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Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre bemoans media 'hysteria' over Ralph Miliband attack and claims BBC coverage settled old scores

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By Stephen Lepitak, -

October 12, 2013 | 5 min read

Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre has hit back at the “collective hysteria” that surrounded his newspaper’s criticism of Labour leader Ed Miliband’s father, Ralph, after it claimed that he hated Britain. “The screech of axe-grinding was deafening as the paper’s enemies gleefully leapt to settle scores,” wrote Dacre of the reaction to the story that ran over a week ago, but led to a fallout that included Lord Alan Sugar calling on the newspapers advertisers to boycott it.Dacre’s article appeared in the Daily Mail this morning, having made no comment previously, however, it was also published by The Guardian after it asked Dacre to comment (see tweet by Alan Rusbridger below.)

In his piece, Dacre highlighted the BBC as “leading the charge” against it, claiming “Fair-minded readers will decide themselves whether the hundreds of hours of airtime it devoted to that headline reveal a disturbing lack of journalistic proportionality and impartiality, but certainly the one-sided tone in their reporting allowed Labour to misrepresent Geoffrey Levy’s article on Ralph Miliband.”He went on to reveal that the story was inspired by Milliband’s Labour conference speech last month , adding that it provoked the Mail’s concern over what he described as the announcement of a return of socialism in the Twenty First Century, and claimed that the newspaper was right to inform the public of Miliband’s Marxist leanings. “As for the headline ‘The Man Who Hated Britain’, our point was simply this: Ralph Miliband was, as a Marxist, committed to smashing the institutions that make Britain distinctively British — and, with them, the liberties and democracy those institutions have fostered,” Dacre added, before admitting that the headline was controversial and that it was not aiming to describe Milliband sr as an ‘evil’ man in his personal life. “The hysteria that followed is symptomatic of the post-Leveson age in which any newspaper which dares to take on the Left in the interests of its readers risks being howled down by the Twitter mob whom the BBC absurdly thinks represent the views of real Britain,” he continued when returning his focus to the media reaction, mentioning Alistair Campbell’s campaign in response, and claiming that the BBC was able to settle “ancient feuds” in its coverage of the reaction. This led Dacre to discuss the calls for statutory press regulation: “I would argue the opposite. The febrile heat, hatred, irrationality and prejudice provoked by last week’s row reveals why politicians must not be allowed anywhere near Press regulation.“And while the Mail does not agree with the Guardian over the stolen secret security files it published, I suggest that we can agree that the fury and recrimination the story is provoking reveals again why those who rule us - and who should be held to account by newspapers - cannot be allowed to sit in judgment on the Press.“That is why the Left should be very careful about what it wishes for - especially in the light of this week’s rejection by the politicians of the newspaper industry’s Charter for robust independent self-regulation.“The BBC is controlled, through the licence fee, by the politicians. ITV has to answer to Ofcom, a Government quango.“Newspapers are the only mass media left in Britain free from the control of the State.”He closed by once again questioning the editorial coverage of the BBC on The Guardian attack by the head of MI5 in effectively aiding terrorism and how, in contrast, that had drawn far less coverage than the Milliband story. “What is worse: to criticise the views of a Marxist thinker, whose ideology is anathema to most and who had huge influence on the man who could one day control our security forces . . . or to put British lives at risk by helping terrorists?”Yesterday, it was announced that politicians had reached an agreement on the Royal Charter for press regulation.
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