Culture Wars Read online

  Culture Wars

  Culture Wars investigates the relationship between the media and politics in Britain today. It focusses on how significant sections of the national press have represented and distorted the policies of the Labour Party, and particularly its left, from the Thatcher era up to and including Ed Miliband’s and Jeremy Corbyn’s leaderships.

  Revised and updated, including five brand new chapters, this second edition shows how press hostility to the left, particularly newspaper coverage of its policies on race, gender and sexuality, has morphed into a more generalised campaign against ‘political correctness’, the ‘liberal elite’ and the so-called ‘enemies of the people’. Combining fine-grained case studies with authoritative overviews of recent British political and media history, Culture Wars demonstrates how much of the press have routinely attacked Labour and, in so doing, have abused their political power, distorted public debate, and negatively impacted the news agendas of public service broadcasters. The book also raises the intriguing question of whether the rise of social media, and the success of its initial exploitation by Corbyn supporters, followed by Labour as a whole in the 2017 General Election, represent a major shift in the balance of power between Labour and the media, and in particular the right-wing press.

  Culture Wars will be of considerable interest to students and researchers in the fields of media, politics and contemporary British history, and will also attract those with a more general interest in current affairs in the UK.

  James Curran is Professor of Communications at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK. He is the author or editor of over twenty books about the media, including (with Jean Seaton) Power Without Responsibility, 8th edition (2018).

  Ivor Gaber is Professor of Political Journalism at the University of Sussex, UK. He has published widely in the field of political communications and is a former producer and programme editor for BBC TV and Radio, ITV News, Channel Four and Sky News.

  Julian Petley is Professor of Journalism at Brunel University London, UK. He is the editor of Media and Public Shaming (2013), a member of the editorial board of the British Journalism Review and is a principal editor of the Journal of British Cinema and Television.

  Praise for First Edition

  ‘Admirable book’, Times Higher

  ‘Deftly illustrates how the audience can be influenced on some occasions and not others’, Guardian

  ‘Useful and accessible text for teaching about media power and influence’, Journalism

  ‘The strength … of the book as a whole lies in the way it highlights, in an easily digestible fashion, the complex and two-way relationship between politics and the media’, Media, Culture and Society

  ‘An excellent history and analysis’, Free Press

  Praise for Second Edition

  ‘I read this book with mounting enthusiasm as it documented and analysed the roller coaster journey of what in the 1980s was ridiculed and repressed as the “Loony Left”, with its roots in the counter-culture of the 1960s, through the defeats of the Blair era to its “resurrection from the undead” in the leadership of Corbyn and McDonnell.

  Careful and revealing in its empirical analysis, Culture Wars provides an original and convincing perspective from which to understand the media’s changing relation to Labour politics, including the new Labour leadership’s ability to establish its own rapport with a new generation of voters.’

  Hilary Wainwright, Co-editor of Red Pepper

  ‘We may be living through a media revolution but this brilliantly forensic book shows that one constant factor still applies – the relentless anti-Labour bias in most newspapers and their continuing influence. Culture Wars is a must-read for all those seeking to make sense of UK politics. Indeed, it is impossible to make sense of what is happening and what has happened without reading it.’

  Steve Richards, Political columnist and broadcaster

  ‘This outstanding new edition of the classic text Culture Wars revisits and analyses the complex relationships between the media, journalism and politics in the UK. The authors’ focus is on press (mis)representations of the Labour left in the context of radical changes in the Labour leadership, the diminished influence of print media and the growth of social media and fake news. They address provocative and significant questions concerning the shifting influence of politicians, citizens and media in public debates about gender, sexuality, race and environmental policy in an age of digital journalism and media.

  James Curran, Ivor Gaber and Julian Petley’s eloquent, authoritative and forward-looking Culture Wars is essential reading for everyone interested in the significant role of news journalism in democracies.’

  Bob Franklin, Foundation Chair in Journalism Studies at the University of Cardiff

  ‘To understand the left of the Labour Party is, today, essential to understanding the future of contemporary British politics. This book shines a really valuable light on one of the culture wars now raging in Britain.’

  Tony Travers, Professor in the Department of Government, London School of Economics

  ‘It is not only generals who fight the next war as if it was the last. The British media, and especially its national press, is unable to escape its past as it eviscerates history. This is why the new edition of Culture Wars is not just important and gripping – it is essential reading as its authors start to account for the renewed strengths of the left in the UK, whose tap-roots they examine with unique authority.’

  Anthony Barnett, founder of openDemocracy

  Communication and Society

  Series Editor: James Curran

  This series encompasses the broad field of media and cultural studies. Its main concerns are the media and the public sphere: on whether the media empower or fail to empower popular forces in society; media organisations and public policy; the political and social consequences of media campaigns; and the role of media entertainment, ranging from potboilers and the human-interest story to rock music and TV sport.

