http://blogs.kcl.ac.uk/policywonkers/was-peter-oborne-right-about-the-telegraphs-coverage-of-the-hsbc-scandal/
[multiple images and links in on-line article]
Posted on 18 February 2015
Was Peter Oborne right about the Telegraph’s coverage of the HSBC scandal?
On Tuesday 17 February Peter Oborne resigned as chief political
commentator at the Telegraph, with an article published on OpenDemocracy
claiming, among other things, that
‘The Telegraph’s recent coverage of HSBC amounts to a form of fraud on
its readers. It has been placing what it perceives to be the interests
of a major international bank above its duty to bring the news to
Telegraph readers. There is only one word to describe this situation:
terrible.’
The publisher has described Mr Oborne’s article as ‘an astonishing and
unfounded attack, full of inaccuracy and innuendo’.
One of Mr Oborne’s main criticisms of the paper was that last week’s
HSBC scandal received meagre coverage in the Telegraph, in order not to
endanger a lucrative advertising deal.
This post assesses Oborne’s claim. It does this by analysing the
Telegraph’s coverage of the HSBC scandal, in comparison to coverage in
other papers, based on data gathered with the digital content analysis
tool Steno. This tool, developed and run by the Media Standards Trust,
gathers, tags and analyses large volumes of UK online news articles and
has been developed to provide election coverage analysis (Election
Unspun is launching next week).
In this instance, we can test Oborne’s claims about the Telegraph’s
coverage of the HSBC tax avoidance scandal. Our analysis shows that the
Telegraph published 16 online articles featuring the HSBC scandal
between Monday 9 February and the following Sunday (out of 2,047
articles published on the Telegraph website during that time). This was
less than half the amount of stories published on the websites of The
Times (and Sunday Times), the FT and the Independent over the same
period, and less than a quarter of those published by the Guardian (who
broke the story) and the Daily Mail (Figure 1).
However, even this gives a slightly misleading impression of the
Telegraph’s coverage. As Figure 2 shows, the bulk of the articles
appeared online on Wednesday 11 and Thursday 12 February. On the
Wednesday, coverage was largely based on exchanges on the matter during
Prime Minister’s Questions, consisting of:
Two articles on Lord Fink’s threat to sue Ed Miliband (‘Tory
treasurer threatens to sue Ed Miliband over tax row’; ‘Lord Fink tells
Ed Miliband: repeat tax avoidance claims and I will sue you’)
An article on David Cameron’s defence of his role in the
appointment of Lord Green at PMQs (‘David Cameron rejects claims he is
‘up to his neck’ in HSBC tax avoidance scandal’)
Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith rejecting allegations of holding a
Swiss bank account (‘Zac Goldsmith: I’ve never had a Swiss bank account’)
An article on HMRC’s decision to withdraw witnesses prior to giving
evidence to the Public Accounts Committee (‘HMRC pulls top official
hours ahead of stormy session with MPs’)
In each of these articles, the main focus was on the behaviour of public
figures or bodies (Miliband, Cameron, Goldsmith and HMRC) not on the
behaviour of HSBC.
On the following day (Thursday) the five published articles mentioning
the HSBC scandal consisted of:
A leader article criticising Ed Miliband’s handling of the issue
(‘Demonised by Labour simply for being wealthy’)
A comment piece criticising Ed Miliband’s behaviour on the issue
(‘Screaming about tax dodgers is the new witch hunting’)
Two articles alleging Labour strategists were capitalising on the
issue inappropriately (‘Ed Miliband criticised over aide’s comparison of
tax row to Milly Dowler case’; ‘Ed Miliband sees tax avoidance row as
another ‘Milly Dowler’ moment’)
An article on Miliband defending his previous comments about a
Conservative donor (‘Ed Miliband repeats Lord Fink tax claims outside
Parliament but refuses to say he was ‘dodgy’’)
Again, the focus of each of these articles was the behaviour of public
individuals and public bodies rather than the behaviour of HSBC (in this
case Ed Miliband and the Labour Party). Of the 10 articles published on
the Telegraph’s website on Wednesday and Thursday, only one mentioned
HSBC in the headline.
The remaining six articles, spread from Tuesday 10 February to Sunday 15
February (the Telegraph published no articles on HSBC on Monday when the
story broke), consist of the following:
(Tuesday 10/02): An article on HMRC being called to a ‘difficult’
meeting to defend its record on the issue (‘Top HMRC officials to be
grilled over HSBC tax row’), and another on the pressure on Lord Green
as a result of the allegations (‘Former Tory minister Lord Green under
pressure over HSBC tax claims’)
(Friday 13/02): An article on a statement to staff by the Chief
Executive of HSBC on the scandal (‘HSBC boss says Swiss controversy has
been ‘painful’’)
(Saturday 14/02): One article on Ed Miliband calling for an inquiry
into HMRC as a result of its handling of the issue of tax avoidance (‘Ed
Miliband calls for ‘root and branch’ inquiry into HMRC’), and another on
Lord Green’s resignation (‘Lord Green quits amid HSBC row’)
(Sunday 15/02): An article on statements by Ed Balls on tax
evasion, including Ed Miliband’s use of a ‘deed of variation’ (‘Ed Balls
refuses to back Ed Miliband tax loophole’)
In other words, though the articles mentioned the scandal, none focused
significantly on alleged wrongdoing at HSBC.
In total, as Figure 3 shows, the Telegraph’s coverage of the HSBC
scandal overwhelmingly focused on how the allegations affect public
figures and bodies. 12 out of 16 articles focus on how the allegations
reflect on politicians or party strategists. Three focus on how the
scandal reflects on HMRC, while just one focuses specifically on HSBC –
in this case on an apology by its chief executive.
These figures indicate that Peter Oborne’s criticisms of the Telegraph’s
coverage of the scandal appear to be well founded. The Telegraph devoted
far fewer articles to the subject than comparable UK news sources. Those
articles that it did publish contained little or no investigation into
the allegations levelled at HSBC, instead framing the issue as a matter
of embarrassment or conflict among politicians, political parties, or
public bodies.
To see a list of all the articles published by the Telegraph last week
that refer to HSBC click here.
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