Alastair Campbell: "The Daily Mail is run by a bully and a coward"

well emily is in London with the deputy editor of The Daily Mail and Alastair Campbell Jeremy thanks very much yes John Steve or the deputy editor is with me here and joining us from Nottingham Alastair Campbell in a moment John Siever thanks very much for coming in your paper wrote and you restate today that Ralph Miliband who fought for this country his country in the second world war hated Britain how can he possibly claim that I think it's very simple we examined Ralph's motive and views as they were put forward in his writings his Diaries his books his speeches and those views conveyed an impression of what he thought about Britain which is very antipathetic to the views and values of an awful lot of British people we thought it was reasonable to highlight those views in a piece in the paper what do you mean antipathetic I mean you said that he hated Britain he had an evil legacy he was a man who served in the Navy who couldn't join up to the Navy fast enough who offered his life who raised his sons here was evil we didn't say he was evil I'm sure I'm sure his service in the Navy was absolutely creditable and we've not sought to question that or to doubt that in any way anyway what we've done is examined his views as he stated them he's Ralph Miliband What did he say that young man hated Britain Ralph and when wasn't it wasn't a private individual he was a very public man he was an academic a political activist and author Ralph ativans views were spread widely his views on British institutions from our schools to our royal family to our military to our universities to the church to our great newspapers he hated anything he was what he what he said was that he felt that all of those things were were bad aspects were unfortunate aspects of British life that meant he hated Britain if you take those things together and you combine them with his espousing of a Marxist ideology that in our view represented someone who who hated British value analyzing British politics is not hating your country surely he hate we felt and we think we produced evidence to support it that he hated British values and that his views on many areas were antipathetic to British values and if you go beyond the views that he had put forward in those writings as I've mentioned there's no question that his political point of view was as a Molly what are the values he hated then I mean you can have disdain for a lot of things you can question a lot of things surely that is the free speech that your paper so espouses I wouldn't dispute or argue with anyone's right to quest to question things if you if you take together his views as put forward on all of those institutions cumulatively they represented a a substantial dislike of those institutions and disapprove them furthermore furthermore his perspective politically was very much that of a Marxist he was supporter of Marxist ideology he was a supporter of the Marxist ideology which was being used to run government in other parts of the continent and other part of Europe which was responsible what's the poor know awful lot of terrible terrible things including millions and billions of deaths so was was the point of this article that your paper implies now that Ed Miliband hates Britain and that he is a rabid Marxist or a communist it certainly was not the point of our article to say that Ed Miliband hates Britain the point of the article was very straightforward ed Miliband seeks to be prime minister of this country he's made many speeches over the three years since he became leader lead Labour leader and in many of those speeches he refers to the story of his parents it's an important part of understanding who Ed Miliband is is the back story of his refugee of his immigrant parents and the difficulties they had when they came here and the values that they stood for and how those values shaped him when he was a young man when he was growing up just as they shaped his brother so if you to understand ed Miliband who has told us that he wants to bring back socialism to brought modern Britain then you need to understand the values that shaped him and parents are important I'm wondering if the car if I count Rothermere whose family owns your paper is tainted by the article that his great-grandfather wrote in 1934 entitled hurrah for the Blackshirts in praise of British fascists IIIi I don't think so and I most importantly I don't think that rel it's I don't think it's relevant to bring up a piece from 80 years ago that was written by a member of the right not family let's go to Alastair Campbell who's just joined us from Naughton Alastair Campbell can you hear us yes I can and I mean I thought this is going to be a debate not a sort of pathetic ramble from John Stephen reading out the lines written from by Paul Dacre can I say first of all Emily you said that the mail is a formidable opponent the mail is not a formidable opponent because it's run by a bully and a coward and like most cowards is a hypocrite as well Paul Dacre hasn't got the guts himself to come on this program and defend something which I know John Stifel believes is not defensible and when he talks about when he talks about Rob Amir and what his relatives wrote about Hitler the sole bit that they've relied upon for this piece is something that Ed Miliband's dad wrote when he in his diary was 17 and what you've got to understand about Daily Mail it is the worst of British values posing as the best and when Ed Miliband went out today he did went went out and demanded a right of reply and spoke as he did today he did that and I'm glad that they become a nick clegg have supported him in what he did he did it because he actually believes in genuine political debate and genuine freedom of speech these people do not believe in genuine debate if you do not conform to Paul Dacres narrow twisted view of the world as all of his employers like Steve will have to do you get done in and it won't all I say to all the politicians in Britain once you accept you're dealing with a bully and a coward you have absolutely nothing to fear from them I don't see where you can stop where you want bully coward with the worst kind of values you use those words quoting alistair bully coward Alice Alice now mr. Steve or perhaps you like Paul Dacre tonight why have you been put up alistair perhaps you let me answer where's Paul Dacre haps you'd let yes justice and Big John stifle the the reality Alistair is is that Ed Miliband put some afford to be prime minister of this country he puts himself forward on a socialist platform he makes very clear that the values he grew up with were the values of his parents and they have shaped the ladies and I couldn't support his views I said that in his speech the other day he said his dad wouldn't support some of his views today there are there are many of his views that his father would have supported and indeed as we know from daemon rides book last week his decision to stand against his brother had much to do with following through and his father do you believe do you believe mr. steeple do you not Paul Dacre who's told you what to say to know do you believe that Ed Miliband's dad hated Britain and to you you personally think it was justified to use a picture of Ralph Miliband