworkable and very damaging in practise….as Dan Hodges says, Labour’s policies are in tatters and all they have left is posing on the moral highground as ‘ethical’…which is why HSBC is so important to Labour…
Moral superiority is basically all Labour have left now. Ed Miliband’s party long ago gave up trying to convince the country Labour could govern more efficiently or prudently than the Conservatives. Their entire offer is now based upon convincing people they can do so more ethically.
So can we trust Oborne? No. HSBC is now at the centre of Miliband’s attack on the Government and Oborne complains that the Telegraph is not reporting enough about the HSBC affair…. the Telegraph is not a supporter of Miliband…so put the two together and we have a backstabbing journalist who took the Telegraph’s shilling but has jumped ship and tried to sink it as he left to help out his inspirational political guru, Ed Miliband.
You have to ask what is so interesting about the HSBC business..it’s a story that is five years old and was only raised from the dead by the Labour supporting BBC and Guardian in the hope that a bit of mud would stick to the Tories as Labour ran with the narrative of a Tory Party that only helps out the richest in society.
What has Oborne got to say about that? Nothing. And where will he now slink off to to get work? He’ll have to look hard to find a righteous and advertising free rag to peddle his own brand of piety.
Best of all, practically everything he says could be applied to the BBC’s news coverage….corrupted not for money but for ideology. Is that ethical enough for him… a corruption of the news for ‘principled’, ideological reasons? I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more of Oborne on the BBC from now on.
Rod Liddle says something quite different to Oborne’s ‘delicious cant’…
I have worked for publications owned by Conrad Black, the Guardian’s arch-Satan Rupert Murdoch, and the Barclay brothers. I have also worked for Polly’s pristine conduit — and I can tell you that when it comes to political interference in copy, the only place I’ve had even the remotest problem, in 15 years, was the Guardian.
Only the Guardian. I’ve never had any kind of problem with any of the scumbag oligarchs, tycoons, fascist corporations — despite dissing Sky, sniggering in print about Barbara Amiel, suggesting people should vote Labour, demanding increases to the minimum wage, opposing the war in Iraq, criticising our trade links with China and referring to the Barclays as ‘the Ribbentrop twins’ the week they took over this magazine — hell, I could go on. Never any political interference at any point from all those bad guys. Only the Guardian.
Peter Oborne has sloped off from the Telegraph in high dudgeon claiming it is a principled stand against a newspaper that has allowed commercial interests to shape its news output.
This is not just a parting swipe at an employer by a disgruntled member of staff, it’s an explosion of anger about an issue that is worrying journalists across the industry.
Newspapers are in a state of crisis. The Telegraph has seen its print sales drop by around half over the last 10 years.
The less we spend on papers, the more our news will have to be paid for by companies.
I like that ‘an issue that is worrying journalists across the industry’….the BBC smearing the Press with an across the board, unproven slander.
Think we can see where the BBC is going with this…and you don’t have to wait long…a few lines on and the subtle slurs continue…
Peter Oborne has gone further, saying that “shadowy” executives are interfering on an “industrial scale” with basic news coverage.
This is strong stuff and the Telegraph denies it all – saying it’s all unfounded and full of inaccuracy.
Of course, these are turbulent times. The Telegraph is, like almost every other paper, having to reinvent itself.
Ah yes turbulent times in which any underhand method must be used to turn a buck and keep afloat…like the Guardian’s off-shore tax haven I suppose.
The BBC tells us that Oborne…
‘… had intended to “leave quietly” until he saw the paper’s coverage of HSBC and its Swiss banking arm.
In comparison to the coverage of the story in other national newspapers, “you needed a microscope to find the Telegraph coverage”, Mr Oborne said.
“There is a purpose to journalism, and it is not just to entertain. It is not to pander to political power, big corporations and rich men.
“Newspapers have what amounts in the end to a constitutional duty to tell their readers the truth.”
Curious Oborne has nothing to say about the BBC’s and the Guardian’s clearly political intervention into the election run up by running this story, a story that was at least five years old and brought nothing new to the table. The contents of the emails to the various governments were known in 2010…but what is odd is that it is only the email to HMRC that Labour’s Margaret Hodge is interested in and not the same one that went to David Miliband as Foreign Secretary. The BBC has also shown not the slightest bit of interest in this second email. Why not?
Funny how Oborne, supposedly a great journalist, looking through his microsope, didn’t see any of these recent reports from the Telegraph that are either about HSBC or are critical of HSBC’s services…..funny how the BBC hasn’t bothered to check the truth of Oborne’s claims preferring instead to publish them verbatim as if they had the ring of complete truth to them…..for some reason…
Peter Oborne may very well have been part of the problem – in so far as the problem has been the decline of the Telegraph as a conservative newspaper.
