Book review: All of the news that’s fit to print and a lot more that definitely isn’t

'The Newsmongers' is a thoroughly researched and well-crafted history of tabloid journalism from the 16th century right through to the click-bait journalism of our own era

English journalist, author, and academic, Terry Kirby, has written 'The Newsmongers: A History of Tabloid Journalism'. Picture: Max Kirby

• The Newsmongers: A History of Tabloid Journalism 
• Terry Kirby
• Reaktion Books, €22.99 

Citizen Kane (1941) is often described as the most influential movie ever made. The main character, Charles Foster Kane, is loosely based on American media mogul, William Randolph Hearst, who developed the largest newspaper chain and media company in the US, Hearst Communications. 

Hearst began his career in 1887, aged 24, taking over the San Francisco Examiner from his father, George, who struggled to make it profitable. By 1890, the paper’s circulation had tripled.

“The young Hearst demonstrated an extraordinary insight concerning journalism of the future,” writes English journalist, author and academic, Terry Kirby, in The Newsmongers: A History of Tabloid Journalism.

The book is a thoroughly researched and well-crafted history of tabloid journalism from the 16th century right through to the click-bait journalism of our own era.

The real star of Kirby’s book, though, is Alfred Harmsworth, who became a newspaper man in 1894 when he bought the near bankrupt London Evening News. 

Within a year it was the world’s biggest selling evening newspaper.

In May 1896, Harmsworth launched the Daily Mail in London. By 1900 it was selling a million copies per day. That December, Harmsworth was invited across the Atlantic to guest edit Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World.

“I claim by my system of tabloid journalism … the day’s news can be gathered in 60 seconds,” Harmsworth wrote in a brief statement that appeared on the front page of Pulitzer’s paper, on New Year’s Eve, 1900.

British press magnate Alfred Harmsworth dominated the newspaper business in early 20th century Britain. File picture: Getty Images)

Harmsworth dominated the newspaper business in early 20th century Britain — he founded the Daily Mirror in 1903 and acquired The Times in 1908. He died as Lord Northcliffe, aged 57, in August 1922.

His media empire was passed onto his younger brother, Harold, then known as Lord Rothermere. During the inter-war years, his papers championed Mussolini and Hitler.

Closer to home, Rothermere backed the British Union of Fascists (BUF), and their thuggish street gang associates, the Blackshirts. 

In the summer of 1939, just before Nazi Germany invaded Poland, Rothermere wrote a letter to Hitler praising his “superhuman work”. 

It’s believed Rothermere was suffering from a nervous breakdown when he died, in Bermuda, in late November 1940. His last words were said to have been: “There is nothing more I can do to help my country now.” 

Was it an omen for things to come? The British tabloid press in the post-war period, after all, was dominated by outsiders and foreigners.

Robert Maxwell rose from extreme poverty in Czechoslovakia to become an academic publishing magnate and a UK Labour Party MP.

Robert Maxwell rose from extreme poverty in Czechoslovakia to become an academic publishing magnate. File picture: PA

A crude egomaniac, Maxwell acquired the Daily Mirror in 1984. It became known to many as the Daily Maxwell. 

“Promises of editorial independence were forgotten in the heady joy of his new toy,” writes Kirby, who notes that Maxwell became obsessed with beating his biggest rival, Rupert Murdoch.

Maxwell’s life ended in disgrace. The body of the millionaire newspaper publisher was found in early November 1991 off the coast of Tenerife. Maxwell was said to have fallen off the back of the yacht, Lady Ghislaine.

He named it after his favourite daughter, who later became a criminal accomplice to serial sex offender, Jeffery Epstein.

Prior to his death, Robert Maxwell had defaulted on $2bn worth of loans and subsequently raided millions of pounds from his company’s retirement fund, even stealing from his own staff’s pensions and shares in Britain’s Mirror Group.

Rupert Murdoch, by contrast, was — and still is — a shrewd operator.

He arrived in Britain, in late October 1968, aged 37. He was then already owner of a growing media empire in Australia that was started by his father. 

When Keith Murdoch became editor of the Melbourne Herald in January 1921, Lord Northcliffe (who was a good friend) sent him advice on how to make a newspaper profitable.

Orson Welles  astride stacks of newspaper, in a scene from Citizen Kane which is loosely based on American media mogul, William Randolph Hearst, who developed the largest newspaper chain and media company in the US, Hearst Communications.

Later that year, Northcliffe sent Murdoch £5,000 (£300,000 (€360,000)in today’s money) to help him purchase the Sydney Herald.

Rupert Murdoch had always considered Britain home away from home. But his real dream was to dominate its media landscape. 

By the mid-1980s Murdoch had largely achieved that goal, having bought The Sun, The Times, The Sunday Times, and the News of the World.

That decade, as market competition increased, the British tabloid press gradually evolved into the gutter press. Kirby examines this topic with forensic analysis. 

