Jeff Zucker Hits Out At ‘Hypocrite’ Andrew Neil For Criticising Telegraph-Spectator Bid

Jeff Zucker, former CNN President, fired back at the “hypocrisy” of veteran broadcaster Andrew Neil in criticising his proposed deal to buy The Spectator and The Telegraph Friday by alleging that he turned down Neil’s request that he chair both publications and act as shadow editor.

The claim comes after Neil, who is the current chair at The Spectator and vocal critic of Zucker’s buy-over, threatened to quit his role if the “absurd” purchase bid by Zucker’s Abu Dhabi-backed investment group goes ahead.

In January Neil went so far as to tell BBC Newsnight that the conservative-leaning titles would fall under the control of a “dictatorship,” highlighting the UAE’s authoritarian regime, going on to rip Zucker personally as someone who “knows nothing about Britain” and “knows nothing about print.”

On Friday, in an interview with The News Agents’ Jon Sopel, a former BBC editor, Zucker painted Neil as an opportunist and suggested that his subsequent criticism of the deal stems from personal grievances after the ex-CNN chief’s team turned him down.

Sopel: “Andrew Neil, sometimes media executive, chairman of the Spectator, I know you’ve met, said: ‘the idea that these two vital vehicles of mainstream centre-right thought should be owned by Arab money and controlled out of New York by a left-wing Democrat beggars belief.’ He says the idea is absurd.”

Zucker: “Yeah, well, this may come as a shock, but Andrew Neil is quite the hypocrite on this. And let me tell you a story about why that’s the case. Because let’s be very clear here, and I have not talked about this publicly before, the reality is that Andrew Neil was interested in working with us until we didn’t have any interest in having him work with us. I proposed to him after we met that he be the chair of an editorial trust board for The Spectator. He said that was too small for him because he already essentially had that role. But he did say to me that he’d be interested in being the chair of a combined editorial trust board for The Telegraph and The Spectator and suggested that in that role, he could also act as a shadow editor of The Telegraph because he felt the newspaper needed one. He also wanted to know how much such a role would pay. We said no thanks. And ever since that day, he’s been one of our most vocal critics. And I think that says all you need to know about Andrew Neil. And since I am sure that he’s going to deny this and pretend that didn’t happen and make all kinds of threats, let me be very clear about something, he did not make that request just of me. I am not the only one that he had that conversation with. And I can also tell you that when I spoke to folks at both The Telegraph and The Spectator about his potential involvement they were all quite pleased to learn that he would not be around. So now you know the full story. And so please give me a break with the hypocrisy.”

Speaking to The News Agents, Neil pushed back on the allegation and issued the following statement:

“Mr Zucker’s memory is playing tricks on him. He never offered me chair of a Spectator editorial trust. He vaguely mentioned being a member of such a trust. I said I’d rather walk than take such a diminution in my current role. That was on January 3rd and ended the matter. He’s never been in touch since. At no stage did I ever suggest I should chair a combined Telegraph/Spectator trust. Why would I? I have no interest in a role solely designed to give Mr Zucker editorial credibility, which he lacks.”

The deal, as it stands, is currently being examined for compliance with media standards by the UK government.

Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer issued a public interest intervention notice in December, prompting Ofcom, the media regulator, to investigate.

The Barclay family, previously in control of these titles, is negotiating with Lloyds Bank to transfer ownership to RedBird IMI, a joint venture between RedBird Capital and International Media Investments (IMI) of Abu Dhabi, funded primarily by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE’s vice-president.

Although some politicians and journalists, including Neil, have voiced concern about the deal’s implications on press freedom, in an interview with The Telegraph Zucker sought to reassure subscribers and critics that the newspaper would maintain “editorial independence” if the bid was a success and that IMI will remain a passive investor.