Exclusive research from The Free Press reveals that the top 100 UK journalists are deeply embedded in the British Establishment, with family ties, private education, Oxbridge attendance and six-figure salaries elevating them far above the UK average.

Our Matrix Project, an in-depth survey of the top 100 UK news journalists (ranked by Twitter following), found that:

54% of the top 100 UK journalists attended private school – opposed to 7% of the UK population as a whole (source)

46% of the top 100 UK journalists attended Oxford or Cambridge University – opposed to 1% of the UK population as a whole (source)

69% of the top 100 UK journalists had at least ONE clear personal tie to the British Establishment

An incredible 26% of the top 100 UK journalists had at least THREE clear personal ties to the British Establishment

37% of the top 100 UK journalists had a confirmed indicated salary of over 100K a year and/or an indicated net worth of over £1 million

Finally, 28% of the top 100 UK journalists had interests in (e.g. worked in) a field they were meant to hold to account such as politics or business – commonly referred to as the “revolving door”

Why These Figures Matter

Journalists love to tell us how independent they are, how impartial they are, and how fearless they are. Their very raison d’etre, they tell us, is to interrogate power.

“It was the job then and it is the job now for the BBC, for journalism in general, to challenge those in power” says Nick Robinson, who, our research reveals, was mentored by long-time Today programme host Brian Redhead (whose son Robinson met at the fee-paying Cheadle Hulme school). Robinson was also National Chairman of the Young Conservatives, President of the Oxford University Conservative Association and currently takes home an annual salary of £275,000 (read Robinson’s full Matrix entry here)

Our research demonstrates that journalists like Robinson are riven by conflict – they claim to interrogate power on behalf of ordinary media consumers when they themselves are of power – educated and shaped at institutions closely tied to the British ruling class (private schools, Oxbridge), mentored or developed by friends/family with pre-existing positions among the British media-political-business elite, all the while earning salaries in excess of 10 times the British average (£26,193 in 2021).

Those who doubt the significance of Establishment connections may wish to reflect on the recent comings and goings of journalistic power couple Allegra Stratton and James Forsyth. Forsyth, as his Matrix entry reveals, has been a friend of Rishi Sunak since their days together at the fee-paying Winchester School – to the extent that Sunak was best man at the wedding of Stratton and Forsyth. We’re sure that had nothing to do with Stratton moving from journalism to work for Sunak in the Treasury, before being promoted (disastrously) to a role as then-PM Boris Johnson’s press secretary. Following her sacking/scapegoating over Partygate, Stratton returned to the media…while Forsyth moved in the opposite direction and is now Political Secretary for current-PM Rishi Sunak.

Are you, as a voting, press-consuming British citizen comfortable with all of that? What about Sarah Vine, then-wife of cabinet minister Michael Gove, writing Daily Mail columns in defence of Boris Johnson’s government during Covid? Or the Evening Standard, edited by Emily Sheffield, sister of Samantha Cameron, proving, as per Private Eye, “oddly uncurious about the Greensill scandal which enveloped Sheffield’s brother-in-law David Cameron…”

The Matrix Project is, we believe, the first time a systematic attempt has been made to document the extent of these connections. All claims in the database are sourced and non-subjective. We outline clearly here our criteria and methodology.

Read on for detail on more apparent conflicts of interest between high-profile journalists and the individuals/institutions they claim to hold to account.

Establishment CONNECTIONS

We should clarify, at this stage, what we take to mean by “Establishment”. Our definition, primarily based on usage of the term in The Establishment: And How they Get Away With It by Owen Jones, is: someone who holds, or has held, a professional role or honourary title that puts them in a position to exert an unusual level of influence on society, and links them to other individuals with similar degrees of influence (more detail here).

We set a high bar for Establishment connections – a connection between two figures was only entered on the database if it could be considered “common knowledge” (reported by one or more mainstream media source(s)) or was alluded to by the journalist themselves in an interview.

