Read Tony Blair's speech

Tony Blair launched a venomous attack on the media in one of his final speeches as leader today, comparing it to a "feral beast, just tearing people and reputations to bits".

In a talk hosted by the Reuters news agency, the Prime Minister admitted that new Labour had been over-reliant on spin in its early days in power, and had wasted too much time trying to curry favour with newspapers and broadcasters.

However, Mr Blair levelled much of his criticism for what he claimed were declining reporting standards at newspapers and news channels, who he claimed had sacrificed quality in order to get to a story first in an increasingly competitive climate.

"The fear of missing out means today's media, more than ever, hunts in a pack," he said. "In these modes, it is like a feral beast just tearing people and reputations to bits. But no-one dares miss out."

Claiming that the pressures of 24-hour news and the internet had left newspapers and television stations more concerned with impact than accuracy, he said: "The result ... is a media that increasingly and to a dangerous degree is driven by ’impact.'

"Impact is what matters. It is all that can distinguish, can rise above the clamour, can get noticed. Impact gives competitive edge. Of course, the accuracy of a story matters, but it is secondary often to impact."

The Prime Minister also criticised newspapers for mixing news reporting with comment. In particular, he slammed The Independent as being a "metaphor" for his point.

"It was started as an antidote to the idea of journalism as views not news," Mr Blair said. "That was why it was called the Independent. Today it is avowedly a viewspaper not merely a newspaper."

In a rare admission, Mr Blair confessed his "complicity" in the current state of affairs, admitting that new Labour had made an error by concentrating too much on spin and manipulating the media during its early years in power.

“We paid inordinate attention in the early days of new Labour to courting, assuaging and persuading the media,” he said. “In our own defence, after 18 years of opposition and the, at times, ferocious hostility of parts of the media, it was hard to see any alternative.”

Mr Blair concluded by acknowledging that his speech was controversial. "I have made this speech after much hesitation," he said. "I know it will be rubbished in some quarters. But I also know that this has needed to be said."

The speech came as it was confirmed that Mr Blair - who has 15 days to go before standing down as Prime Minister and being replaced by Gordon Brown - will meet Pope Benedict XVI in Rome days before he leaves office.

The private audience, Mr Blair's second with the Pontiff, will be held on June 23, just four days before he stands down. The meeting may increase press speculation that the Prime Minister, who is an Anglican, is set to convert to Catholicism.

Times Recommends

• Family cuts its waste to one binful a year
• Cameron can learn from Thatcher in 1979
• VAT is back ... and it's confusing