But he is essentially right. Under the miserable ownership of the Twins of Evil, the paper has declined to the point where it is now a trashy absurdity with no relevance to its own readership and little interest to anyone else’s.
It’s no wonder that the BBC loves the story, nor would it be a surprise if the Guardian gave Oborne a desk next to Polly and Moonbat.
But the plain fact is that the Telegraph is being destroyed and its HSBC reporting has been one of the symptoms.
Oborne used to write sensibly on most subjects except for his blatant prejudices on the Israel/Palestine situation. It would appear that he wants to get the big bucks from working on television and the only way to do that is to take the hard-left line. The way he disses his former employers, who have allowed him a lot of leeway to express his bigotry against Israel, shows him to be a man of low principle – i.e. totally suited to becoming a leftie.
This article starts with an outright falsehood and goes downhill from there.
“When you read this the most important thing that you have to know is that Oborne is a supporter of Miliband and is anti-Murdoch and the right-wing press.”
Rubbish and rubbish. He recently wrote an article putting the rather unfashionable view that Miliband has been an effective leader of the opposition. This is not the same thing as being a supporter.
Anti the right-wing press? Are you having a laugh? His two most recent jobs were working as a high profile, Right supporting political commentator for the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph. He’s as High Tory as they come. If you can’t see that you really are the sort of blinkered political tribalist who does not allow for any shades of grey in their worldview.
“it’s a story that is five years old and was only raised from the dead by the Labour supporting BBC and Guardian in the hope that a bit of mud would stick to the Tories as Labour ran with the narrative of a Tory Party that only helps out the richest in society”
On the contrary. It’s a major story which only Private Eye covered with any diligence until the Guardian/BBC investigation belatedly picked up on it. The fact that Swiss police today raided the offices of HSBC on suspicion of money laundering gives you some indication of how major a story this is.
“I like that ‘an issue that is worrying journalists across the industry’….the BBC smearing the Press with an across the board, unproven slander.”
Putting aside for a moment the fact that you clearly don’t understand the difference between libel and slander – highly ironic, given your self-appointed status as some sort of expert on the media – it is manifestly true that this worries print journalists right across the media. I’ve been in this world for twenty years and these days there are so many sensitivities about what’s in copy and how it’s going to affect our ad sales that it’s ridiculous. Nick Davies wrote about this all of seven years ago in his book Flat Earth News.
“Curious Oborne has nothing to say about the BBC’s and the Guardian’s clearly political intervention into the election run up by running this story, a story that was at least five years old and brought nothing new to the table. ”
Bollocks, utter bollocks. The Telegraph was the only paper not to run the story. Criminal investigations have been launched as a result of this story. You don’t know what you’re talking about.
Another new name, same old invective.
And another new inconvenient fact to blow a hole in the load of tripe written above, and substantiate Oborne’s version of events:
http://order-order.com/2015/02/18/leaked-memo-shows-telegraph-offered-sony-support-across-editorial/
What Guido, not always the most truthful of ‘interpreters’ when he wants to stir things up, actually says is this…
Media Guido has obtained a memo sent in October from Sony to the Telegraph’s ‘Create’ department, which produces sponsored content.
So it is actually a commercial non-secret that the Telegraph links product to a story….such as this one…
Telegraph launches Morrisons-backed British food campaign
The Daily Telegraph has launched a Best British Recipes strand sponsored by Morrisons, which will comprise print and online activity leading to a book sold in the supermarket.
The activity was developed by Create, Telegraph Media Group’s bespoke advertising services division.
Let’s think what happens…you link to a story about Sony and adverts around the side mention Sony or its products and somehow I don’t think a film review can be classed as hard news and a ‘corruption of journalistic principles’ even if it was sexed up, and there’s no proof that it was…oh hang on here’s Guido’s proof….
Incidentally, the Telegraph review of Fury described it as “astonishing” and “gripping” drama that “brings us as close to an understanding of war as cinema can”
In that case what sponsorship from Sony did the Guardian get?
Fury review – stirring, macho tank drama
Brad Pitt leads his tank crew through the horrors of Hitler’s last stand in this graphic, action-packed war movie.
The spirit of Sam Peckinpah hangs over this surprisingly grim, macho tank drama (shot in Hertfordshire and Oxfordshire), which marries the tough-men-in-peril thrills of an old-fashioned war movie with the post-Saving Private Ryan viscera of a modern “war is hell” parable.
And do you know who the Guardian’s film reviewer was? Mark Kermode…oh…that’ll be the lad who does film reviews for the BBC!
