Boris Johnson, Captain Tom and the Astonishing Power of The Media

What do Boris Johnson and Sir Captain Tom Moore have in common?

Pretty much everything.

Captain Tom Moore.

A nice old man, a pensioner, is about to turn 100 years old.

He is living with his daughter and son in law.

Having nothing to do, his son-in-law suggests he try walking 100 laps of their backyard garden — a distance of about 100 feet.

He begins, and makes his way across the garden with the aid of an aluminum walker.

His son-in-law puts it on social media, hoping to raise £100 for the NHS

So far, a nice little story.

The BBC finds the story and decides to run with it. To own it. They do this a lot. It’s a simple yet remarkably powerful idea.

They keep coming back to the Captain Tom story, as Captain Tom makes his way across the garden and back. There is, in truth, not a lot to the story, but it doesn't matter. The BBC is going to make it a story.

Captain Tom is a nice old man. Very pleasant. Dresses well. But in truth, what is he doing? He’s walking back and forth in his garden. That’s it. But that is enough when you have the power of the media behind you.

The story begins to grow, and as it grows, it takes on a traction of its own. Soon everyone is talking about Captain Tom. He’s become a regular event on BBC Breakfast and because of that, he’s raising more and more money, and as he raises more and more money, the story becomes, well, more and more interesting.

By the end, Captain Tom has raised not the £100 his son-in-law initially suggested, he has raised an astonishing £33 million, all for the NHS. Well good for you Captain Tom. And good for you BBC. In the interim, Captain Tom has been knighted! He is now Sir Captain Tom. He’s had an RAF flyover. He’s a national hero. And all for walking 100 laps in his garden.

Now Captain Tom, sorry, Sir Captain Tom strikes me (and the rest of the world) as a very nice old man. Very nice. But it was not his doing 100 laps of his garden that made him so famous, it was The BBC, and only The BBC, because they latched onto this story and did not let it go.

Now we come to Boris Johnson.

Boris Johnson has done a bit more than walk 100 laps of his garden, even if is garden is in 10 Downing Street.

Boris Johnson was elected Prime Minister, and brought in the biggest Conservative majority in a very long time. He also ‘got Brexit done’, whether you like Brexit or not, when seemingly no one else coud do it.

Well done, Boris.

But like Captain Tom, Boris has become the object of a media fixation.

He shared a birthday cake with his staff during the lockdown.

He also shared drinks with them, (and nibbles apparently) in the garden where he would have been far better off simply doing 100 laps with a walker.

Over the past two years, he did this a fair number of times, but so many times when you consider that it was over two years, and he both lives and works there.

As I said, he should have stuck to the walker.

But he didn’t.

Fine.

Now, the media, have given Boris Johnson what we will call the Captain Tom Treatment. That is, they have taken something really relatively insignificant and turned it into a never ending saga, a tragedy, a drama, a national trauma by coming back to it over and over and over. Russia may be on the verge of plunging Europe into its first real land war since 1945, but what are we all leading with?

Birthday cake.

Oh yes, I know, he was eating birthday cake while millions were suffering the lockdown.

This is what the media are so very good at. The Captain Tom Treatment.

Yes, Boris ate a birthday cake with his staff whilst the rest of Britain was in lockdown.

So, how do we make this a really compelling story? We find someone who could not attend their father’s funeral because of lockdown whilst the PM was eating a birthday cake. We find them, not so hard to do, and we put them on the air, over and over and over. And they cry. Great TV, by the way. Or we find someone who could not go to the hospital while their mother was dying, while the PM ate his birthday cake. Over and over and over. Outrage! The nation is outraged! The Twittersphere is on fire.

The PM had a drinks party with his staff while the Queen was mourning Prince Philip. I don’t know about you, but around here we were all dressing in black and having a day of silence. But not the PM. He had champaign. Outrage! More shots of the Queen sitting alone in black and cut to Boris and his crazy hair. Outrage!

So now Boris is on his way out.

Maybe.

Probably.

Grant Shapps, the Secretary of State for Transport yesterday on The BBC called it Trial by Media.

He’s right.

But let’s be honest here.

This kind of stuff rates.

Captain Tom was a ratings machine.

So is Boris’ birthday cake.

Live by the media.

Die by the media.

Which is exactly what Boris is about to do.