Tony Blair’s speech about the media today will, no doubt, prompt a stream of abuse from media organisations, opposition politicians and others. The Prime Minister acknowledged this in the way he ended his talk in a curiously half-hearted way:

“I’ve made this speech after much hesitation. I know it will be rubbished in certain quarters. But I also know this has needed to be said.”

But Blair’s comments deserve serious attention, rather than a knee-jerk dismissal because of the identity of the speaker. The PM is undoubtedly right when he points out that the modern media are blurring the line between news and comment, and that the media pack is increasingly feral when it hunts for victims. Combine the two and you can see how difficult it is to start a debate on any serious but controversial aspect of policy, such as road pricing or personal taxation.

He singled out the Independent for becoming a ‘viewspaper’ – perhaps choosing the paper with least power to wound, compared with the Daily Mail?

Blair also accepts that Labour’s addiction to spin has made matters worse:

“In the analysis I am about to make, I first acknowledge my own complicity. We paid inordinate attention in the early days of New Labour to courting, assuaging, and persuading the media. In our own defence, after 18 years of Opposition and the, at times, ferocious hostility of parts of the media, it was hard to see any alternative. But such an attitude ran the risk of fuelling the trends in communications that I am about to question.”

It’s a shame that the PM waited until his last weeks in power before admitting that the Government’s PR practices have proved counter-productive. But Tony Blair has often given the impression of a leader who asks forgiveness for his sins (and those of his courtiers), and then carries on regardless. His unwillingness or inability to rein in former Number 10 communications chief Alastair Campbell was a significant failure that caused long-term damage to him and his Government’s reputation.

The relationship between government and the media is inherently unstable and often explosive. Back in the 1930s, prime minister Stanley Baldwin railed against the press enjoying power without responsibility. Interestingly, Margaret Thatcher’s combative press secretary, Bernard Ingham made a similar complaint in a speech to the International Press Institute in 1985:

“I believe that the Watergate syndrome, combined with the broadcasters’ ‘confrontation’ approach to interviews and the determination to take the mickey out of authority … seems to require that any self-respecting reporter should knock seven bells out of symbols of authority, and especially government.” 

It will be very interesting to see how Gordon Brown copes with the media when he takes over from Tony Blair later this month.