Lots of papers and publications, and indeed broadcasters, have such departments which link products to content. You can see it in publications all the time.
Surely such a self confessed expert in journalistic practise has heard of ‘product placement’ and its like?
No? Let me help….even television is allowed to operate such a policy by Ofcom….
In February 2011, the TV regulator Ofcom, allowed TV programmes made for UK audiences to contain product placement
And indeed the BBC’s commercial arm does accept it...
BBC commercial television channels may, in some circumstances, take appropriate product placement providing it does not undermine the editorial integrity of the programme or the channel.
Let me remind you of some examples that the BBC has let slip by its ‘guardians’…
Great British Bake Off accused of product placement after single episode shows Smeg fridge logo 37 times
‘EastEnders’ slammed for ‘product placement’ by Alan Sugar
Top Gear breaks BBC product placement rules by plugging company headed by former cocaine kingpin
Countryfile stars blasted in BBC product placement row
Mary Portas reveals BBC’s Ab Fab pioneered an early form of product placement
Ofcom ‘assessing’ Gary Lineker’s crisp references during BBC’s Commonwealth Games coverage
Or how about slipping in a bit on the sly in Sherlock?..
Sherlock’s overcoat. It’s by Belstaff, in case you hadn’t noticed. I certainly did. In last night’s episode, they actually showed the label. Now I happen to like Belstaff – a classic English brand (it’s what Lawrence of Arabia wore when he had his fatal motorcycle accident) cannily bought by the Italians and turned into a global luxury phenomenon a la Burberry. But I do think such naked product placement in a prime time TV show is a trifle vulgar.
Never mind the BBC slipping in a bit of political ‘product placement’ on behalf of the Labour Party…
Johnson says attacking Tories is BBC’s ‘raison d’etre’ after fake story in show described mayor as ‘dithering’ and ‘self-interested’
Shocking. No doubt Oborne will not be working at the BBC again on principle.
As dave s says below; Oborne is always interesting but he is not to be regarded as in any way consistent.If there are ten possible angles to a subject, Oborne could write eleven stories. There is nothing that anyone could say about the man that someone else couldn’t refute with good evidence. And that tells you all you need to know.
Just shouting ‘rubbish’ and ‘bollocks’ doesn’t make you right however many times you repeat it.
You claim ‘ It’s a major story which only Private Eye covered with any diligence until the Guardian/BBC investigation belatedly picked up on it.’
‘Belatedly’???? What just before the election, just days after Miliband launched his campaign against tax havens? You are kidding no one. The BBC and Guardian had this stashed away just for the election…..if it was such a ‘major story’ they would have broken it years ago.
Oborne’s piece was heavily supportive of Miliband and his policies however much you want to ignore that….
Here’s some more from him…
‘I have followed Mr Miliband with growing admiration as Labour leader. I think he has been the greatest leader of the opposition since something like Attlee, I mean certainly since World War Two, in terms of sheer achievement.’
Here’s what the Guardian says about Oborne’s hero worship…
‘Oborne’s Daily Telegraph column lavishes praise on Ed Miliband ‘
Even way back in 2011 Oborne was bigging up his boy…
Wake up, Tories! Ed Miliband has redefined the future of politics
The Labour leader this week showed a clear grasp of our national predicament, and may have signalled the end of an unhealthy era of managed, technocratic discourse. He rose to the occasion, and he deserves our thanks.
Yep you’re right…not a supporter of Miliband.
Dan Hodges works on the Telegraph….is he ‘right wing’ by virtue of that?
The swiss police looking into ‘money laundering’…a separate issue to tax evasion….the US already did HSBC for the same years ago.
The BBC’s disinterring of this old story just as Miliband coincidentally launched his attack on tax havens was itself highly corrupt politically for a supposedly impartial broadcaster.
Slander and libel….hmmm….do I know the difference?…yes but…I preferred the term Slander, it has more sinister undertones which conveyed the impression I wanted to make….and I win my bet…you’re still as predictable as ever.
The Telegraph didn’t run the HSBC story?
To coin a phrase ‘Bollocks!’…The post links to many articles on the HSBC story and many others that criticise HSBC…. I kind of suispect like many of our ‘critics’ you don’t actually read the whole post, only getting to the bits you feel you can cherry pick for effect and then stopping.
So I guess that’s you and Oborne talking er…bollocks.
Oborne is always interesting but he is not to be regarded as in any way consistent. Take him as you find him and don’t expect a writer whose views are unchanging. Not a bad thing sometimes. I do not agree with him on Israel. I still regard him as at heart a conservative in the old sense.
At least he is nothing like Toynbee or the rest of the hive minded.