  For a complete list of titles in this series, please see: https://www.routledge.com/series/SE0130

  Africa’s Media Image in the 21st Century

  From the ‘Heart of Darkness’ to ‘Africa Rising’

  Edited by Mel Bunce, Suzanne Franks and Chris Paterson

  Comparing Political Journalism

  Edited by Claes de Vreese, Frank Esser, and David Nicolas Hopmann

  Media Ownership and Agenda Control

  The Hidden Limits of the Information Age

  Justin Schlosberg

  An Introduction to Political Communication, Sixth edition

  Brian McNair

  Misunderstanding News Audiences

  Seven Myths of the Social Media Era

  Eiri Elvestad and Angela Phillips

  Culture Wars, Second edition

  The Media and the British Left

  James Curran, Ivor Gaber and Julian Petley

  Culture Wars

  The Media and the British Left

  Second edition

  James Curran, Ivor Gaber and Julian Petley

  First published 2019

  by Routledge

  2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

  and by Routledge

  711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

  Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

  © 2019 James Curran, Ivor Gaber and Julian Petley

  The right of James Curran, Ivor Gaber and Julian Petley to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, no
w known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

  Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

  British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

  A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Curran, James, author. | Gaber, Ivor. | Petley, Julian.

  Title: Culture wars: the media and the left in Britain/James Curran, Ivor Gaber and Julian Petley.

  Description: Second edition. | Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2018. | Series: Communication and society | Includes bibliographical references and index.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2018010457| ISBN 9781138223028 (hardback: alk. paper) | ISBN 9781138223035 (pbk.: alk. paper) | ISBN 9781315406183 (ebook: alk. paper)

  Subjects: LCSH: Social change–Great Britain–History. | Political culture–Great Britain–History. | Social values–Great Britain–History. | Conflict of generations–Political aspects–Great Britain. | Mass media–Political aspects–Great Britain. | New Left–Great Britain–History. | New Left–Press coverage–Great Britain. | Right and left (Political science)

  Classification: LCC HN385.5 .C86 2018 | DDC 306.0941–dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018010457

  ISBN: 978-1-138-22302-8 (hbk)

  ISBN: 978-1-138-22303-5 (pbk)

  ISBN: 978-1-315-40618-3 (ebk)

  Typeset in Bembo

  by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India

  Contents

  List of figures

  List of tables

  1 Introduction: Resurrection of the undead

  James Curran

  2 Rise of the ‘loony left’

  James Curran

  3 Goodbye to the clowns

  James Curran

  4 Press boomerang

  James Curran

  5 ‘Not funny but sick’: Urban myths

  Julian Petley

  6 ‘A wave of hysteria and bigotry’: Sexual politics and the ‘loony left’

  Julian Petley

  7 Toxifying the new urban left

  James Curran

  8 Slaying the dragon

  Ivor Gaber

  9 THE BLAIR ASCENDANCY

  Ivor Gaber

  10 ‘Enemies Of The People’: The press, racism and Labour

  Julian Petley

  11 The Blair Ascendancy

  Ivor Gaber

  12 Return Of The Repressed

  James Curran

  13 What Goes around Comes around

  Ivor Gaber

  Index

  Figures

  5.1 Conservative-supporting newspapers have habitually used grotesque caricatures as a means of demonising and de-legitimising the left.

  11.1 Statements about Ed Miliband

  11.2 Political views of party leaders

  11.3 The Sun front page, Wednesday 5 May 2016

  11.4 The Daily Mail front page, Wednesday 7 June 2017

  TABLES

  4.1 Londoners’ Attitudes Towards GLC Abolition, from 1983–5

  7.1 Decline of Labour Party support, 1986–7

  7.2 Perceptions of the Labour Party, 1985–7

  9.1 References to the ‘loony left’ and ‘Red Ken’ in the national press, January 2002–May 2003

  11.1 Articles referencing ‘Red Ed’, by newspaper groups, 2013

  11.2 Articles in national press mentioning ‘Red Ed’, by month

  1

  Introduction

  Resurrection of the undead

  James Curran

  Labour’s current triumvirate – Leader Jeremy Corbyn, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer John McDonnell and Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott – were leading members of the ‘loony left’, the pejorative label deployed by the popular press to delegitimise the 1980s new urban left.1 Jeremy Corbyn was a councillor on ‘loony’ Haringey Council before becoming a Labour MP in 1983. Diane Abbott was a press officer at the ‘loony’ Greater London Council (GLC), and then head of PR at the ‘loony’ Lambeth Council, before being elected to Parliament in 1987. John McDonnell was Deputy Leader of the GLC, and later Head of the Policy Unit at ‘loony’ Camden Council, before being elected an MP in 1997.

