Alfred Harmsworth: The press baron and propagandist who led charge into World War I

[unhappycamper]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/01/alfred-harmsworth-the-press-baron-and-propagandist-who-led-charge-into-world-war-i/



Alfred Harmsworth: The press baron and propagandist who led charge into World War I
By The Conversation
By John Jewell, Cardiff University
Friday, August 1, 2014 11:22 EDT

In his diaries, cataloguing his time as communications director at Number 10 during the premiership of Tony Blair, Alastair Campbell notes that in the week before the fateful vote on Iraq in March 2003, Rupert Murdoch phoned Blair three times. Campbell writes that Murdoch warned the PM of the dangers of delay and that was he was “pressing on timings, saying how News International would support us etc”.

As we know, that support from the Murdoch press was unwavering and unequivocal. The much maligned editor of the Daily Mail, Paul Dacre, said in written evidence to the Leveson inquiry in 2012 that Murdoch expected his advice to be acted upon:

"I don’t think there’s any doubt that he had strong views which he communicated to his editors and expected them to be followed. The classic case is the Iraq War. I’m not sure that the Blair government or Tony Blair would have been able to take the British people to war if it hadn’t been for the implacable support provided by the Murdoch papers. There’s no doubt that came from Mr Murdoch himself."

This is all especially interesting to consider as we gear up for the centenary of the UK’s entry into World War I. And there’s more than a hint of Murdoch in his counterpart from this period: Alfred Harmsworth, the first Lord Northcliffe.

Press baron of old

At World War I’s outbreak, Northcliffe’s position at the forefront of British newspapers was established. He had launched the Daily Mirror and bought and sold the Observer by 1914 – by which time he was in control of the Weekly Dispatch, the highest circulation Sunday newspaper, the Times and, most famously, Dacre’s future employer, the Daily Mail. The statistics are enlightening. In 1914 Northcliffe controlled 40% of the morning, 45% of the evening and 15% of the Sunday newspaper circulations. No wonder the politicians of the age sought his approval and support during this most uncertain and unpredictable of times.

[MisterP]

1. imagine if there was a whole GENRE of "Liberality for All," "Prayers for the Assassin,"

and "An American Carol"-type works, with around 500 novel-length titles and a few more hundred mass-media tales: "airport-novel" techno-thrillers sold by the pound come close and have the same inexperienced cavalier attitude to war

http://sinclairthebudgie.deviantart.com/art/England-Invaded-2-invasion-literature-before-WWI-450546506
http://sinclairthebudgie.deviantart.com/art/England-Invaded-3-Wodehouse-s-The-Swoop-461282631