Britain and America

Hillary Clinton is still snubbing UK media

This site has regularly noted the growing impact of the UK media on American politics.  Millions of Americans read British news websites every month.  Left-leaning Americans are particularly keen on the BBC and Guardian America - the two UK media outfits with the biggest levels of penetration into the US domestic market (and with ambitions for deeper penetration).  Gateway sites like Drudge, The Huffington Post and RealClearPolitics also help to ensure that articles written for UK markets are read widely in the States.  Why then does Hillary Clinton keep snubbing British reporters?  Hillary Clinton barred foreign journalists from her Iowa campaign party and she won't even talk to The Telegraph now.  The Telegraph's Toby Harnden writes:

"In the hubbub of the spin room after last night’s Democratic debate in Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre, I introduced myself to Mandy Grunwald, Hillary Clinton’s media strategist, and prepared to ask a question. “Hi – you’re going to violate my I-only-speak-to-American-journalists…”, she said as I shook her hand... Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy platform states that “cooperative relationships have to be deepened and strengthened” across the globe while our “increasingly interconnected world demands an interconnected strategy”. I guess that doesn’t include the media."

So Hillary gets written down and Obama gets articles from Toby Harnden like this: "I'll see the world through your eyes".  BritainAndAmerica knows of one of the Guardian group's most senior commentators who cannot even get Team Clinton to return his phone calls.  If the election gets very tight Mrs Clinton may regret putting the Smallville Gazette ahead of the BBC.

The most influential Britons in America

Over the last week The Telegraph has been profiling the top fifty Britons in America.  The series has concluded today with Jonathan Ive, the principal designer of the iPod and iPhone, at number one.

Five Britons with political influence made the list:

• The Hitch - Christopher Hitchens - was number 11: "A former Trotskyist who continues to drift to the Right, he alienated many of his fans by supporting the war in Iraq and taking a hawkish foreign policy stance. His recent book, God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, helped to balance things out by infuriating many Christian conservatives, too."

• Blogger Andrew Sullivan is at number 23: "The Oxford-educated journalist's blog The Daily Dish has been a must-read for political types for years, surviving the move from Time to Atlantic Monthly a year ago. His rejection of the Republicans, for abandoning true conservatism, has chimed with the party's general sense of drift. His support of gay marriage, which the many on the Right oppose, meanwhile only pushed him further away from the conservative movement."

• John O'Sullivan is at number 39: "Former advisor to Margaret Thatcher, and editor in chief of United Press International, O'Sullivan is a fixture of the American Right. Now a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, as well as Editor-in-Chief of The National Interest and Editor-at-Large of The National Review, he played a significant role in influencing the ideology of the Bush years and keeping the flame of die-hard conservatism alive at the Review."

• Nile Gardiner is at number 46: "A post-graduate student at Yale, he is an expert in the special relationship and the UN oil-for-food scandal. A sometime consultant to the Bush White House on trans-Atlantic affairs, he has also acted as foreign policy advisor to Rudy Giuliani’s presidential campaign, as well as being sought regularly as an expert by the major news networks."

• BBC journalist Katty Kay is ranked at 49: "Her colleague Matt Frei may be better known but she earns her place in our list through her regular guest appearances on Meet the Press, Chris Matthews’ Sunday morning show on the news channel MSNBC, which is (virtually) required viewing for the Washington politicos and commentariat members. She also substitutes for Diane Rehm on the Diane Rehm Show on National Public Radio and is to be found at most of the right parties."

Earlier this week BritainAndAmerica published our own list of the most influential British journalists covering US politics.

The winning Iowa campaigns embraced the UK media (Hillary Clinton didn't)

We don't pretend it was a decisive factor but it is notable that Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee have been engaging with journalists from the foreign, particularly, British media and Hillary Clinton didn't.  In his blog, The Telegraph's Toby Harnden notes how not one British journalist - including anyone from the BBC - was permitted to attend Senator Clinton's "Victory" party in Iowa but 700 US journalists were.  In contrast the Obama staff chatted freely to all reporters.  On the Republican side of the aisle McCain and Huckabee have also been very open to the UK media.