The emergence of HIV/AIDS during the early 1980s, which devastated gay communities across the world, prompted little sympathy from the British tabloids. 

Typically, they sneered and mocked homosexuality. When EastEnders broadcasted the first-ever gay kiss in a British soap in 1989, The Sun published a front-page story titled, ‘Eastbenders’.

The article was written by Piers Morgan, then a young reporter for the Sun, who wrote a regular column, ‘The Poofs of Pop’, where he speculated on whether various male pop stars were gay. 

There were numerous complaints to Britain’s Press Council, which The Sun’s then editor, Kelvin MacKenzie rejected. But Rupert Murdoch “seemed unconcerned”, as Kirby puts it.

Rupert Murdoch had always considered Britain home away from home. But his real dream was to dominate its media landscape. File picture: AP

By July 2011, however, Murdoch had much to be concerned about. In fact, he voluntarily closed down his paper, the News of the World — after evidence emerged that a private investigator working there, Glenn Mulcaire, had hacked the phone of murdered schoolgirl, Milly Dowler.

Journalists at the paper regularly used Mulcaire as a reliable source for stories they printed. The scandal led then British prime minister David Cameron to launch the Leveson inquiry, which began that year. 

In theory, it was supposed to bring back credibility and accountability to a press culture that was poisoned by years of criminal and unethical behaviour. 

In practice, after Leveson, the British media grew even more hostile and aggressive.

In April 2015, Katie Hopkins published an article in The Sun claiming that all migrants coming to Britain by boat are “cockroaches”. 

The new press watchdog, ipso, set up after Leveson, accepted The Sun’s defence that as an opinion piece, it was fair game.

In November 2016, the Daily Mail ran a headline describing ‘Enemies of the People’. The story, written by the paper’s political editor, James Slack, claimed several High Court judges were risking throwing Britain in to a constitutional crisis.

Actually, the judges were merely pointing out that Brexit needed to be passed in the House of Commons to become legally binding. 

Slack later went to work as a press officer for British prime minister, Theresa May.

It’s a route many prominent members of the British press have made. Take Andy Coulson, for instance. He was editor of the News of the World from 2003 to 2007. 

He stepped down after being given the job as director of communications for the Conservative Party, staying in that role until January 2011. 

In July 2014, Coulson was jailed for 18 months for plotting to hack phones while he was editor of the News of the World.

In October 2013, evidence emerged in London’s Old Bailey that Coulson, while working at the News of the World, had a secret six-year affair with a fellow editor, Rebekah Brooks, while they both plotted to hack phones at the paper.

Between 2003 and 2009 Brooks worked as editor of The Sun.

In April 2015, Katie Hopkins published an article in the Sun claiming that all migrants coming to Britain by boat are “cockroaches”. File picture: Ian West/PA

Kirby cites a text message Brooks sent to David Cameron (then leader of the opposition) on October 7, 2009, on the eve of his Tory conference speech. 

“I am so rooting for you tomorrow, not just as a proud friend, but because, professionally, we’re definitely in this together! Speech of your life? Yes he Cam,” wrote Brooks.

“That last phrase was The Sun’s headline the day after the speech,” Kirby explains. 

He argues, quite convincingly, that the line between the third and fourth estate has gradually eroded in Britain over the last few decades — where a motley crew of hacks, editors, press barons, and members of parliament, including several prime ministers, have all become a little too chummy for comfort.

Many sought the approval of Britian’s most powerful media mogul, Rupert Murdoch.

In September 2023, Murdoch, then aged 92, announced he would be retiring as head of his global media empire, becoming ‘chairman emeritus’.

For years, rumours and speculation were rife about which of his children — Lachlan, James, Elizabeth, or Prudence — would succeed him. Lachlan became the chosen one.

Murdoch family story like that of TV show 'Succession'

The family story resembles Succession (2018-2023) a fictional television series that explored the bickering and in-fighting between the children of a powerful global media baron, Logan Roy.

“If Hearst gave the world Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane, then Murdoch gave it Logan Roy,” Adrian Wooldridge wrote in a piece for Bloomberg opinion last September.

Kirby gives the last word to Britain's Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex. Last December, he was awarded £146,000, following a successful legal fight against the Mirror’s publisher at the High Court in London, who ruled that he had been the victim of information gathering, including phone-hacking.

He had already given his side of the story in his court action, six months earlier, on June 6, 2023. In doing so, the Duke of Sussex became the first senior British royal to give evidence in a British court for more than 130 years.

“Our country is judged globally by the state of our press and our government — both of which I believe are at rock bottom,” the Duke of Sussex told the court in a witness statement that day.

“Democracy fails when your press fails to scrutinise and hold the government accountable, and, instead, chooses to get into bed with them, so they can ensure the status quo.”

A member of the British royal family giving a lecture about democratic values?

It’s a bit rich. But he certainly has a point.

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