25/08/2012
In an unusually well focused piece in the
Daily Mail (unusual because, of late, its coverage has been extremely poor), we have a recognition in the legacy media of the political nature of the single currency.
"For purely political reasons", the paper says, "Greece is allowed to stagger on towards the next crisis summit, leaving the world's economy paralysed by endless uncertainty".
"Any further bailout", it adds, "which includes money from the British taxpayer, courtesy of an IMF that is exceeding its remit by trying to prop up a failing political project â will be throwing good money after bad". How much longer, it then asks, "must we wait for our pygmy political class to have the courage to acknowledge this reality?"
The interesting thing here is that, while the
Mail can so readily see this political dimension, the same insight seems to elude the more "serious" press commentators â in what is becoming a running sore.
One sees, for instance, the Great Roger Bootle, when
advertising his own book, telling us with the utmost confidence that: "The eurozone's predicament is both financial and economic".
But the predicament is neither financial nor economic. It is wholly political, the result of ambitious men using the currency as a mechanism for achieving political integration, in defiance of all the known rules of economics.
Why the media, in the main, should so consistently get this point wrong is one of life's great mysteries. Partly, the problem is structural, which we see with EU affairs in general. Despite the Union being our supreme government, of which the UK government is part, it is still regarded as "Europe" and allocated to the foreign news desk.
Similarly, the euro is allocated to financial and business journalists, and it is fair to say that, as long as they fail to understand that the single currency is a political issue, they will
always get it wrong.
On the other hand, if the econ-biz writers are out of their depth with the politics, the claque dealing with domestic politics are not even past first base. The political correspondents are immersed in the Westminster bubble and their horizons do not reach out over the Channel. The EU is a closed book to them.
But there must be something more profound than merely the structural issues. After all, if
Mail can get the "political" bit, it cannot be too difficult for the editorial management of august titles like
Then Times and
The Daily Telegraph - to say nothing of
The Guardian - to get the point.
Why they do not lies in the realms of speculation, but it would be easy to surmise that there is a certain arrogance at play here. These Top People do not see the point because they do not believe they are wrong - about anything. They know everything there is to know, and therefore, since they have nothing to learn, they end up being able to learn nothing.
On the other hand, this could be intellectual laziness â or even cowardice. "Everybody" deals with the issues the same way, so there is no need to be different. Why rock the boat? That, actually, would make it a conspiracy of idleness.
Certainly, "Europe" is difficult to deal with. They do politics differently on the continent, speak in a myriad of different languages, and have complex systems and procedures which take journalists far outside their comfort zones. It is much safer to stay with the crowd because then, when you get it wrong, everybody gets it wrong together and there is no harm to career or reputation.
That is possibly the most important dynamic on the block. Although the press need their customers to make a living, journalists look to their peers for approval and their accolades. And the one thing the herd â any herd - demands is conformity. No one must show up the rest.
In part, this explains why the media hates independent blogs so much, but the bigger issue is the ability of the media to shut itself off from reality and push the same old narrative, year after year, without budging an inch. They started off wrong, and they're determined to finish wrong - that's the way its going to be.
And that's another reason why they're a dying industry.