grave in your coverage well first of all I answered a question as I said as I say leading Alister as I've said to Alister our piece was based on an examination of rowdy Hume and write the headline Alice did Ralph Miliband hey Griffin okay you'd allow me to finish Joseph to specific points the headline said the man who hated Britain you had a picture of a gravestone with the words do great so let me let me answer this first of all on the headline it's a well-established principle of all journalism which Alistair may remember from the distant days when he was part of journalism that the headline and the piece should be read in conjunction with each other if you read that headline in conjunction with the piece which quotes extensively from your deadline is justified I'm completely deaf you're in there like a rock you're what you and your colleagues are embarrassed by Dacre Rodham is looking at you to be a successor and that's why you're wriggling now I don't I don't result from the headline for one moment it's entirely justified it's entirely appropriate for the piece and that's why in the paper this morning we make will you be very unreasonable so I hope you asked job when he got you ask me a question about the picture of the gravestone that did not appear in the paper do you end it was on line Alice Avedis you've met website in the world it did not offend the page that it might be that did not appear in the paper do you defend its use online if you'd let me get a word it is not appear in the paper right the period on line up without your tombstone said grave so genus it appeared on our do you defend it appeared on our website it may very well be that the publication that picture on their website was an error of judgment as a matter of fact when Ed Miliband made a complaint about that on Saturday evening in fact he spoke to me personally I it personally arranged for that picture to be removed from the why agree it wasn't ours yet I think using that picture was an error of judgment that's why he's getting ahead do you justify that headline about Miliband hate Britain I think that headline is entitled just if Miliband hate Britain having fought in the war for Britain did Ralph Miliband hate Britain yes or no out Ralph Miliband values a set out say yes to you you don't support your editors rousing lilybeth whether you spear he his views were antipathetic too many British people's views too many of the institutions of this country you spoke to Ed Miliband did Paul Dacre speech read Miliband as well and Southie he's odd he's up on his estate hunting and shooting you just answer I spoke to read Miliband on Saturday and what did you say to him when he expressed his disdain for that article I listened to what he had to say said I didn't agree with him but said we would consider his request for a right of reply which we granted him in full in Tuesday's paper and did you defend the headline that you had originally put when you spoke to him on the phone wasn't that kind of conversation no is the answer to that it wasn't that kind of conversation Alistair you weren't listening in I presume conversation kind of how his fair idea what the conversation was Ed Miliband raising his complaints me listening to them calmly considering his request for a right of reply discussing tomorrow tomorrow requests and tomorrow you're publishing for two pages of character such as cassock character assassination of Ed Miliband because day care who you know is losing the plot and Rob Amir knows he's losing the plot cannot bring himself actually to accept that he's made a terrible mistake that your newspaper readers who kind of go along with the very commercial success that you've got actually now we'll begin to see well I've known for a very long time that you are the worst of British values posing as the best and Paul Dacre is a poison in our national life and I'm glad that's weed now right and I just part-time I hope next time that he has the guts to come and defend a girl two things first of all and relation to what we're publishing tomorrow there is no character assassination of anybody tomorrow so a news story on what's happened today there's a selection of quotes from people who have been speaking on the media today and there's a background feature about what was happening under the Stalinist regime in Russia during the forties and fifties that is about Alistair and I I'm about an avenue in my in my reverence for your expertise on the matter of spreading poison it's something you've been doing since the early 1990s I'm Scott just a because a lot of people will say it's a bit rich this is the man from the mirror this is a man who knows about character assassinations you must know what it's like to play politics with newspapers no because I've just been at the Tory Party conference and you'll find a lot of Tories up there who will remember that when I was a journalist on The Daily Mirror I respected politics and a respected politicians and when I worked for the Labour government and the Labour Party we had to put up with lies from people like Baker and stifled day after day after day one of the things I argued about with tony blair was when we used to publish a daily rebuttal of the lies and the smears called mail watch and tony was got out by some of our ministers and we stopped it and I hope that Ed Miliband goes back to it because the public needed to know the truth the real spin-doctors of the journalists the real poison comes from people like Baker he's a coward is a bully he doesn't have the guts to come and defend himself against anybody and as soon as you are defending everything that your paper has published on the subject so leave it like I was defending precisely what we published our stands I don't idea what I believe I defend it computer I know you have one fire in line for the job one final one for you one final point is the idea right the idea that you as Tony Blair spin-doctor respected politics is utterly laughable just if you Alastair Campbell thank thank you both very much like I'm so run out of time we're going back to Jeremy now Manchester

Channel: BBC Newsnight

Views: 361,776

Rating: 4.5253873 out of 5

Keywords: Newsnight (TV Program), Daily Mail, Alastair Campbell, Edward Miliband (Politician), Ralph Miliband, Paul Dacre

Id: w-GMTxycAXY

Length: 12min 49sec (769 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 01 2013

Reddit Comments

[u/Mit3210]

The Daily Mail is the most used news website in the world. How do they get away with it?

[u/blindwombat]

British "newspaper" Daily Mail

FTFY

[u/Agnivayu]

I think the biggest part of the rage is the Daily Mail claiming to be a news source.

[u/[deleted]]

This from the paper that supported Hitler. Yeah.

[u/Case2600]

I like how they believe that if you're a Marxist, then you automatically hate Britain. Can you imagine if someone said that all libertarians (or some similar group) hated Britain? The Mail would have a heart attack.

[u/Im_In_You]

Well if you are a Marxist you by definition do not think that countries should exist.

[u/VariousFancyHats]

The Daily Mail is the Fox News of Britain.

[u/billfred]

Don't you mean Royal Navy?

[u/An_Eloquent_Turtle]

Anyone who knows anything about the daily mail has come to expect this stuff. It's not rage enducing, they can say what they want.