This morning Radio Five “gets much worse” Live arranged for Peter Allen to interview Peter Oborne about his resignation from the Daily Telegraph. I have on the whole found Oborne to be a good writer, particularly his book The Political Class, but recently I have found him to be somewhat contrdictory as regards some of his opinions. The main reason for resigning, so he informed Allen, was the fact that HSBC reduced its advertising to the Guardian two years ago and more recently to the Daily Telegraph. To which Allen responded, “Is that it?” You could tell that Allen was not very convinced by this argument and very pointedly asked Oborne where he as off to. The interview was much shorter than I anticipated, possiblt because Allen felt that he was not going to get much mileage out of it. No doubt Allen was musing, “What a wasted opportunity to put the boot into HSBC!” I agree that the standard in the Telegraph has gone down in recent months, which I hope can be rectified, if only as a counter to the monolithic left-leaning Biased Broadcasting Corporation.
Despite all the coverage of HSBC, Radio Five still refuses to give any coverage to the Rotherham scandal or the barbaric murders of 21 Coptic Christians in Libya. The Egyptian Government has stated that there are scores of Islamic Jihadists based in Libya ready to cross over to Europe. Isn’t about time that the BBC and Mr. Oborne highlighted these concerns? I suppose it will take a terrorist outrage in one of our urban areas before these so-called giants of the world of journalism take due note! The problem with this scenario is that the Government will not be able to respond effectively as defence spending is currently not part of the political debate in this country. O tempora, o mores!
On the ball Alan.
I was heading off over here to rant about Five Live being all over this (not in a good way) and you saved me the trouble.
I didn’t catch all of the Oborne interview, but it was clear that the BBC were ratcheting it up – it must have been Christmas all over again for them. On behalf of their Labour colleagues, hey could keep the HSBC thing going for another week as well as have a go at the integrity of the Telegraph.
All of the usual suspects are here; Miliband supporting / Cameron hating Oborne, the BBC, support for Oborne from someone from the Labour supporting Daily Mirror, Oborne’s praise for the Guardian’s nasty Nick Davies (he who falsely accused the News of the World of hacking Millie Dowler’s phone and removing her voice mails), the ubiquitous ‘anonymous text’ from someone who claims to work for the telegraph, a completely irrelevant text from a listener supporting Oborne and for good measure telling us of political interference in the Hillsborough reporting (it’s Thatcher wot done it).
As for the BBC part in this, they smugly note that the Telegraph did seem to down play the HSBC story. Some might argue that far from downplaying it they treated this OLD story with the distance it deserved – it was the BBC who, with the Guardian and the Left wing ICIJ were playing it up.
It says something about an organisation, once again using its immense power to rubbish and stymie a right wing competitor claiming it has not properly covered a story as it, the BBC, would like, when it itself has a track record in political disinterest;
– Ignoring the state of the NHS and up to 20,000 excess deaths under labour
– Forgetting to let the public know the political allegiances of the concillors who let down the children of Rotherham
– The recent UCAS report showing record numbers of disadvantaged kids going to university
– The 1000 strong anti free speech / anti Charlie Hebdo demonstration in Whitehall.
Pete Allen has just issued a ‘calling all cars’ message to anyone from the Telegraph who will ‘under assurances of strict anonymity’ come on and spill the beans. How would the BBC like it?
And BTW, if anyone doubted that the BBC were enjoying the whole HSBC thing; when the iPlayer is up and running, take a listen to the very end of this BBC frenzy…listen to the woman reporting with some satisfaction on the Swiss police’s raid on HSBC offices in Berne. Listen to her theatrically tells listeners that she has ‘just received’ an email from HSBC telling her that HSBC are cooperating with the authorities….listen to her laugh.
Totally biased, totally unacceptable. The BBC are corrupt.
Updated to note that Guido reports that Tom Watson has joined in the attack on the Telegraph, opening up another front, on child abuse, this time.
There must be an election on the way and Labour and their friends in the BBC, typical of Socialists, obviously want their opposition out of the way.
The thing is the BBC can do and say what they want with impunity, with Rona Fairhead as their ‘Trust’ regulator, she dare not speak up or take them to task, being a former HSBC Executive.
No doubt the Guardian will kick off next.
What advertiser in its right mind, knowing its product was going to be criticised if not attacked, would not pull its advertising until they and their wares ceased to be the story?
Oborne is unbelievably precious here and of course an Arabist.
Are they connected?
“What advertiser in its right mind, knowing its product was going to be criticised if not attacked, would not pull its advertising until they and their wares ceased to be the story?”