Continuing to think in terms of US and foreign press is foolish:

• Millions of Americans read the British media online everyday.  The latest data we've seen suggests 5 million read the BBC website every month.  4.5 million read The Guardian.  3.3 million go to The Times.

• Matt Drudge, in particular, but also sites like RealClearPolitics, Instapundit and the Daily Kos are regularly linking to UK journalists.  As far as Drudge is concerned he'll link to the best writing and stories.  He doesn't care if it's from the New York Times or London's Times.  Sarah Baxter of The Sunday Times notes that her column reaches hundreds of thousands of Americans every time one of her columns gets a link from Drudge.

• Many UK media outfits are powerful in the US and not just because of the internet.  Millions listen to the BBC World Service or watch BBC America.  Hundreds of thousands of US voters buy The Financial Times and Economist every week.

This will be the first election when the UK media play a big role in US domestic politics.  In a very close election it might even be decisive.

There are a number of Britons who are already stars in American politics.  Christopher Hitchens, John O'Sullivan and Andrew Sullivan stand out in that regard.  But next time Team Clinton draw up a list of people to invite to a party or briefing I suggest they start with the following list of ten...

Most of this group of ten are all based in America and most have spent the last week in Iowa and are now in New Hampshire.  They are listed alphabetically below:

Gerard Baker, US Editor of The Times.  Baker is a regular columnist on the USA for The Times and also leads the Across The Pond blog.  He is also very close to Rupert Murdoch and the new team of people from the London Times who are running the Wall Street Journal.

Sarah Baxter, The Sunday Times.  With some of the best contacts of any UK journalists within the camps of the leading presidential candidates, her pre-Iowa column 'This is showtime, folks, let's pick a president' got the Drudge treatment and was one of the most read articles from last week's Times Online.

Rupert Cornwell, The Independent.  Cornwell recently wrote this of Senator Obama: "Not even the young Clinton exuded such freshness and promise as a candidate. No one can promise an end to bickering partisan "politics as usual" as he. But after just three years' service in the Senate, is Obama qualified for the job? He would indeed represent, to use Bill Clinton's words, "a roll of the dice". But then again, Americans are ready to do just that."

Clive Crook, US columnist of the Financial Times.  He blogs here and blogged this on the GOP race: "The time-series of national opinion-poll ratings for the Republican presidential candidates looks like the read-out of a patient having a stroke. The lines jerk up and down, as party supporters search desperately, and so far in vain, for a candidate they like."

James Forsyth, The Spectator.  Not yet established as a widely-read commentator but his posts from Iowa for The Spectator's Coffee House blog have been must-reads.  Forsyth on Huckabee: "Huckabee won big tonight and will be formidable in the South Carolina primary later this month. Yet, he still is a sectional candidate; one can’t see him winning the California or New York primaries. Another problem for Huckabee is that the press think he is not ready to be president. Now, that he’s won Iowa he is going to face even more scrutiny than before and every little slip will be front page news. Also expect a slew of stories about the questionable aspects of his Arkansas record."

Toby Harnden, US Editor of The Telegraph.  Harnden's blog shot to prominence last year when he listed America's 100 most important conservatives and liberals.  He blogs and regularly comments for Telegraph online.  The Telegraph's Trail Mix blog is also good value.

Tim Shipman, Washington Bureau Chief of The Sunday Telegraph.  Shipman provided this insightful opening line on Hillary Clinton's Iowa defeat: "You know a politician has lost when they praise the turnout rather than the result."   Before being posted to Washington he was one of London's most respected political reporters.  He's sure to get good stories throughout 2008.

