Hypocrisy in high places must be exposed - whatever media bashers claim: Anthony Clavane

Watching Dominic Cummings’ bizarre media briefing in the Downing Street Rose Garden on Monday brought to mind a famous moment in popular culture.
Boris Johnson's top aide Dominic Cummings arrives in Downing Street, as the row over his trip to Durham during lockdown continues.Boris Johnson's top aide Dominic Cummings arrives in Downing Street, as the row over his trip to Durham during lockdown continues.
Boris Johnson's top aide Dominic Cummings arrives in Downing Street, as the row over his trip to Durham during lockdown continues.

No, not the scene in Pinocchio when the wooden marionette is caught out telling a lie. Although I’m sure I noticed a slight elongation of the political aide’s nose when he claimed his trip to Barnard Castle was an “eyesight test”.

Nor was it that bit in Gaslight when the diabolical husband convinced his wife she was insane. Although, whilst listening to Cummings, I momentarily began to doubt my own sanity in thinking he might have breached lockdown rules by driving 260 miles from his London home to his parents’ farm.

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It wasn’t even the Animal Farm mantra: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” Or, 
as Boris Johnson might prefer to put it: “One rule for my chief aide, another rule for the rest.”

No, the famous moment I was thinking of was an old TV comedy sketch in which Robert Webb and David Mitchell played SS officers. “Have you noticed that our caps have got little pictures of skulls on them?” Mitchell says. “Hans, are we the baddies?”

When Dom was asked in the briefing if people were right to be angry, he replied: “A lot of that anger is based on reports in the media that have not been true.”

When another journalist asked if his actions would lead to breaches of the lockdown, he answered: “The coverage of the last couple of days could make people believe they can behave in certain ways.”

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At which point I turned to my son and asked: “Are we the baddies?” Yes, he joked, Cummings did nothing wrong. It was all your lot’s fault.

Up until Monday, my lot have tended to be presented in popular culture, on the whole, as the goodies. Superheroes even.

From the moment the bespectacled Clark Kent 
of the Daily Planet transformed himself into Superman, we have been on the side of the people, calling power to account and, on occasion, saving the world from the clutches of super-villains.

I grew up watching Hollywood movies like All the President’s Men, The Parallax View and The Front Page. There is a wonderful tradition of gripping newspaper films – such as Defence of the Realm, The Insider and The Post – where journalists expose corrupt members of the political establishment and bring down lying presidents.

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Like Donald Trump, however, the government is attempting to turn this perception on its head. During the Brexit campaign Cummings promoted a “people versus Parliament” narrative, claiming the out-of-touch, metropolitan elite in Westminster was overriding the wishes of the electorate.

Since Monday, this has been replaced by a “people versus the media” narrative in which the out-of-touch, metropolitan elite in the “MSM” (a lazy caricature of the mainstream media) try to pull the wool over the electorate’s eyes.

Spiked online editor Brendan O’Neill lambasted the media for its “absolutely psychotic response to Dominic Cummings”. TalkRADIO presenter Dan Wootton declared the establishment was “out to get” him.

David Cameron’s former advisor Alex Deane insisted the poor chap was “being ganged up on” by a hostile press. “He should ignore journalists and get his message out to the country, rather than pandering to their desires.”

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Daily Telegraph columnist Alexandra Phillips argued he was “the left-leaning media’s favourite enfant terrible... their favourite villain.”

In fact, the reporters who broke the news – The Guardian’s Matthew Weaver and The Daily Mirror’s Pippa Crerar – were neither heroes nor villains. They spent seven weeks working on a good, old-fashioned story which exposed hypocrisy in high places.

They were even praised by a succession of right-wing commentators, who claimed the public felt betrayed by the Government not the MSM.

“Do they think we are fools?” asked the not-so-left-leaning Daily Mail. “For the good of the Government and the nation, Mr Cummings must resign. Or the Prime Minister must sack him.”

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I have been a journalist for 30 years now and, despite the occasional transgression by my one of my colleagues, I still believe we are the goodies. Just as I believe that the people who make the rules shouldn’t break them.

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James Mitchinson

Editor

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