Jane Ridley

Cultivating the fourth estate

According to Paul Brighton’s Original Spin, the highly moral Gladstone was a far cannier manipulator of the media than the flamboyant Disraeli

issue 05 December 2015

Lord Palmerston is remembered today not for his foreign policy nor for his octogenarian philandering, but for his management of the press. He was the first prime minister to grasp that dealing with journalists was all about pragmatic negotiation and buttering people up. The deal between Palmerston and the newspapers was: ‘I’ll tell you something no one knows if you give me your support and a favourable report.’ It still works like that today.

Most historians assume that Palmerston was the only Victorian prime minister to cultivate the fourth estate. Balfour loftily boasted that he never read the newspapers. But this was an affectation. As Paul Brighton shows in this new study, 19th-century prime ministers all had contacts with the press. We just don’t know about them.

The shady nature of the relationship meant that much of the communication between politicians and the press was not written down, and the evidence is patchy.

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