I get the impression that you haven’t grasped the point of this story. For years, newspapers rigorously maintained the independence of their newsdesks. If advertisers didn’t like the stories the papers printed about them: well, tough. What is new here is that a paper has gone out of its way to placate a major advertiser by declining to publish unflattering stories.
“Oborne is unbelievably precious here”
Here we differ; as somebody who has worked for a Right-leaning paper for two decades I agree with him.
“and of course an Arabist.
Are they connected?”
Well, if you’re desperate to shoehorn Islam into this somewhere you might as well.
Our old pal has surfaced.
‘I’m a lawyer’
‘I’m a doctor’
I’m a journalist’
I’m a teacher’
‘I’m a youname it I’ve worked there and know all about it’
He’s just missing:
‘I’m a twat’
It’s the most accurate.
‘What is new here is that a paper has gone out of its way to placate a major advertiser by declining to publish unflattering stories.’
Really, where’s your proof that HSBC was ‘placated’ other than Oborne’s rant?
And on that principle are you suggesting BBC journalists should also resign in light of the BBC’s well known, and self admitted, censorship of the news on certain subjects?
Actually there is a connection….to Oborne’s penchant for wild conspiracy theory ramblings.
Oborne has a belief that the ‘Jewish Lobby’ runs things, foreign policy in particular, and has shown considerable support for the Palestinians and Muslim countries such as Iran….his thoughts on which Con Coughlin said…
Given the authors’ alarming ignorance about the rudimentary principles that underpin the current Iranian regime, it is a wonder that their warped interpretation of the facts ever made it into print. Certainly, the book’s title more aptly applies to the specious arguments advanced by the authors themselves than the way the West has attempted to handle the Iranian crisis during the past decade.
Oborne thinks the Tory Party is in cahoots with the Jews and just as he suggests the Telegraph shapes its news to suit an advertiser he suggests the Tories shape foreign policy to suit the Joows…
I was shocked to see that Cameron made no reference at all to the invasion of Gaza, the massive destruction it caused, or the 1,370 deaths that had resulted. Indeed, Cameron went out of his way to praise Israel because it “strives to protect innocent life”.
Never mind that supporting a strong and viable democratic Israel is probably a just and sensible thing to do…it must be because the Jewish lobby has malignly influenced Cameron and Co according to Oborne.
Not saying Oborne has a tendency to get a bee in his bonnet and make wild claims based purely on the basis of his own outraged imaginings…but he does seem to.
‘What is new here is that a paper has gone out of its way to placate a major advertiser by declining to publish unflattering stories.’
Could this not also be said of the Guardian in the context of the BBC?
Have a look on any of the commercial channels. I haven’t seen any advert for HSBC for at least a fortnight. It’s probably a commercial decision made by the bank itself for public relations reasons. Why waste money on TV adverts when the bank’s name and reputation are being dragged through the mud?
Oborne himself has become something of a loose cannon journalistically over the past few years. His pro-Arabic/Muslim Brotherhood shilling has become blatant and much of his recent writing has deteriorated into political ranting making one think he prepared his articles whilst “tired and emotional”. I think Oborne has become a liability to himself.
As might be expected, Delingpole has it about right – and, of course, really does know the state of play at the Telegraph.
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2015/02/18/oborne-the-telegraph-and-the-sad-death-of-quality-journalism/
Delingpole jumped ship a long time ago from the Telegraph.
Not sure why anyone is showing any surprise at any of this, it’s not as if journalists are trusted in the slightest as the Guardian told us…
Only 3% of public trust journalists
And it’s not as if the Telegraph is the only commercial enteprise, which is what it is, that does this..if indeed it did. The Guardian, as mentioned in the next post, has page after page of news commissioned by its sponsors.
Oborne’s attack on the Telegraph is personal and political.
Delingpole, who left a year ago, was one of a number of Right wing/libertarian journalists and writers (Heffer, Warner, Hannan, and Martin among them) who have left the paper and his view of the direction it has taken under Seiken is, I would have thought, unarguable to anyone who reads it.
The fact that Oborne’s judgement is hopelessly askew as a political commentator and the fact that he has given ammunition to the Guardian and the BBC, seems to me to have little bearing on the point that the Telegraph no longer serves its core conservative (small ‘c’) readership.
The Left may be enjoying the storm in a tea cup over HSBC but their real cause for rejoicing must be that the Right now has no daily newspaper of any intellectual worth.
Lol Oddbod has really jumped the shark he has gone from the shock horror of the commercial news papers [<— note the clue in the name oddbod?] who do sell things for money [I feel an attack of the vapours I never knew !] to the BBC who has never ever done anything because it's pay master told it to !
By the way pro BBC rats how is Dr Kelly these days ?