  In a more general sense, Labour’s triumvirate also have a shared pedigree. They are baby boomers: they were born between 1949 and 1953. They all represent London constituencies. Above all, they are representative of the main constitutive strands of the 1980s new urban left. Jeremy Corbyn belongs to its mainstream: informally dressed, iconoclastic, with a long record of involvement in peace, anti-racist, environmental and human rights politics. Diane Abbott is a pioneer of Labour’s black section, a key component of the new urban left, who became the first black woman to be elected to parliament. John McDonnell – who once had a vocation for the priesthood2 and is usually formally dressed – and has tended to focus on economic and class issues. But he was strongly influenced by 1980s social radicalism, and is representative of the old left of his generation who were recruited into the ranks of London’s new municipal left.

  The municipal left gained prominence for a brief time during the 1980s. However, it was demonised by the tabloid press, disowned by Labour’s leadership, shunned by much of the Labour movement and replaced by the ‘managerialist left’ on local councils. It had a brief renaissance when Ken Livingstone, former leader of the GLC (1981–6), became Mayor of London (2000–8). But he was defeated by the Conservative populist, Boris Johnson, and subsequently fell into disfavour.

  Corbyn, McDonnell and Abbott were marginalised in Parliament as members of an insignificant awkward squad. While Diane Abbott had a short-lived career as an opposition spokeswoman,3 Corbyn and McDonnell remained backbenchers. All three were judged by many of their colleagues (and lobby correspondents) to be 1970s dinosaurs: people who had not adjusted to a changed world, and who had failed to make their mark in Parliament.

  The ‘loony left’ – the people who were at the centre of the first edition of this book – thus seemed set to become minor footnotes in the history of a terminally defeated left. That is, until 2015, when Jeremy Corbyn, a backbencher for over thirty years, was elected Leader of the Labour Party. This resurrection of the political undead makes the study of their ideas, and of the political soil they spring from, of renewed interest.

  Generational outriders

  Corbyn’s election as Labour Leader was viewed by most of the media-political class as a tsunami coming from nowhere. When he was re-elected in 2016 with an increased majority, many journalists were dumbfounded. Eighty per cent of Labour MPs had previously passed a motion of no confidence in him. Britain’s only two pro-Labour dailies had both called for his resignation.4 The received elite wisdom, after his re-election, remained that Corbyn was ‘unelectable’ on a national stage, a view that perhaps encouraged Theresa May to call a snap election. Guardian columnist, Jonathan Freedland, declared that Theresa May’s election gamble was ‘about the surest bet any politician could ever place’,5 while the Sun (19 April 2017) predicted that ‘PM’s Snap Poll Will Kill Off Labour’.

  The political rise of Corbyn and his close allies is now widely attributed to a backlash against neo-liberalism. Their rejection of austerity politics, and their insistence that the state should have an activist role in creating jobs, fostering greater equality and promoting security, appealed to many with precarious work, stagnant wages, soaring rents and, in some cases, enormous student debt. But this only captures one aspect of their politics, and the reasons for their rise.

  Jeremy Corbyn and his ‘loony’ allies were social radicals who were the outriders of generational cultural change. Although their views provoked derision in 1980s tabloids, these views gained much greater acceptance in the subsequ
ent period. Support for feminism, gay rights, environmentalism and anti-racism became part of mainstream opinion among young people, even if it still repelled some among the older generation. Corbyn and his allies were in touch with the changing currents of feeling in the wider population. Losers in the culture war of the 1980s, the ‘loony left’ were ultimately the victors.

  This overall assessment was a central theme of the first edition, published in 2005. It needs to be updated and revised in the light of subsequent developments, not simply in the success of Corbyn and his allies, but because the social radical tradition of which they are a part made further cultural gains in the period after 2005 (notably in relation to sexuality, gender relations and attitudes towards the environment). But this tradition also lost ground in relation to race, and was confronted by resurgent social conservatism in the 2016 European Union referendum.

  Battle for the soul of the Labour Party

  A sustained press campaign against the ‘loony left’ in the 1980s rendered the Labour left electorally toxic in the country (if not in London). New Labour was constructed as a successful electoral brand in the 1990s based in part on the reassuring claim that it had slayed the dragons of the hard and loony left. A virulent press campaign against the left assisted Labour’s centre-right coalition to consolidate their control over the party, and eventually make a successful electoral pitch to the country.

  But the Labour Party is now led by the left, and dire warnings about the left’s un-electability were called into question by Labour’s relative success in the 2017 general election. One element of this change (though how much has changed remains to be seen) is, as already mentioned, both a revolt against the politics of neo-liberalism and a shift towards social liberalism among young people.

  Another is a reduction in the power of the press. The ancient bazookas of the tabloid press were trained on Corbyn, McDonnell and Abbot during the 2017 general election campaign, portraying them as ‘APOLOGISTS FOR TERROR’6 and fantasists forever shaking a magic money tree. But this relentless bombardment failed to prevent a Corbyn-led Labour Party from winning 3.5 million more votes (compared with the 2015 general election), and making a major breakthrough among younger people. The role of the press that loomed large in the first edition has diminished in the era of the internet.