Sky wins battle for Tripoli: "It's really time we asked whether the TV Tax is going to the right people" writes Raedwald; he's not alone and even the BBC tried to get their defense in early; will this be Sky's rebirth as per CNN and the Gulf War? Chris Cramer, the then head of the Beeb's newsgathering operation admits he was so humiliated by CNN's superior coverage he finally went to work for them.
Now, the point of this post is that today Labour is seeking parliamentary support to tighten rules on media takeovers; Ed Miliband has told David Cameron that he should prevent Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation bid for BSkyB. Ivan Lewis the shadow culture secretary says Labour wants a wider "public interest test". I'll be honest Ivan, careful what you wish for: looking at news coverage of Libya as an example (there are many more), if it was for the public interest the bid would already be accepted!
Let's be clear: Miliband last month called a company with 20% of the - shrinking rapidly - newspaper market unhealthy and "frankly quite dangerous." I'll be frank too, in terms of news provision, only one organisation has a dangerous and unhealthy monopoly in the UK.
6 comments:
Interesting you should link to CNN as I was reading this morning about how CNN's impartiality has led them to have the smallest audience in the States and being regarded as almost unwatchable because they try so hard to be impartial. Strangely enough the BBC has been accused lately of trying to be too impartial and ending up the same, despite the claims of some sites and blogs.
I watch Sky, CNN and Bloomberg as well as the BBC, Fox scares the hell out of me because it seems to be the media equivalent of the nutter on the bus.
As for the BBC's dangerous and unhealthy monopoly there is only one answer to that but that would deny tens of millions of people any access to TV and radio so it won't happen.
That's domestically. I don't think CCN have got much worse or much better at their general world coverage but the Gulf War put them on the map.
Fox doesn't scare me (gulp)...am I the nutter on bus? ;-)
Your last paragraph is of course true but I wonder could it be streamlined, clearly the national and local radio could remain untouched or maybe just "polished' a bit. general TV too as it is a clear public service but maybe with the news they could/should just stick to reporting the news.
"Fox doesn't scare me (gulp)...am I the nutter on bus? ;-)"
No, you're driving the bus!
a bus...driving it through the holes in Arsenal's defense!
:-(
I thought Fergie was very gracious. Great twitter comment on the BBC live feed:
"I'd 8-2 be an Arsenal fan right now..."
bastard
To be honest I got more pleasure from Spuds losing 1-5 as Arsenal were about eight players short of being competitive.
My lad told me that 6 of the Manure goals were fantastic, I've only seen two one in the very top RH corner of the goal and the in the very top LH corner, practically unstoppable...plus i should have been 1 - 1 after half an hour!!! d'oh
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