The likening of the British media to a “feral beast” last week by Tony Blair, Britain’s departing prime minister, evoked some angry reactions from the accused. But it may have failed to provoke the larger debate he may have hoped for.
Most British commentators said that Mr. Blair’s attack, which came during one of his last speeches before leaving office later this month, was nothing short of hypocrisy.
For a man whose “administration will always be synonymous with spin, to question the system he has so often exploited seems a bit rich,” wrote The Economist. The Daily Telegraph listed 10 examples of media spin by Mr. Blair’s Labor Party, and The Independent, which was singled out by Mr. Blair as mixing “opinion and fact,” had Simon Kelner, its editor, ask on the front page, “Would you be saying this, Mr. Blair, if we supported your war in Iraq?”
A 370-member Facebook group called Feral Beasts of the Media has also sprung up in response to Blair.