European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 9, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes monday november 9,1987 columns George will Media exploiting Charles and i s situation it would be quaint to expect journalism la veil in silence any subject about which the Public a Raven Ous for information even if there is scant solid information available. Thus it is not astonishing that in headlines of a sat one wishes were reserved for announcing a cure for cancer British tabloids Are speculating about what May be problems in the marriage of Prince Charles and Princess Diana. For several months they have spent Little Lime to Gether. During a month Charles spent alone in Scot land he joined Diana for 20 hours for a tour of flood a a jct Wales then returned alone to Scotland a picture of Prince William a a Banner headline where is my dad times have changed the last time a Prince of Wales had difficulties More than 50 years ago. When there was fire not just smoke to provoke inferences the press engaged in a conspiracy of silence thai May have encouraged his ruinous sense of invulnerability the Prince of Wales who was to become Edward Viii was a Man of negligible intellect and arrested emotional development. He had a habit of falling abjectly in love with older married women. One affair lasted 16 years was widely known in society Yel never was mentioned in the press. Petulant stingy self indulgent conceited self engrossed and Lazy he recognized no responsibility that should prevent him from doing whatever he pleased. He and Wallis Warfield Simpson she was then mar ried to her second husband conducted themselves with what a biographer Calls childish and there was not a Peep from the British press. Bui a constitutional crisis became unavoidable when she acquired in England her second divorce. An american headline proclaimed King s Moll Reno Britain Wai an Island of eerie silence in a world of fevered speculation until a provincial Bishop included in a Sermon an oblique rebuke of Edward s conduct. The Bishop who had never heard of Simpson was concerned Only about Edward s Church attendance but the press pounced seizing the occasion to trumpet the real news Aboul the affair. Was in real new that had been suppressed by press Barons obviously in was it led to a change of sovereigns. Today Peregrine Worsthorne editor of the Sun Day Telegraph accuses the mass circulation newspapers of undermining the monarchy. These papers he says Are not acting on robust Republican motives. Their readers Are overwhelmingly monarchists. Rather the papers Are participating in an opportunist Tri vial iia Tion of the Royal family. The family members Are being treated he says As and of toe London nigh Breeds contempt a familiarity worst Home says the Royal family has encouraged in a misguided attempt to become less although voyeurism is often pandered to in the name of the Public s High to know a serious ques Tion is How is the responsible press to behave when by the logic of Wor Lhome i argument the comport ment of the Royal couple is an important Public con Cern but Charles who May be a Grandfather before he is King is a serious Man on the threshold of a serious Job one that seems unserious Only to people unable to comprehend the decorative dignified sym Bolic functions if government. Perhaps you believe As some psychologists and other advanced thinkers would have us do thai a Royal House is merely an anachronistic residue of Mankind s primitive past a retrograde Concession to unworthy desires for pageantry and parental figures. If so the Travail of the Royal couple can be considered a trivial matter or even a valuable necessary for a More rational world. But sentiments Are important ingredients in a nation s social glue and Britain s monarchy remains a unified object of veneration. However everything is perishable and Charles and Diana should study the Speed with which Edward Viii s popularity evaporated when the Public detected dereliction of duty. They must present to the Public a different face a false one perhaps if they Are to que a potentially ruinous clamor. Worsthorne rightly excoriated Media excesses that reduce the live of the Royal family to a daily serial with its own dramatic requirements. But the inherent problem of monarchy in a constitutional democracy is that drama is its vocation soil is constantly vulnerable to degradation of the drama it enacts Britain s monarchy is in the magnificence business Leavening Ordinary lives with elevating spec Tacle and Charles and Diana can make choices that will frustrate or facilitate Media attempts at degrading exploitation. Git or tub of up Anthony Lewis a free Independent press look to its owner London a Freedom of the press we mean a privately owned press free of government interference. But whether we have an honest press a diverse and Independent press that depends on something else who the owners Are. The Point is made with uncommon Force by a drama now being played Oul in British publishing. The financial times a Superb newspaper known for editorial Independence is under what appears to be a takeover threat from a Man whose name is synonymous with Slippery journalism Rupert Murdoch. In september Murdoch suddenly bought i-9 percent of the shares of Pearson the conglomerate that owns the financial times he spent 270 million pounds which at today s Exchange Raie amounts to about $470 million. In addition to the financial times Pearson owns 50 percent of the economist and of Laird Brothers the merchant Bank. It has Oil interests and owns Penguin and Longman s Book publishers. Chateau Latouf Royal Doulton China and Madame Tuu Aud s waxworks. Nobody hunks Murdoch made the big move on Pearson to get Corrol of Madame Tussaud s. His main interest is in publishing and to and the Power they give him. He controls Large newspaper Book publishing and television companies in Australia the United states and Britain. In Britain Murdoch s newspapers in clude the times and the sunday times at the upper end of the Market and at the Bottom the news of the world today and the Sun the country s largest Selling tabloid with a Bare breasted Model on Page 3 daily. Together they have Aboul one third of the National newspaper circulation. That is already a dangerous concentration of press ownership for any free society. It is especially dangerous in the hands of Murdoch who has nude it a practice to interfere in the running of his newspapers even when he has promised otherwise. Peter Jenkins Britain s leading us nil now with the Independent was briefly with the sunday times. His stay there he wrote recently Laughl him that promises of editorial Freedom Are of very Little weight against a proprietor Al or managerial ethos which is unfriendly of honest fair and decent professional journalism. 1 had no cause for personal complaint against or. Murdoch but i saw How Good newspapers and once in dependent spirits withered in his pres ence or at 3,000 Miles removed the tradition of the financial times is utterly different. Soon after Pearson acquired it 30 years ago the paper commented critically and with devastating effect on a major proposed company takeover that Pearson favored. The editor never heard a word from Pearson executives. That tradition has attracted out standing reporters and editors to the paper. It has also secured the Confidence of the business and financial world. Finan Cial times circulation has grown by 50 percent in the last five years. La current figure of just Over 300,000 is modest by British standards but it has More advertising than any other National daily. The same respect for Independent editorial decision played a part in the Amer ican publication of spy Catcher by Peter Wright a Book banned in Britain. It was published by Viking Penguin which Pearson owns. A British government lawyer pressed the chairman of Pearson. Lord Blaken Harn to Stop Viking Penguin from going ahead with lord Blackn Ham look the position thai it would be wrong to dictate what the us. Company should do under . Law. If Murdoch had been in charge the result would very Likely have been differ ent. All his newspapers have been enthusiastic supporters of Margaret Thatcher and her government a 1973 British by designed to prevent undue concentration of newspaper ownership requires most acquisitions to be referred to a monopolies commission but ways of avoiding in have been found in the past and some have feared that Murdoch s i Jit ical influence would find another. Now the feeling is thai he will not be Al owed to control Pearson and the financial times some believe his real aim is to break off and acquire pearsons Book publishers or to make a Deal for financial times data services. There May be financial pressure on Murdoch because of the Stod. Market fall his Pearson shares have dropped 11st Mil lion in value since he bought them and those values Are geared into his heavy Bor rowing. The one sure thing is that Pearson and the financial time Are determined to resist him. Those who believe in a free press should be rooting for them mtg Edh him. No
