152
AdAptAtion in the Age of MediA ConvergenCe
Moffat responds to the question by engaging in meta-commentary, anticipating how any answer he gives will be “spun,” and denying the grounds for the
question in the first place. As a masterstroke, he appeals to the authority of
the crowd – which he knows will be sympathetic in the context of a preview
screening – to applaud the show and its success, shutting down any further
questioning in this line.
The metalinguistic commentary of his reply is testament to the significance of language to both the news reporter and to the account that the lead
writer gives of himself and his production. It is reminiscent of the techniques
of Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Director of Communications and Strategy,
Alastair Campbell, in the 1990s and early 2000s. He, too, affected contempt
for journalists who asked unfavorable questions, using them as a pretext to
criticize in turn the news media’s low standards of investigative reporting
and “trivialised news agenda.” 73 Therefore, it may be no coincidence that
Moffat’s choice for the twelfth Doctor in Doctor Who, announced in August
2013, was Peter Capaldi, the actor whose most recognizable television role
had been as the spin doctor Malcolm Tucker in the satirical sitcom The
Thick of It (2005–2012). Tucker, an abrasive government enforcer, is widely
regarded as being based on Alastair Campbell (although Capaldi himself
also credits Peter Mandelson as a model). 74
Significantly, it was Mandelson who identified a key aspect of the New
Labour spin machine. In what, for Nick Jones, is a highly revealing statement,
Mandelson remarked: “I’m trying to avoid gaffes or setbacks and I’m trying
to create the truth – if that’s news management, I plead guilty.” 75 The idea of
“creating the truth” through language, however disingenuous or dissembling
it may seem, connects with a point made by Norman Fairclough in his
discussion of the rhetoric of New Labour: that New Labour’s “Third Way”
political philosophy was always in the process of being “forged” in language,
and New Labour politicians were “constantly forming and formulating it.” 76
For Fairclough, this sense of New Labour’s malleable rhetoric is linked to
the idea that “New Labour seeks to reconcile in language what cannot be
reconciled in reality given their commitment to neoliberalism.” 77 In other
words, New Labour’s “commitment to the neoliberal global economy” meant
that nothing fundamental could change and the function of New Labour
73 Jones, Sultans of Spin, 291.
74 Dee, “Peter Capaldi: Malcolm Tucker is Alastair Campbell.”
75 Jones, Sultans of Spin, 31.
76 Fairclough, New Labour, New Language?, 4.
77 Ibid., 157.
AdAptAtion in the Age of MediA ConvergenCe
Moffat responds to the question by engaging in meta-commentary, anticipating how any answer he gives will be “spun,” and denying the grounds for the
question in the first place. As a masterstroke, he appeals to the authority of
the crowd – which he knows will be sympathetic in the context of a preview
screening – to applaud the show and its success, shutting down any further
questioning in this line.
The metalinguistic commentary of his reply is testament to the significance of language to both the news reporter and to the account that the lead
writer gives of himself and his production. It is reminiscent of the techniques
of Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Director of Communications and Strategy,
Alastair Campbell, in the 1990s and early 2000s. He, too, affected contempt
for journalists who asked unfavorable questions, using them as a pretext to
criticize in turn the news media’s low standards of investigative reporting
and “trivialised news agenda.” 73 Therefore, it may be no coincidence that
Moffat’s choice for the twelfth Doctor in Doctor Who, announced in August
2013, was Peter Capaldi, the actor whose most recognizable television role
had been as the spin doctor Malcolm Tucker in the satirical sitcom The
Thick of It (2005–2012). Tucker, an abrasive government enforcer, is widely
regarded as being based on Alastair Campbell (although Capaldi himself
also credits Peter Mandelson as a model). 74
Significantly, it was Mandelson who identified a key aspect of the New
Labour spin machine. In what, for Nick Jones, is a highly revealing statement,
Mandelson remarked: “I’m trying to avoid gaffes or setbacks and I’m trying
to create the truth – if that’s news management, I plead guilty.” 75 The idea of
“creating the truth” through language, however disingenuous or dissembling
it may seem, connects with a point made by Norman Fairclough in his
discussion of the rhetoric of New Labour: that New Labour’s “Third Way”
political philosophy was always in the process of being “forged” in language,
and New Labour politicians were “constantly forming and formulating it.” 76
For Fairclough, this sense of New Labour’s malleable rhetoric is linked to
the idea that “New Labour seeks to reconcile in language what cannot be
reconciled in reality given their commitment to neoliberalism.” 77 In other
words, New Labour’s “commitment to the neoliberal global economy” meant
that nothing fundamental could change and the function of New Labour
73 Jones, Sultans of Spin, 291.
74 Dee, “Peter Capaldi: Malcolm Tucker is Alastair Campbell.”
75 Jones, Sultans of Spin, 31.
76 Fairclough, New Labour, New Language?, 4.
77 Ibid., 157.