In this way the database doesn’t capture a wide range of relatively “weak” Establishment connections – such as any top journalists’ inevitable friendliness with other top journalists – but instead captures indisputably significant connections: e.g. a journalist married to a business CEO or a journalist whose father/mother was an MP.

We note that, despite this high bar, we found an exceptionally high percentage of Establishment connections: 69 of the top 100 UK journalists had at least ONE clear personal tie to the British Establishment.

A number of these connections were journalists who were in a relationship with another journalist. Big deal, you might say, is that anyone’s business but their own? We invite you to consider the case of Andrew Marr. Marr’s primary Establishment connection is his wife Jackie Ashley, the daughter of Labour peer Jack Ashley, Baron Ashley of Stoke. Marr is open about the potential of journalists to sympathise with politicians they spend time with:

“If you really talk with a politician about their in tray, and the problems of rival departments, or of dodgy past initiatives, it is hard to avoid seeing things their way. The same perspective that gives you insight, also blunts your hostility… then you drift closer to them emotionally and may very well flinch from putting the boot in when they have failed in some way“

Andrew Marr

Marr became so close to David Cameron that the then-PM hosted a book launch for him at Downing Street (while Marr was BBC Political Editor!). An Evening Standard diarist noted that, previous to this, Marr and Jackie had been “hosting intimate dinner parties for Labourites Tony Blair, David Miliband and Tessa Jowell. Blair even returned the favour by having the pair over at Chequers, back when he had the keys”. Marr and Ashley offer an illustration of how a relationship between two journalists has the potential to draw both further into the Establishment.

Marr is among the 26% of the top 100 UK journalists who had at least THREE clear personal ties to the British Establishment, indicating a high level of elite entanglement. Several journalists had MORE connections. Frank Gardner, David Aaranovitch, Polly Tonynbee, Adam Boulton and Iain Dale had as many as SEVEN ties to the Establishment.

Laura Kuenssberg (six ties) illustrates the potential impact of multiple Establishment connections – including what we might call “ancestral” connections.

The lineage indicated here is, we posit, a ruling class lineage – one tied to British imperialism and the days of more rigid class structures (where being a doctor or judge generally indicated a certain “breeding”). While it is not impossible for the children of ruling class families to challenge the Establishment – George Orwell comes to mind – it seems fair to say that such an upbringing is more likely to have the opposite effect (as those who followed Kuenssberg’s coverage of Jeremy Corbyn will attest to).

Kuenssberg is far from the only entrant on the database to have “ruling class” ancestry.

Alan Rusbridger’s father, H. G. Rusbridger, was Deputy Director of Education for the British colonial administration in Zambia, while BBC mainstay Hugh Pym‘s entry is worth looking at in full.

Connections like Kuenssberg, Rusbridger and Pym’s – clergymen, colonial administrators, MPs, diplomats influential academics/writers/founders – recurred again and again on the database. Arguably the only thing that caught the eye more were immediate suggestions of a conflict of interest:

Fiona Bruce is married to Nigel Sharrocks – CEO of Carat Global Management when it won a UK government contract that included “handling media buying for all Government departments”. Sharrocks was, in effect, promoting UK government interests in media/news while his wife, Bruce, read the news.

Pippa Crerar is married to former Telegraph journalist Tom Whitehead – “head of comms for the government’s vaccines roll-out and NHS resilience at the Department for Health” while Crerar reported on the government’s handling of Covid.

Kirsty Wark invited then-First Minister of Scotland, Jack McConnell and his wife, to spend new year with her and her husband at their villa in Majorca in 2005. Wark was also said to be a good friend of previous Labour First Minister, Donald Dewar, and has drawn regular criticism (including an upheld complaint) for her coverage of the SNP and Alex Salmond.

“We all come from somewhere; we all have a prism through which we see the world; we all have an education, and views and experiences. It’s a false objective to be objective”

Jeremy Bowen – son of a journalist, married to a journalist.

