11/01/2017

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:00:14. > :00:17.Hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the papers will be

:00:18. > :00:20.With me are barrister and broadcaster Sophia Cannon

:00:21. > :00:25.and political commentator, Lance Price.

:00:26. > :00:27.The FT leads with Donald Trump's first press conference

:00:28. > :00:31.as President-elect in which he criticised the intelligence

:00:32. > :00:36.agencies and the media for spreading what he called fake news.

:00:37. > :00:39.The President-elect also features on the cover of the Metro

:00:40. > :00:42.after he denied claims Russia has compromising information on him.

:00:43. > :00:47.The Times leads with the accusations by Donald Trump that spy chiefs

:00:48. > :00:52.acted like Nazis by leaking reports about him.

:00:53. > :00:55.The Daily Express cites new research claiming arthritis pain can be

:00:56. > :01:04.relieved by 45 minutes of exercise a week.

:01:05. > :01:06.The Telegraph leads with a clash between the head of the NHS

:01:07. > :01:09.and Number ten over hospital funding as the number of A patients

:01:10. > :01:20.The Sun follows the latest trial of Rolf Harris as he faces accusations

:01:21. > :01:32.of sexual assault from seven new victims. Where else can we start but

:01:33. > :01:35.with the tramp? -- the Trump. He gave his first press conference for

:01:36. > :01:42.six months, the first since he won the election and a lot of it focused

:01:43. > :01:47.on allegations that he is in bed with the Russians. Literally. I

:01:48. > :01:57.didn't think I would be spending my time reviewing the depth and the

:01:58. > :02:03.discussed of the scatological references of a president elect of

:02:04. > :02:10.the United States. This is, dare I use the word, unprecedented. His

:02:11. > :02:13.first election he is in the mire, he is in the dirt and yet again I

:02:14. > :02:21.cannot discuss with my children what is happening. We don't need to go

:02:22. > :02:25.too deeply into the allegations. Essentially, a lot of information

:02:26. > :02:32.has come out concerning possible ties between Donald Trump and Russia

:02:33. > :02:39.and the suggestion is that the Russians have stuff on Mr Trump that

:02:40. > :02:45.colours his view of Moscow, perhaps suggesting for explaining his

:02:46. > :02:52.favourable view, some might say, of Vladimir Putin. It is even worse

:02:53. > :02:55.than that. The central allegation is that the Russians have stopped on

:02:56. > :03:00.him that could make an subject to blackmail and therefore subject to

:03:01. > :03:03.the influence, even though he is president of the United States and

:03:04. > :03:10.that is an extraordinary allegation. That he could be under the thumb of

:03:11. > :03:16.the Russians because of activities he is alleged to have participated

:03:17. > :03:20.in. He says all of that is untrue. It really was the most extraordinary

:03:21. > :03:24.press conference. We have got used to saying we cannot believe he said

:03:25. > :03:28.that, we cannot believe he did this, we can't believe that has happened.

:03:29. > :03:32.We will have an awful lot of this over the next four years, but that

:03:33. > :03:40.was so much in the press conference, lashing at the media and that is a

:03:41. > :03:45.spy agencies. That is the sort of thing we have come to expect from

:03:46. > :03:49.Donald Trump, but to accuse the FBI and the CIA of Nazi style tactics,

:03:50. > :03:54.which is effectively what he said at this press conference, he has got to

:03:55. > :04:00.work with these guys. That is the front page of the Times. You are

:04:01. > :04:06.acting like Nazis, Trump tells spy chiefs. He expresses anger at lurid

:04:07. > :04:11.document click. It is an ex-MI6 agent who drew up certain claims in

:04:12. > :04:16.this dossier. We have got to be clear for our viewers that this was

:04:17. > :04:22.not put together by the FBI or CIA, this is allegations and information

:04:23. > :04:26.that would lead by a private detective, effectively, in the pay

:04:27. > :04:32.of the Democratic party, or a big Democratic party donor and this

:04:33. > :04:35.detective agency is run by an ex-MI6 agent and he has got all this

:04:36. > :04:43.information concerning allegations relating to Mr Trump and Moscow. In

:04:44. > :04:46.the case of nominative determinism, it is Christopher Steen have to

:04:47. > :04:53.thank for this. He was deep undercover and had worked with the

:04:54. > :04:58.assassination of Alexander Litvinenko and he had an idea that

:04:59. > :05:04.there was something going on, a relationship between Trump and Putin

:05:05. > :05:10.way before we had any idea that he was even thinking of standing for

:05:11. > :05:14.the presidency. What he did, it seems to be that he did a

:05:15. > :05:23.reconnaissance of this situation at the time and has put this together.

