Britain's Blair attacks media he once deftly managed

LONDON, June 12 (Reuters) British Prime Minister Tony Blair, once known for his slick and sometimes obsessive media management, took a swipe today at the nation's journalists just two weeks before he leaves office.

Blair, who steps down on June 27, accused the media of sensationalising facts, breeding cynicism and attacking public figures, in a speech he predicted some would ''rubbish''.

He said he was not blaming the media for the ''damaged'' relationship with politicians, pointing the finger instead at the changing nature of the modern news business.

''The fear of missing out means that today's media, more than ever before, hunts in a pack. In these modes it is like a feral beast, just tearing people and reputations to bits,'' he said in a speech at Reuters headquarters in London.

Journalists are ''increasingly and to a dangerous degree ...

driven by 'impact','' and this is driving down standards, doing a disservice to the public and reducing politicians' ability to take the right decisions, Blair said.

He joked to reporters he was ''poking them in the eye'' but could do so because he was standing down. He advised his successor, Finance Minister Gordon Brown, not to do the same.

Blair said his government had once focused too much on influencing the press: ''We paid inordinate attention in the early days of New Labour to courting, assuaging, and persuading the media.'' He also said he would make no apologies for assiduously wooing media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his influential newspapers and broadcasters.

Such close ties had been vital given the way the media attacked his Labour Party with ''ferocious hostility'' throughout its 18 years in opposition until 1997, he said.

Blair, whose relationship with the media has deteriorated during the divisive Iraq war, said too many newspapers had become ''viewspapers'' with opinion overtaking fact, meaning it was ''rare today to find balance in the media''.

He had few ideas on how to end the breakdown in relations between media and politicians.

He suggested the way the British press is regulated would have to be revised soon as new trends, such as newspapers producing podcasts and TV channels having Web sites, blurred the once-clear distinction between newspapers and television.

''It becomes increasingly irrational to have different systems of accountability based on technology that can no longer be differentiated in the old way,'' he said.

In Britain, television channels have one regulatory body called Ofcom, while the British Broadcasting Corporation is governed by a trust and newspapers are overseen by the Press Complaints Commission.

Asked if government should do more to improve regulation, and prevent one group having a monopoly, Blair said the media were better placed to bring about change themselves.

''I think politicians would find it very hard to do this without a strong sense that there is a movement within the media itself to bring about change,'' he said.

REUTERS GT RAI2053