Private Eye

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Private Eye is a fortnightly[note 1] satirical magazine published in the United Kingdom. It was founded at the time of the London satire boomWikipedia in the 1960s and burst into the mainstream when a special edition covering the Profumo affairWikipedia was commissioned by Richard Ingrams. Initially it was 90% humour, but under the editorship of Ingrams it rapidly became known for its anti-establishment views. Although it is widely viewed as left-wing, it has always maintained a pugnacious neutrality, revealing peoples' shortcomings regardless of their political slant. The proprietor was once comedian Peter Cook. Private Eye is currently edited by Ian Hislop, who is also known for his role in BBC television's long-running satirical news quiz Have I Got News For You. His editorship of the magazine has made him the most sued person in British legal history.[1]

It is very good on politics and the media, but rather less so on anything relating to science. It disgraced itself quite thoroughly by pushing the MMR vaccine hysteria well beyond all reason, apparently on the assumption that scientific disagreement is equivalent to political coverup for self-aggrandisement. At least they don't sell their MMR Special any more.

MMR quackery

Due to their desire to unearth any perceived government wrongdoing, coupled with a lack of scientific rigour, Private Eye spent most of the 2000s pushing Andrew Wakefield's line on the MMR vaccine as absolutely hard as they could. They quieted down towards the end of the decade and, when Wakefield was finally struck off, went so far as to publish letters calling attention to the fact and asking the magazine to, you know, actually apologise in some noticeable manner. Their response was utterly pissweak.[2]

In February 2010, Hislop commissioned a report into the Eye's coverage from their medical writer, "M.D." (Phil Hammond). It concluded that although the magazine was right to cover the scare when it first broke, it was far too blinkered when it came to accepting that there was no truth in the story.[3] So that's all right, then, they've cleared themselves.

Searching their website for "MMR" produces no results, although this is probably a case of their website's search engine being terrible; a search for either ATOS or Crapita produces nothing, and a search for Capita produces three hits—all of which refer to Capital.

Political satire

Beginning with "Mrs Wilson's Diary" (after the wife of Prime Minister Harold) the Eye has usually run a spoof column containing the alleged ramblings of the British PM of the time (or close associate), including: "Dear Bill" (purporting to be letters from Margaret Thatcher's husband Dennis to conservative journalist William F. Deedes), the "St. Albion's Parish News" (the magazine of "vicar" Tony Blair's parish[note 2]), a series of "Prime Ministerial Decrees From the Desk of the Supreme Leader" complete with a faux-Soviet seal showing Gordon Brown in a military cap,[4] Dave and Nick as head and deputy headmaster of the New Coalition Academy (formerly Brown's comprehensive), The Cameron Free School with Dave as "sole headmaster", and now "St Theresa's Independent state GRAMMAR SCHOOL for Girls (and Boys).

Regular sections

Private Eye has provided several forums for stories which are not covered by the mainstream media as they rely on unattributed sources. This has led to more than a few libel cases.

HP sauce

The dubious goings-on and hypocrisy in central government with information from anonymous inside sources. (HP Sauce is a British table condiment which introduced generations of anglophones to the beauty of the French language: Cette sauce de haute qualité est un mélange de fruits orientaux, d’épices et de vinaigre.... The bottle carries a picture of the Houses of Parliament)

Street of Shame

The dubious goings-on and hypocrisy in the newspaper industry (which was formerly based in Fleet Street) from anonymous inside sources.

Rotten Boroughs

The dubious goings-on and hypocrisy in regional and local government from anonymous inside sources.

Colemanballs

The hilarious misquotes of TV & radio sports commentators (inspired by the BBC's David Coleman) but now including other factual broadcast material.

Dumb Britain

Unbelievably stupid utterings by ordinary people on, e.g., quiz shows.

Crossword

The crossword, set biweekly by "Cyclops" in traditional British 15 x 15 cryptic form, is particularly politically snarky, nudge-nudge-wink-wink schoolboy naughty (mostly in the clues), and full of inside jokes such as "Brenda" standing for Our Brave Queen, Elizabeth Regina.[5] This is a prize crossword, and the prize —£100— is worth having.

Libel

The magazine has been involved in some high profile libel trials, some more justified than others. These have often provoked debate about British libel laws and the freedom of the press vs the right of people not to be lied about.

