Shock! Horror! Keir Starmer has appointed an ex-editor of The Sun as civil servant overlord, responsible for overseeing government communications. What is the Labour leader thinking? How can he?
Inevitably, out come all the liberal-left, anti-tabloid, anti-Sun tropes. David Dinsmore’s hiring is a gross act of betrayal, they say. Does the prime minister not have any regard for Leveson, the victims of phone hacking, the people of Liverpool traduced by the paper’s coverage of Hillsborough? And what about Dinsmore’s 2016 conviction for printing a picture of a teenage victim of sexual assault, which did not conceal her identity?
The answer is, of course, that he does.
As for the ID’ing of the girl, yes, Dinsmore was found guilty of that. But there is a “but”. His paper had gone to some lengths to not identify her in an old photograph, including heavily pixellating her face, altering her hair and removing any distinguishing features, changing the clothes she wore and putting in a different background. Dinsmore and his colleagues thought they’d done enough. As the judge said, “I am satisfied that he took, and the staff on the newspaper took, steps that thought had complied with the law.”
They had, though, reckoned without her Facebook page, where that photo was previously her profile picture, and it had appeared there for six weeks, so viewers of her page knew who she was. The Sun made a mistake, Dinsmore signed off on the error, and so was found guilty under the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act. He was ordered to pay £1,000 compensation to the girl.
Although it is no defence, it was a mistake – though try telling that to Hacked Off and the rest who are now hounding Starmer for his appointment.
There was another issue, which was whether it was in the public interest to publish the photo at all. She was the victim of an attack by the footballer Adam Johnson. He was a well-known figure in a position of power. It’s therefore debatable. Dinsmore deemed it was – and plenty would agree with him.
He was not alone among newspaper editors. The Telegraph did the same; its publisher was fined, and charges against the editor were dropped. With Dinsmore, they got the name and address of the publisher wrong, so he carried the can. He’s hardly, then, the monster that some would make him out to be.
This was the same Dinsmore who oversaw the title’s Give Me Shelter campaign that reversed funding cuts and required every local authority to provide accommodation to victims of domestic abuse. He also made an effort to get out of London and tour the nation, going to places to try and gain a better understanding of ordinary people’s lives and struggles far away from the media bubble.
But here there is another “but”. As editor of The Sun, he bears the baggage of previous editors – of the brand, so he cannot now deny the telling of despicable lies about the victims of Hillsborough. Nor can he disavow the paper’s famous election front page berating the then-Labour leader, Neil Kinnock.
It’s true that Dinsmore is a hardened red-top bruiser, someone who was kicked out of journalism college in 1987 for failing his shorthand, which he passed at the 25th attempt, and who then worked his way up, first on local papers in Scotland, then as a reporter on The Scottish Sun, before joining as staff in 1994. He’s served both Rupert Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks with distinction, in their eyes, and disgracefully in the eyes of others.
His is a well-trodden path from the newsroom to cabinet room. Alastair Campbell made the trip, as did Andy Coulson, Craig Oliver and Lee Cain. Amanda Platell and Guto Harri also went from relaying the news to applying political spin.
Here comes yet another “but”: Dinsmore stopped being editor of The Sun in 2015, and for the last 10 years, he has been a formidable organiser and, as COO, led News UK’s push into digital media.
He has been in the background, guiding the group through acquisitions of radio stations and then the launch and development of the increasingly successful Times Radio. He has spent time with Apple, Google and OpenAI, looking at how news operates and how their networks and systems are growing. He has chaired the News Media Association, or NMA, the industry body, and worked with the government at the outbreak of the pandemic to create the All In, All Together campaign.
To Starmer, No 10 and the government machine, Dinsmore brings discipline, rigour and leadership – all of which have been noticeably lacking from this administration’s PR effort to date. He also adds media understanding and experience. He knows what works and what doesn’t. And for when the going gets tough – as it will – he has the scars of daily battle.
Starmer’s pragmatic head, if not his ideological heart, may prove to have chosen wisely.