Michael Tomasky, Guardian America.  Having recently launched a dedicated American website with extra reporting staff, The Guardian, with the BBC, is leading Britain's biggest invasion of America since the Beatles.  One conservative commentator told BritainAndAmerica that the anti-Iraq war and pro-Kyoto columns of The Guardian had helped feed the Democrats' webroots.  Tomasky, the only American on this 'UK media' list, is Editor of Guardian America.  He writes today about 'Obama's big moment'.

Justin Webb, BBC Washington Editor.  Webb is arguably the most important individual on this list because of the millions of Americans who now turn to the BBC for news.  Webb is pro-American and has castigated the BBC in London for its hostility towards the USA.  But the America he loves is the America of the east and west coasts.  He is sniffy about the 'flyover states' and the faith of Christian America.  Webb blogs here.  Other important people at BBC America include Jonathan Beale and BBC America News presenters, Matt Frei and Katty Kay.

Adrian Wooldridge, The Economist.  With John Micklethwait, Wooldridge wrote an authoritative study of America's conservative movement, The Right Nation.  He is the regular author of The Economist's weekly US politics column, Lexington.  His latest column is here.

On the day GuardianAmerica launches... it's British Invasion II

It's probably not as cool as when the Beatles led the first British Invasion but the second British Invasion is well underway.  Then it was the Beatles, Freddie and the Dreamers and Manfred Mann.  Today it's the BBC, The Guardian and The Times.

Facing increasing competition at home, Britain's leading media groups are crossing the Atlantic in search of new revenue and advertising streams.  But, if the motivation is commercial, the implications will be cultural and political.

The most successful British exports to America - The Guardian and BBC - lean towards the liberal-left in their worldview.  Both, for example, have an institutional respect for multilateral institutions like the United Nations, are supportive of a Kyoto-based approach to climate change and are biased against small government solutions to socioeconomic challenges.  A BBC journalist for 25 years, Robin Aitken, has written about his former employer's biases here and BritainAndAmerica's Joe Loconte documented them during his six month stay in the UK.

A previous post on this site showed that the BBC and Guardian - in terms of online readers - were already competitive with the likes of the Washington Post.

The Guardian, in particular, deserves credit for providing regular ammunition to America's left-wing netroots.  It ran a campaign in 2004 to encourage voters in Ohio to vote for John Kerry.  That campaign backfired but the newspaper has not been discouraged.  Some estimates suggest that GuardianOnline now has as many readers in America as in Britain.  The Guardian is determined to increase its US penetration further and has today launched 'GuardianAmerica'.

Its opening day features with Jimmy Carter and Hillary Clinton (of which more later) give a clue to where GuardianAmerica will be coming from ideologically.

Underneath a post about the launch of GuardianAmerica, one commenter writes: "I give it 6 months before Cheney demands you be bombed."  That comment betrays the average Guardianista's view of the Bush administration but my guess is that the initiative will be a problem for Republicans.

The White House and Republican candidates need a strategy for this second British Invasion.  While it's certainly the case that the BBC and The Guardian will largely appeal to already left-leaning Americans - and will take some traffic from, for example, the New York Times - these UK platforms may appeal to a wider audience, too.

The White House, amazingly, does not have a staffer dedicated to the international press.  That was unforgivable with the international press being so important for winning hearts and minds in the war on terror.  Now that the British media is set to become a big player within the US population it's poor domestic politics, too. 

Related link: British media could swing the next US election

Related video: The BBC's invasion of America

British versus American journalism

Earlier this week BritainAndAmerica spotlighted the growing impact of the British media on US politics.  Toby Harnden, US Editor of The Telegraph, has taken up the issue on his blog.  The whole post is worth reading but this section on the relative strengths and weaknesses of British and American journalism is very fair:

"I think the notion that Americans read British media websites because of their generally more sceptical view of Bush is only part of the story.  For a start, those Brits who think that there isn't a pervasive centre-left bias in the US media are deluding themselves.  But there is clearly a different media culture in the UK. We cut to the chase more quickly. In general, our stories are shorter, less ponderous and academic in tone, more "spun" or skewed towards a particular conclusion, punchier and more entertaining.

