Words for hire - was it ever thus? Photo by the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division/CC
Two weeks ago, openDemocracy broke a story which has major implications for press freedom, and democracy itself. Peter Oborne’s dramatic resignation from Britain’s Daily Telegraph, alleging the paper had suppressed negative stories about HBSC in order to protect advertising revenues, triggered a flood of other revelations. The Telegraph’s protestations about our story’s “inaccuracy and innuendo” have been widely debunked, and ridiculed.
Within hours of our story going live, Guido Fawkes had a leaked memo from Sony, saying the Telegraph offered the company “unique” “integrated… editorial and paid for” content. Meanwhile, Press Gazette, citing Telegraph insiders, was quick to report that "commercial power over editorial has been 'Telegraph's dirty little secret for some time". After the paper’s terse denials failed to kill off interest, pathetic stories attempting to connect staff suicides at Murdoch-owned newspapers, and to smear the Guardian over its links with Air New Zealand, started appearing in the Telegraph. The Twitter response was blistering: “Can anyone remember the last time a national newspaper imploded so spectacularly? Genuinely jawdropping to behold.”
