* Former PM say media so powerful he could not confront it
* Blair says he did not do a deal with Murdoch
* Blair heckled over Iraq war at Leveson inquiry
By Kate Holton and Matt Falloon
LONDON, May 28 (Reuters) – British leaders have no choice
but to court powerful media barons such as Rupert Murdoch or
risk savage press attacks which are “full on, full frontal, day
in, day out,” former Prime Minister Tony Blair told an inquiry
on Monday.
Interrupted by a heckler who accused him of being a war
criminal for supporting the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Blair paused
briefly before continuing calmly to justify his ties to Murdoch
with whom he developed a close friendship.
An unwillingness to take on the press in Britain has been
cited by many as the reason a culture of illegality and phone
hacking came about at Murdoch’s tabloids, but Blair told the
inquiry into media standards that he had had little choice.
He could either risk being torn apart by what he once
described as the “feral beasts” of the media, or use them to get
his policies implemented.
He never agreed a deal with Murdoch, he said, and only
became godfather to his daughter after he left office. Calling
the mogul three times in the days before the invasion of Iraq
was also not particularly odd, he added.
“With any of these big media groups, you fall out with them,
you watch out, because it is literally relentless and
unremitting once that happens,” Blair, looking tanned and smart
in a navy suit and white shirt, told the inquiry.
“My view is that that is what creates this situation in
which these media people get a power in the system that is
unhealthy. I took the strategic decision to manage this and not
confront it but the power of it is indisputable.”
Blair, whose reputation for obsessive media management
brought him so close to Murdoch that the tycoon would joke about
their love making, said he became increasingly concerned about
the unhealthy relationship between the media and politicians.
Blair is the most senior politician to date to appear before
Leveson, an inquiry sparked by the phone hacking revelations but
which has since broadened out to show the collusion between
senior politicians, media tycoons and police.
“If you fall out with the controlling element of the Daily
Mail, you are then going to be subject to a huge and sustained
attack,” said Blair, who governed Britain from 1997 to 2007
after rebranding the Labour Party.
“Managing these forces was a major part of what you had to
do and was difficult,” he said.
MURDOCH
The inquiry has so far focused on the close ties between
Murdoch’s empire and serving ministers, helping the opposition
Labour Party leader Ed Miliband to consolidate his position with
attacks on current British Prime Minister David Cameron.
The appearance of Blair had been seen as a potential threat
to this approach, but the former prime minister was rarely
troubled by the lead lawyer at the inquiry, reminding observers
how he comfortably led his party to three election victories.
Describing what it feels like when a small section of the
press decide to go after you, Blair said: “It’s full on, full
frontal, day in, day out and that is not journalism in my view.
That’s an abuse of power.”
Sometimes using Murdoch’s first name, Blair said it had been
clear that the proprietor called the shots in his media empire,
and not his newspaper editors. The two later became so close
that having stepped down as prime minister, Blair became a
godfather to Murdoch’s daughter Grace at a ceremony on the banks
of the river Jordan.
“Blair led the way in having no shame about courting
Murdoch,” said Ivor Gaber, professor of political journalism at
City university. “He set the style and the standard and if you
regard Cameron as the ‘heir to Blair’ then it’s not exactly
surprising that he followed suit.”
Murdoch’s papers also supported Blair in his unpopular
decision to join the United States in the invasion of Iraq.
With anger still running high in Britain over Blair’s role
in the war, a protestor broke into court 73 to harangue him,
entering through a supposedly secure entrance to stand between
Blair and the chairman of the inquiry, Lord Leveson.
“This man is a war criminal,” he yelled, as security guards
tried to drag him from the court. Another protestor hit Blair’s
chauffer-driven black Range Rover with an egg as he later left
the court.
“I’d forgotten just what a convincing, classy liar Blair
is,” one observer said on Twitter. “Not so much a testimony as a
masterclass.”
Blair set the tone for his relationship with Britain’s press
when, before his first election victory in 1997, he flew to
Australia in 1995 to speak before a gathering of Murdoch’s
executives who had previously used their British tabloids to
vilify his Labour Party predecessors.
The decision, mocked by rivals as an act of homage to the
all-powerful media boss, infuriated much of his left-of-centre
party who saw the Australian-born tycoon as a right-winger who
had helped to keep them out of power for years.
But Blair’s speech received a standing ovation and Murdoch
indicated for the first time that he could be willing to switch
the allegiance of his newspapers to the Labour Party.
“If our flirtation is ever consummated Tony then I suspect
we will end up making love like porcupines, very, very
carefully,” he told him.
