Diocese of Liverpool

Thought for the Day, 10 November 2003

The Rt Rev. James Jones

Good Morning

They live a very privileged life! They hire and fire their lackeys. The enjoy chauffeur-driven cars. The details of their wealth are known to a very few. People court their company and hang on their every word. Such is the life of Editors of national newspapers!

They are the new Royalty! The Press Barons who bestow favours and make the ruling classes, as Monarchs once knighted and ennobled their friends.

They do not, of course, have a tower where heads, that have fallen out of favour, must roll, but they have their own ways of despatching people, of ruining reputations and instilling fear into their victims.

In Max Hastings' autobiography ‘The Editor;' he opens with an account of a conversation with Michael Portillo when he was a Cabinet Minister. Hastings wonders aloud how Portillo can endure a minister's life with little money, dreadful hours, no family life and relentless public humiliations. Portillo replies “Maybe; but you are on the touchline – while we are on the pitch.” As Michael Portillo prepares to leave politics for a career in the media you wonder where he would now see the pitch and the touchline.

And, although Max Hastings is no longer an Editor, he still wields a pen which, if you are the subject of one of his pieces, must feel a good deal sharper and mightier than the sword!

In the modern world the seat of power has been re-located. It's certainly no longer in the throne of the monarch. It's even seldom on the benches of Parliament. It's more often than not near the chair of an Editor.

The current media frenzy of hint-journalism, rumour and innuendo about the Royal Household makes me want to ask radical questions. Not about the Monarchy, but about how the Press use the extraordinary influence they now have.

Their power brings to mind a verse from the Gospels: “He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.”

The media have this ability to make or break. It's a god-like power. And when they get it wrong, and go collectively mad in hounding their quarry, pity the poor victim – a royal, a footballer, a TV presenter, a politicians.

Jesus was hounded by those with power. He was brought before Pontius Pilate with smears, innuendoes and trumped-up charges. Pilate said to him, “Do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?” It's a question that could be repeated in editorial meetings of many a newspaper. Pilate immediately and fearfully tried to release Jesus when he heard him say: “You would have no power over me – unless it had been given you from above.”