Check out the full database for detail on all the journalists with Establishment connections. A summary of our results is available here.

Revolving Door

In a defence of journalism, Alan Rusbridger spoke of “the need for an institution, an estate, a profession, a trade…that exists independently of the other main centres of power in society” – that’s the same Alan Rusbridger who was principal of Oxford college Lady Margaret Hall when it ‘imposed a gagging order on woman who claimed she was raped’.

We wonder how media institutions Rusbridger was affiliated to at the time covered this story. We could look into it – maybe we’d find no apparent effect – but you take our point: if journalists wish to be independent of power and to challenge power then they should remain as independent from it as possible.

Our research reveals that 28 of the top 100 UK journalists had interests in (e.g. worked in) a field they were meant to hold to account.

Daniel Finkelstein‘s connections to other areas of power – particularly political power – need to be read in full to be believed. Finkelstein has numerous associations with opaquely-funded right-wing think tanks, stood as a Conservative Party candidate in 2001 and worked as a speechwriter/adviser to Chancellor George Osborne and PM David Cameron – all the while working in a senior capacity at the Times!

Finkelstein was, as Owen Jones notes, “expected (by the Times) to comment on and critique speeches that he may himself have helped to write”.

George Osborne, we should note, narrowly missed out on a place in the Matrix Database himself. After stepping down as Chancellor, he worked as editor of the Evening Standard before leaving to take up a full time role at investment bank Robey Warshaw. Does that “revolving door” (Politics, Business, Media) have your head spinning yet?

Iain Dale offers another example of heavy political interests

While Andrew Neil effortlessly combines historic Tory politics with significant business interests:

The notion that the media is independent of other centres of power is, put simply, laughable. When we began this project Boris Johnson was Prime Minister. That’s the same Boris Johnson who made his name writing for the Telegraph and Spectator, whose sister Rachel is a journalist (LBC), whose brother Jo has been an investment banker (Deutsche Bank), journalist (Financial Times), MP (Conservative) and now sits in the House of Lords as Baron Johnson of Marylebone…

Education

We found that 54% of the top 100 UK journalists attended private school – opposed to 7% of the UK population as a whole (source)

And that 46% of the top 100 UK journalists attended Oxford or Cambridge University – opposed to 1% of the UK population as a whole (source)

This area has been researched before. The Elitist Britain Parliamentary Report (2014) found that 54% of the Top 100 media professionals and 43% of the Top 100 newspaper columnists were privately educated. It found that 45% of the Top 100 media professionals and 47% of the Top 100 newspaper columnists attended Oxbridge.

These figures are strikingly similar to our own and speak of, as per the report, “elitism so stark that it could be called ‘Social Engineering’”.

A member of the database, Beth Rigby, is open about the professional advantages and social selectivity of Oxbridge:

“An Oxbridge calling card opens opportunities to you professionally…I don’t think I would have ever got that job at the Financial Times had I not had my Oxbridge experience. I really care about having good access for young people who are far less privileged than I was… [to] industries such as the media, where there remains a predominance of white, privately-educated and privileged men…I don’t need to tell you that the top echelons of our society are very weighted towards a certain group of people.”

Beth Rigby

26% of the journalists we surveyed belong to an even more elite group than Rigby – they attended private school AND Oxbridge. We were struck by how many of these were BBC journalists.

John Simpson, Hugh Pym, Martha Kearney, Andrew Marr, Adam Fleming, Nick Robinson, Ros Atkins, Mishal Husain, Faisal Islam and Adam Fleming (10% of our database!) were among those on the BBC payroll to attend private school AND Oxbridge. A picture of a “BBC archetype” emerged as we completed the entries – perhaps best personified by Kearney, whose background of quiet privilege, sponsored by an Establishment connection (her father, Hugh Kearney, was an influential historian), seemed typical.