:05:24. > :05:26.In one memo dated June 2016 it claims that the Kremlin has been

:05:27. > :05:35.cultivating Trump for at least five years. It is something of a

:05:36. > :05:41.dystopian spy novel. When we hear about spies of old and Kim Sotheby,

:05:42. > :05:49.sorry, Kim Philby, these stories, they must be literally true. Donald

:05:50. > :05:53.Trump completely denies them all. Having said that, it is not just

:05:54. > :05:58.some sort of story, not just some freelance guy put this together, it

:05:59. > :06:01.was presented to the intelligence agencies and they looked at it and

:06:02. > :06:04.they examined it and they had to make an assessment and determine

:06:05. > :06:08.whether to go forward with it. They saw enough in it that was credible

:06:09. > :06:12.that they believe was consistent with other information they had and

:06:13. > :06:19.the BBC is reporting there is more than one source, to put it on the

:06:20. > :06:23.desk of President Obama and to put it to Donald Trump himself. They

:06:24. > :06:32.have looked at it and they think there is nothing there. It is not

:06:33. > :06:34.sufficient with that to ensure that the outgoing president should be

:06:35. > :06:39.aware that under the incoming president should be told of the

:06:40. > :06:44.allegations. One seems now that the FBI and CIA have got to look into

:06:45. > :06:47.all of this. This man will be the commander-in-chief, privy to

:06:48. > :06:54.intelligence briefings every couple of days or so. His finger on the

:06:55. > :07:00.bottom of the nuclear arsenal. We have to see this for what it is, if

:07:01. > :07:07.he has been cultivated for five years and the level of fear that

:07:08. > :07:14.must be rippling now through the Republican party itself, but they

:07:15. > :07:18.have been outplayed by Putin in the game of chess that they always

:07:19. > :07:25.thought they had won to this level, that he has actually got his own man

:07:26. > :07:30.in the White House. It will be there for four years. The other important

:07:31. > :07:35.point is this has an impact on American public opinion. Their

:07:36. > :07:39.willingness to rely on what the CIA and FBI say in future because you

:07:40. > :07:42.already have a lot of Democrats who think the FBI handed the election to

:07:43. > :07:47.trump the bringing of the e-mail stuff in the last couple of weeks.

:07:48. > :07:56.You now have the guy he won turning on the FBI and CIA turning on them.

:07:57. > :08:00.You can say it is just the FBI and CIA, the court did last time round.

:08:01. > :08:05.The way in which he is undermining all the institutions of American

:08:06. > :08:10.democracy that he approve of, is a very dangerous precedent. The fear

:08:11. > :08:16.is, from my point of view, for the first time in history we have got

:08:17. > :08:24.the cyber world, the world of espionage contrasted so easily with

:08:25. > :08:29.this open source journalism, social media, all happening at the same

:08:30. > :08:32.time. We cannot even checked our facts. How can we do this? What

:08:33. > :08:36.really annoyed him in the press conference, we can go to the front

:08:37. > :08:41.page of the Telegraph actually, trump defined as MI6 officer fears

:08:42. > :08:47.Moscow retribution, what really annoyed him was CNN. CNN put

:08:48. > :08:51.together their own report on this dossier and the report, I

:08:52. > :08:58.understand, was partly put together by Carl Bernstein no less, of

:08:59. > :09:10.Watergate fame, but does feed put the whole unredacted thing out there

:09:11. > :09:17.on the internet and when Trump was asked a question by CNN, Trump went