James Goldsmith

Its first big libel case was against corporate raider (and future Brexit campaigner) Jimmy Goldsmith in 1975-76. The Eye falsely claimed that Goldsmith had been involved in helping his friend Lord Lucan escape the UK after he murdered his nanny. Unfortunately this was based on the mistaken idea that Goldsmith had been part of a gathering of Lucan's friends shortly after the murder, whereas Goldsmith in fact was not there. This provable error might have led most people to believe that the Eye had made a silly mistake and should apologise. Except that Goldsmith reacted in a completely disproportionate fashion: in the past the Eye had published true but unflattering stories about him, so this was an opportunity to bring the full force of every law he could find bearing down. He used an obscure aspect of English libel law to sue the magazine's distributors and even newsagents selling it (an obvious threat to freedom of the press since shops can't be expected to fact-check every story in every magazine they sell) and tried to bring a private prosecution for criminal libel, an old statute which hadn't been invoked for 50 years but which could have led to the Eye's editors being jailed.

The magazine set up a fundraising campaign and stirred up public support. Goldsmith's business rival Tiny Rowland donated a large sum to the Eye's defence, the more liberal elements of the British establishment would have nothing to do with Goldsmith, and the fiercely private Goldsmith became a public laughing stock. Although the Eye did apologise, pay damages, and cover a small part of Goldsmith's legal costs, it was clear that the Eye was the winner in terms of publicity and Goldsmith the loser.[6] (See: Streisand effect.)

Sonia Sutcliffe

Another case that won a lot of publicity and fundraising was against Sonia Sutcliffe, the ex-wife of serial killer Peter SutcliffeWikipedia. She sued the Eye and several other newspapers in the late 1980s for alleging she had sought to profit from her husband's crimes. Losing one of her suits prompted Ian Hislop to say "If that's justice, I'm a banana", but a vast fundraising effort helped save the magazine. Eventually, evidence proved she did what was alleged, and she lost a later case to the News of the World in 1990.[7]

Arkell vs Pressdram

Although trivial in legal and journalistic terms, this is perhaps the most famous of all its cases (Pressdram being the Eye's publisher). In 1971, a brief and obscure story (alleging James Arkell, of TV-to-leisure group Granada, was receiving kickbacks from a contractor) led to threats of legal action. The Eye's reply has gone down in legal history and is still widely referenced by lawyers in less formal documents:

Dear Sirs,

We acknowledge your letter of 29th April referring to Mr. J. Arkell.

We note that Mr Arkell’s attitude to damages will be governed by the nature of our reply and would therefore be grateful if you would inform us what his attitude to damages would be, were he to learn that the nature of our reply is as follows: fuck off.

Ever since then "We refer you to the reply given in the case of Arkell v. Pressdram." has become a polite means of dismissing complaints.[8]

Problems

It's not all sunshine and laughter, and the paper has come in for some legitimate criticism.

Transphobia

In recent years it has firmly hitched its banner to oppose trans rights and defend public figures who spoke out against trans people, such as JK Rowling, Baroness (Emma) Nicholson, and Jenni Murray, against a right-on "Twitter blitzkrieg".[9][10][11] In 2021 it published an adulatory review of Abigail Shrier's Irreversible Damage, which was otherwise criticised as a tendentious and badly researched book on the imaginary phenomenon of Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD). The Eye claimed that ignoring the fictitious disorder of ROGD was as serious a mistake as thalidomide, claimed the transition of prominent trans women such as Caitlin Jenner was connected to "fetishism", and attacked the arrogance of doctors for trying to treat people with long-lasting serious problems.[12][13] This suspicion of the medical establishment brings back memories of the Eye's enthusiastic endorsement of the iconoclastic (and abusive) work of Andrew Wakefield.

Eye journalists including Francis WheenWikipedia have also defended "gender critical" campaigners (TERFs) and attacked trans rights campaigners. Wheen attacked Alice Roberts when she criticised TERFs making common cause with the far right.[14]

Other prejudice

It often seems to reflect the narrow worldview of its upper middle class white male English editors and writers. Hislop is a practising Anglican and in many ways deeply socially conservative.[15] There is a strong link between fogeyism and English satire, with Eye legend Christopher Booker moonlighting as a cultural critic whose book The Neophiliacs "bemoaned social developments as varied as rock’n’roll, supermarkets, liberalisation of the gambling laws, and James Bond movies".[16] Anything "woke" is bad, but so are must of the other enthusiasms of the young. And its audience probably shares similar values; author Philip Hensher summed up its readership thus:

You're probably not black, or gay, or young; you are probably privately educated, though not particularly brainy - Durham, not Oxford, was probably your university. You're quite likely to go to church, to have voted Tory, unwillingly, in 1992 and Labour, unwillingly, in 1997, to be thinking about giving up sport, to be a comfortably off professional and not to get enough sex. And, of course, you are probably a man.[17]

