His funding of a new crop of journalists raises fears that the political neutrality of journalism is under siege.
Sir Paul Marshall, the multimillionaire investor behind GB News, Spectator owner, and founder of the right-wing website UnHerd, is reportedly planning to bankroll the next generation of UK journalists.
The hedge fund mogul’s intentions were said to be discussed during a private dinner, coinciding with the right-wing Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference, which Marshall co-founded. Among those in attendance was Boris Johnson’s former policy chief Munira Mirza, whose Civic Future charity trains ‘talented individuals’ for roles as MPs, advisors, civil servants, and commentators, as well as Michael Gove, editor of Marshall’s Spectator, and Rebekah Brooks, CEO of News UK.
Marshall is no stranger to controversy, with a history of promoting far-right, Islamophobic, and conspiratorial content.
His funding of a new crop of journalists raises fears that the political neutrality of journalism is under siege.
One source described the proposal as leading to a “conveyor belt” of right-wing journalists. Although some sources have suggested that the programme could be “non-partisan” and take the form of an apprenticeship rather than a formal journalism school.
Marshall’s political career has certainly been erratic. He initially supported the Lib Dems and edited the influential Orange Book, a collection of essays championing the wing of the party that prioritised personal choice and free markets.
But Brexit was a turning point for him. Following the referendum, he criticised the Bank of England for being anti-Brexit, donated £500,000 to the Tories under Boris Johnson and funded the Alternative Arrangements Commission (AAC) on the Irish border. The AAC was run by a private think tank and was dominated by right-wing Tory MPs including Steve Baker and Suella Braverman, who opposed the ‘backstop’ that would have kept Northern Ireland in the single market.
The prospect of Marshall funding a new generation of journalists bears worrying similarities to what’s been happening in France, where billionaire media magnates have invested in the Superior School of Journalism in Paris (ESJ Paris), the country’s oldest journalism school.
The move sparked concerns regarding editorial independence, with critics like left-wing parliamentarian Sophia Chikirou accusing ESJ Paris of becoming a “factory for soldiers of caste journalism.”
Media historian Alexis Lévrier described the investment as “concerning” and said “schools must remain independent” from the shareholders of media empires.
Marshall’s proposed scheme raises the same questions. As author and journalist Peter Geoghegan notes:
“Why has someone who, a decade ago, was best known for funding the Lib Dems and the ill-fated Alternative Vote campaign become a right-wing media mogul bankrolling fringe conservative conferences and Tufton Street think tanks?”
The prospect of a wealthy, ideologically driven media mogul exerting influence over the training of journalists raises serious concerns about the political and ideological leanings of those who would shape the future of journalism in a media environment that is already tilted heavily to the right.
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