One might speculate that an institution closely associated with the British state has been on the look out for safe pairs of hands rather than power-challenging radicals…

Director-General of the BBC, Tim Davie, has conceded that increasingly “socio-economic diversity, different types of people, different voices” is a “big issue” for the BBC.”

Unfortunately, comparing our numbers (2023) with those of the Elitist Britain report (2014) suggests that the educational elitism of the British media has improved little, if at all, in a decade.

Wealth

We found that 37 of the top 100 UK journalists had an indicated salary of over 100K a year and/or an indicated net worth of over £1 million

This was the trickiest area for us to survey. Unlike politicians and political parties, who are forced to declare incomes/interests, there are no such requirements for journalists.

Our only ways to identify those with a salary of over 100K a year and/or a net worth above £1 million were:

• The BBC star salary list, which includes details of their biggest earners (over £150,000 per year)
• Salary information volunteered by journalists and/or informed speculation by significant news outlets. All such claims, as with the rest of the database, have been fully sourced.

As such, our findings in this area are likely a significant understatement of the number of journalists with six figure incomes and million pound plus net worth.

The findings do, however, offer a window into the level of wealth “Top 100” journalists enjoy.

Top BBC journalism earners, Huw Edwards, Mishal Husain, Laura Kuenssberg, George Alagiah, Amol Rajan, Naga Munchetty, Sophie Raworth and Fiona Bruce, took home between £300,000 and £440,000 in the 2022/23 tax year.

Andrew Neil’s GB News contract was widely reported to be worth £4 million pounds. New Statesman report that Neil “has a flat in Chelsea, west London, a New York apartment, and a seven-bedroom house in the south of France, complete with gym, swimming pool, jacuzzi and satellite TV in every room.”

Multiple sources report that Jon Snow was one of the highest earning newsreaders in the UK prior to his retirement, with an annual salary in the region of £1 million

Robert Peston stated that he is paid “nothing remotely” like the £750,000 a year salary some newspapers have reported. He did, however, concede that he is paid more than a third more at ITV than he was at the BBC (and we’ve just seen what people at the BBC get paid!).

In 2011 Kay Burley’s salary was reported to be in the region of £500,000 (as per the Evening Standard). Given the recent move in the media towards gender pay equality (and overall wage inflation), it seems likely that her salary will have significantly increased since then.

In summary, the salary information we can access shows that top BBC, ITV, Sky and Channel 4 journalists take home salaries in the hundreds of thousands. As a point of comparison, the Office for National Statistics list the average UK salary for 2021 as £26,193.

Again, this is problematic for journalists who, verbally, align themselves with ordinary people (“hold power to account”) but, in economic terms, are aligned with the elite. Does it influence their coverage of things like public sector austerity, the cost of living crisis and politicians calling for wealth redistribution?

Conclusion

Leading political and media theorists have long argued that the entanglement of the media, politics and business is to the detriment of democracy. Usually the evidence cited is at a structural level – wealthy individuals/businesses funding political parties and owning/funding media entities (see, for example, Chomsky and Herman’s Propaganda Model).

Our research supports those who argue that personal connections abet and reinforce the anti-democratic entanglement of big media, big politics and big business.

Leading journalists, descended from prior generations of politicians, colonial administrators and the aristocracy – married to other journalists, business CEOs and political operators – move within networks built and reinforced at ruling class institutions like private schools and Oxbridge, all the while earning six-figure salaries that remove them from the everyday economic reality of most Britons.

The same journalists tell us they exist to serve democracy and challenge the powerful.

If you doubt this, as we do, please share our findings as widely as you can and educate others on who’s really delivering them the news. Remember, you can access the full database – with individual entries on each of the Top 100 UK journalists – here.

It took us ages. Please make use of it!

Steven McCracken is currently undertaking a Masters in Media, Communications and International Journalism at Glasgow University, studying under members of the Glasgow University Media Group.

Sean Rankin has a degree in Film & TV Studies and is a part-time freelance journalist, specialising in dark money and social media “astroturfing”.