Plurality Of The Media
Vince Cable, that well known beacon of intellectual capability and economic reason, has shoved his oar into the debate in the wake of the phone hacking scandal, telling the BBC that ‘having media moguls dominating the British media is deeply unhelpful’.
Presumably, in the case of News Corporation, we can read Vince’s ‘deeply unhelpful’ as ‘not fully part of my favoured liberal-left media consensus’. How dare individuals own large numbers of newspapers and influence the British political scene. Disgraceful. Anyway, our dear Business Secretary went on to add:
We have learned from the past that having media moguls dominating the British media is deeply unhelpful, not simply in terms of plurality but because of the wider impact on the political world.
What I want to see is a very clear set of unambiguous rules… about market shares, that we don’t have dominant players and a presumption against cross-ownership between press and television.
It isn’t simply an issue of Rupert Murdoch, there are other big media companies who could have the same influence in future and we’ve got to stop that happening.
This, you may remember, is the same man who ‘declared war’ on Rupert Murdoch and News International before the phone hacking scandal re-broke (remember it was old news until the Guardian and BBC dug it out again for their own ends), and was consequently stripped of his status over media policy on the BSkyB bid. This is not about phone hacking and never was – it is about ensuring the stranglehold grip of the liberal-left over the media establishment.
Of course, a fantastic way of ensuring greater plurality of media in Britain, which Saint Vince says he so desires, is the abolition or significant downsizing of our beloved national broadcaster. The BBC is a huge, sprawling organisation, owned by the state and funded by the television licence fee. What better way of opening up the media playing field than taking apart the BBC monopoly? But will Vince be seeking to break up their dominance over the broadcast and online media? Not likely.
Your Comments:
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- Moho316
I’m sick of watching the BBC news Murdock bashing. There has only been one news story on the BBC over the last few weeks and that to do with phone hacking. In my opinion the whole thing has been blown out of proportion – the reality is there are far worse and much more important things happening in the world today. The BBC however will not give theses topics much time as it does little to pursue their own agenda.
The BBC is loving it picking on another media organisation taking attention away from them because the BBC is nothing more than a waste of taxpayers money that is run by lunatics. How many times has Ed Miliband been on the BBC talking about Rupert Murdock – he even got his creepy mate Gordon Brown to help out. It’s better than talking about politics. which Ed Miliband is incapable of doing.
I also have no doubt that many of these BBC reporters, who report the story as if they are so shockingly appalled, would have thought nothing of using such tactics in the past if the opportunity presented and maybe perhaps even have in a former role.
