Lord Northcliffe, who founded popular journalism in Britain, was a man in love with political power: he not only used his newspapers to topple one government (Asquith’s in May 1915) and to create another (led by Lloyd George in December 1916), he also got himself appointed as Britain’s Director for Propaganda.

His brother, Lord Rothermere, openly embraced dictatorship, declaring that Hitler was “a great gentleman” and ordering his newspaper, the Daily Mail to lockstep with British fascism. Well into the Second World War, his compliant staff were still campaigning against Jewish refugees seeking safety in Britain.

A few of this generation of owners used their wealth to protect and promote journalism, but most behaved like Lord Braverbrook, the model of this kind of proprietor, who famously explained his role as owner of the Daily Express: “I run the paper for the purpose of making propaganda, and with no other motive.”

Excerpted from Nick Davies’ brilliant Flat Earth News.

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Ah-hah. And everything begins to make a little more sense.

On the subject of the Daily Mail, this response to Richard Littlejohn’s recent, hate-filled column calling for the suicide of Sharon Shoesmith, is good.