:09:18. > :09:21.completely berserk. He conflated CNN carefully, judiciously going through

:09:22. > :09:25.this dossier and taking out what it felt would the right elements and

:09:26. > :09:31.getting elements from its own sources as well, as I say partly

:09:32. > :09:36.written by Carl Bernstein, so old, legitimate media some might argue

:09:37. > :09:43.and conflating that with Buzz feed chucking absolutely everything out

:09:44. > :09:47.there with no filter whatsoever. Donald Trump talking about the good

:09:48. > :09:51.news, he made it clear that he believed that CNN was a fake news

:09:52. > :09:56.organisation because it got involved in this, yet he has profited from

:09:57. > :10:03.the news over the last year through the whole campaign. As a former

:10:04. > :10:09.communications director at yourself, how would you have varied, the you

:10:10. > :10:14.think, in this completely new, incredibly difficult media world? I

:10:15. > :10:18.look at it and I think back to the days when I worked for Tony Blair

:10:19. > :10:22.and Alistair Campbell in Downing Street and we had our own war

:10:23. > :10:25.against the media, even though the media was more benign toward Tony

:10:26. > :10:32.Blair than it is toward Donald Trump in America and it occurred to me, we

:10:33. > :10:38.would have loved to undermine the media in the wake Donald Trump has

:10:39. > :10:41.succeeded in undermining it. Our objective was to turn and when it

:10:42. > :10:51.was a bad story and said that was just the media, you can trust them.

:10:52. > :10:55.That is what he is trying to do. Before I worked there and was a

:10:56. > :10:58.journalist and I was very conscious of the distinction between the two

:10:59. > :11:02.and it was a very important job that the media had fully power to

:11:03. > :11:09.account. It is one of the checks and balances in every democracy. You and

:11:10. > :11:12.your colleagues understood, even Alistair Campbell, understood the

:11:13. > :11:16.importance of the media in a democracy. Of course, but we were

:11:17. > :11:20.doing a different job. We were promoting the interests of the

:11:21. > :11:24.person in power and so you take off your journalist had and put on a

:11:25. > :11:28.different hat. We were undermining an institution which I hold very

:11:29. > :11:37.dear. You would have loved to have twitter. Whether we would have had

:11:38. > :11:41.that... Whether we would have used it in the wake Donald Trump does,

:11:42. > :11:46.they don't think so. What is interesting is that the whole debate

:11:47. > :11:52.about Russia and antics in bedrooms and whatever has completely

:11:53. > :11:56.deflected from the substance, the real substance that many people say

:11:57. > :12:00.should have been discussed and that is his interests, his own business

:12:01. > :12:04.interests and conflict of interest that might exist as a result of him

:12:05. > :12:10.being the CEO of a great multinational company and being

:12:11. > :12:17.president of the United States. All these pictures of Trump today, it is

:12:18. > :12:21.the right... It is the biggest distraction to what is really going

:12:22. > :12:28.on. It is the fact that a president, he is not quickly have the normal

:12:29. > :12:32.checks and balances of his team, he has not released his business

:12:33. > :12:40.interests, so we can fact check what the conflict are, we can only guess.

:12:41. > :12:45.These issues are side issues to what we really need to do, which is find

:12:46. > :12:51.out who this man is, what is he doing and what will he do in the

:12:52. > :12:56.future? If, even before he has started, he is kicking the legs out,

:12:57. > :13:02.burning down what we have fought so hard for... It occurred to me in one

:13:03. > :13:06.of my worst moments, there be Donald Trump wanted all this stuff out

:13:07. > :13:12.there because it gives them an opportunity to talk about something

:13:13. > :13:15.else. The public, frankly, when it comes to sexual peccadilloes, they

:13:16. > :13:22.have heard it all and signal from Mr Trump and factored it in. They voted

:13:23. > :13:25.for him anyway. A possible conflict of interest could be more

:13:26. > :13:31.problematic for him. Let's move on. We have a couple of minutes left.