Of course, the flip side of this can be that - in the worst cases - they can be tendentious, inaccurate, shoddily-researched, lacking in rigour and unfair.  In general, you can be sure that the quotes in an American newspaper story are genuine and the facts have been checked. Pick up many a British newspaper and you'd be foolish to count on either. American newspapers tend to devote many more resources to proper investigations.  British journalism is more irreverent, more anti-establishment, more cynical. Sometimes this can be good. But on occasions public figures are needlessly mocked and torn down - the ridiculing of Tony Blair at times being a case in point.  But I digress. British newspapers across the political spectrum are attracting millions of American readers who want to read about what's happening in their country through a different prism."

British media could swing the next US election

By Tim Montgomerie, Editor of BritainAndAmerica.com.

Paul Wolfowitz gave what I think was his first interview this morning since giving up his battle to stay World Bank President.  He chose to give it to the BBC World Service.  Mr Wolfowitz, like an increasing number of American politicians, understands the importance of the BBC within the global media marketplace.  Far fewer understand the increasing importance of the British media to the USA's own domestic political debates.

In this morning's Guardian - arguably Britain's most influential newspaper because of its penetration of what Australians call The Opinionators - there is an important article exploring the growing US readership of London-sourced news.  It highlights BBC news online (with five million Americans visiting every month), The Guardian (4.5 million) and The Times (3.3 million).  The graphic on the right compares that data with October 2006 data for some major US media platforms (data originating from comScore).

The Guardian's Susan Hansen argues that Americans are partly turning to online British newspapers because of their more feisty scrutiny of politicians - particularly the much greater scepticism about Iraq that was evident from the BBC, Guardian and Independent during the run-up to the decision to go to war.  She also notes the efforts of British newspapers to tailor more and more products to the US marketplace.  "The Guardian," she writes, "has been beefing up its reporting staff in a bid to drive still more Americans to its site."

'The American rise' of the BBC, The Guardian and The Independent should worry US conservatives.  Although the BBC is supposed to be impartial it leans towards a left-liberal worldview.  It favours multilateral institutions like the United Nations, for example.  It is consistently criticised for its tendency to favour anti-Israel viewpoints.  A recent book by Robin Aitken - a BBC journalist for 25 years - documents the extent to which the BBC favours state intervention in the economy and is suspicious of Christian conservatism.  Joseph Loconte's week with the BBC series on this site has also documented the Corporation's many biases.  The Guardian and The Independent are not inhibited by any charter responsibilities to impartiality.  Their bias is not just institutional but also overt.

There are some media platforms where there is less anti-Americanism and fairer coverage of Republicans.  The Murdoch-owned Times, for example, and The Telegraph.  The Economist (with its readership of 600,000) and the Financial Times are also more balanced but both endorsed John Kerry at the last presidential election.

In recent years Fox News, talk radio and the blogosphere have given US conservatives the tools to fight mainstream media bias.  'The British invasion' may be giving new power to the left although Gerard Baker, US Editor of The Times, told BritainAndAmerica that most American conservatives won't be fooled by the BBC:

"It seems to be popular with left-liberals who, one assumes, share its general worldview. I doubt its steady diet of anti-American, anti-Israel, anti-religion, anti-capitalism coverage goes down all that well in the heartland, however."

My guess is that the BBC will influence more moderate, independently-minded voters, however.  The internet audience figures also understate the BBC's impact.  There is BBC America television and the Corporation supplies a lot of foreign coverage to ABC News and general news to many local radio stations.  The World Service also has a significant reach.  Talking to BBC journalists on recent trips to Washington I found them disappointed at the lack of interaction they receive with the White House and the Republican Party.  I have mentioned this repeatedly to White House staffers since 2002 but nothing seems to change.  In a close election it could be British media coverage that wins the election for the Democrats.

As BritainAndAmerica goes forward one of our key themes will be monitoring BBC coverage of US politics.

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