Former editor Richard Ingrams was notorious for homophobia and antisemitism, for instance declaring that Jews should be forced to declare their ethnicity if commenting on the Middle East.[18] Under his editorship, the Eye was opposed to gay rights and published a lot of salacious stories about gay people in public life.[19][20] It often targeted gay people who did bad things, such as Jeremy ThorpeWikipedia, the MP accused of conspiracy to murder, but its approach to them was nonetheless homophobic; and it's hard to justify a front cover saying "How many pooves are there in Wilson's government?".[21]

After Ingrams' hostility to feminism and homosexuality, the Eye has become more accepting of gay people and women. But it still takes the point of view of the old, straight, white male attacking the media and public figures for being too politically correct, criticising TV shows such as Doctor Who for including gay characters, and a general suspicion that being gay is abnormal and possibly hilarious.[22]

Attacks on press regulation

It really doesn't like any tightening of rules on what newspapers can say, and was strongly opposed to the Leveson Report. Since then, it has taken every opportunity to attack anyone supportive of Leveson's conclusions, including actor and campaigner Hugh GrantWikipedia, and (less blameless) campaigner and businessman Max MosleyWikipedia whose dad was a bit of a Nazi and who seems to have himself been a bit of a racist in his youth.[23][24]

It has also seemed strongly opposed to others who try to circumvent the traditional press, taking a strong dislike to Julian Assange and Wikileaks.[25][26]

Trivia

Lookalike
Private-eye logo.gif Express logo.gif
Private Eye Express

Private Eye's logo is a parody of the Daily Express's Crusader logo.

See also

External links

Notes

  1. One issue every fourteen nights.
  2. Operating under the umbrella of Drawing All Faiths Together, or DAFT

References

  1. The Independent: Ian Hislop — My 20 years at the Eye 23 October 2006
  2. The Grauniad (05/02/2010) "Is this as close as Private Eye ever gets to a mea culpa?"
  3. The Editor Asks M.D. To Peer Review Private Eye's MMR Coverage
  4. Issue 1244, September 4 2009.
  5. This is where they are
  6. The Gamblers, John Pearson, pp 308-318
  7. See the Wikipedia article on Sonia Sutcliffe.
  8. Arkell v Pressdram, Letters of Note, 7 Aug 2013
  9. Tory peer Baroness Nicholson reported for bullying after sharing ‘racist and transphobic abuse’ about model Munroe Bergdorf, Pink News, 23 June 2020
  10. "Books and Bookmen", Private Eye, No 1526, 17 July-30 July 2020 pp 36-37
  11. Private Eye, 2020, column reproduced in tweet "Private Eye has claimed that Woman's Hour presenter Jenni Murray has been told by the BBC that she is not allowed to talk about women's rights in relation to trans people, because she once accurately defined what a woman is. This is partly why she's leaving the show in October", @ripx4nutmeg, 4 Aug 2020
  12. "Agenda Wars": review of Irreversible Damage by Abigail Shrier, Private Eye No 1539, 22 Jan-4 Feb 2012, p 37
  13. The Constitutional Conflationists: On Abigail Shrier’s “Irreversible Damage” and the Dangerous Absurdity of Anti-Trans Trolls, Sarah Fonseca, Los Angeles Review of Books, Jan 17, 2010
  14. "Replying to @theAliceRoberts Why are you trashing your academic reputation by promoting this slipshod, defamatory and unscientific drivel? Clearly you don't know any GC feminists, or you'd realise how grotesque it is to smear them as agents of the "far right". Shameful.", Francis Wheen on Twitter, 1:26 PM, Sep 11, 2019
  15. Ian Hislop: satirist in chief, The Guardian, 23 Sep 2011
  16. Enemy of orthodoxy: review of Groupthink: A Study in Self-Delusion by Christopher Booker, Christopher Silvester, The Critic, June 2020
  17. Absurdity is in the Private Eye of the beholder, Philip Hensher, The Independent, 17 Sept 2011
  18. Howard Jacobson: If Richard Ingrams wants us to declare our ethnic identity, I'm very happy to oblige, Howard Jacobson, The Independent, 22 September 2011
  19. Richard Ingrams: 'I have lots of enemies, some of them enduring', The Guardian, 8 Jun 2014
  20. The Needle of the Eye, The Observer, 7 Oct 2001
  21. Jeremy Thorpe And Private Eye, Zelo Street, June 2018
  22. Private Eye Magazine’s LGBT Problem, Matthew Farrell, June 1, 2017
  23. Private Eye front page mocks Hugh Grant and MPs with 'press regulation special', The Independent, 15 Oct 2013
  24. "Max Mosley Racist Past Revealed - the new Eye is out now!", Private Eye Magazine on Twitter, Mar 7, 2018
  25. “The most sued man in Britain”, Private Eye Blog, 2 March 2011
  26. WikiLeaks vs. Private Eye on anti-Semitic rant, Foreign Policy, Mar 1, 2011