:13:32. > :13:36.Simon Stevens, head of the NHS in England, front page of the

:13:37. > :13:41.Telegraph, he is in a bit of a battle with number ten. He is in a

:13:42. > :13:44.real battle. He is a very well respected civil servant. I worked

:13:45. > :13:50.with them when I was in at number ten, he was working for the Health

:13:51. > :13:54.Secretary, Alan Milburn, but the Tories loved him as well. People

:13:55. > :14:00.live as -- listened to Simon Stephens because he is a serious guy

:14:01. > :14:03.and he has gone out on a limb in effectively saying that Theresa May

:14:04. > :14:08.has not been honest in terms of the work of money going into the NHS and

:14:09. > :14:13.that she is stretching the truth, in effect, to claim that the NHS has

:14:14. > :14:19.been given money more than they asked for. It is clear we have a

:14:20. > :14:24.serious crisis in the NHS. Even given the fact that we have had a

:14:25. > :14:28.very mild winter so far. What would it be like if we had a harsh winter?

:14:29. > :14:34.There is colder weather on the way. We went through a period when a lot

:14:35. > :14:38.of money was going into the NHS, it really was a lot of money going into

:14:39. > :14:44.the NHS and we didn't have this winter crisis but they are back. I

:14:45. > :14:51.can see Theresa May shelving who will rid me of this troublesome man?

:14:52. > :14:56.Like Thomas Becket saying if we have problems with our major services,

:14:57. > :14:59.they beat somebody else is in the way. It is not our fault. It is the

:15:00. > :15:07.way it is managed, but the funding. It is the same austerity issues that

:15:08. > :15:10.have been rising since 2010. Theresa May is suggesting some hospitals are

:15:11. > :15:15.not being managed well enough. That is partly why A departments are in

:15:16. > :15:19.crisis. One of the reasons Simon Stephens reacted the way he did was

:15:20. > :15:23.at number ten was briefing as if they were getting ready to blame him

:15:24. > :15:29.rather than the lack of funding. Rather than deal with the issue,

:15:30. > :15:31.rather than deal with the issue you blame someone else. That is

:15:32. > :15:45.definitely not something he would have done. Our style at all. Press

:15:46. > :15:51.regulation. Page two of the times. Here we go. 140,000 views have been

:15:52. > :15:55.given and press recognition. The suggestion is newspaper groups

:15:56. > :16:00.should be heavily fined and pay the legal costs of any court action if

:16:01. > :16:03.they did not sign up to an accredited, what the press

:16:04. > :16:10.regulation -- regulator that has been put forward. Section 40 is a

:16:11. > :16:13.new way to ensure that there is access to justice for the smaller

:16:14. > :16:21.guy, the little man who has his name or her name brought out into the

:16:22. > :16:26.press in a way they can never seek redress. They don't have the hundred

:16:27. > :16:32.and ?40,000 and this is the whole idea, that we must see it for what

:16:33. > :16:36.it is. It is not telling the press what to do, it is holding their feet

:16:37. > :16:40.to the flame. Newspapers have fought an effective campaign against it. We

:16:41. > :16:45.don't know what these 140,000 people think, but the implication is a lot

:16:46. > :16:53.of them disagree with that. On the face of it, we don't know what the

:16:54. > :16:56.views are of the majority of these people, but one suspects that, given

:16:57. > :17:01.the fact that if you will take the Daily Mail with the times to court

:17:02. > :17:06.you need deep pockets, then the idea that they will have to pay the legal

:17:07. > :17:12.fees suggests that he may be able to get some redress. When The Papers,

:17:13. > :17:19.the simple view is we have to pay the costs win or lose, that a of

:17:20. > :17:24.people's sense of natural justice. I understand the argument, but given

:17:25. > :17:32.The Papers and easy way to attack the proposals. Many thanks. That's

:17:33. > :17:36.it for The Papers tonight. You can see the front pages of all of them

:17:37. > :17:42.online on the BBC News website. It is therefore you seven days a week.

:17:43. > :17:48.If you missed the programme on an evening you can watch it later on I

:17:49. > :18:00.player. Thanks to Sofia and lands a game and to you for watching.