Last week, hidden amongst the strikes, culture secretary Jeremy Hunt announced further steps towards Rupert Murdoch's News Corp taking over BSkyB. One of the caveats inserted by Hunt in this deal is that Sky News must be siphoned off into a new company, in an attempt to prevent too much of our media and news coming from one source.
Essentially the fear is that, whatever provisions are made, Murdoch would use his increased presence to pursue his own political agenda. The UK though is in an increasingly inconsistent and bizarre position regarding 'partisan broadcasting'.
We not only expect but encourage newspapers, including those owned by News Corp, to endorse a political party come General Election time, and accept their bias on a daily basis. At the same time, our radio stations obsessively pursue political neutrality, and television is broadly the same. In the digital age, the vast majority of blogs have a political agenda. In television and radio though we have the buffer of the BBC, a supposedly neutral state operator. So, the separate issue of BBC bias aside, why not let other stations take a political stance if they wish?
Those who fear a right-wing Murdoch takeover of the media should have more faith in the market; it could work to their advantage. If one force is created, a counter is likely to appear to balance it. For every Fox News we have an MSNBC, for every Rupert Murdoch we have a George Soros, for every Drudge Report we have a Huffington Post, for every Glenn Beck we have a Jon Stewart. (While we are on the subject, please show The Daily Show daily again More4!) Furthermore, we know the biases of all of the above, and can filter the information accordingly. We also have a choice as to what we watch and read; I don't like the bias of coverage provided by the Guardian and the Daily Mail, so I don’t read them!
My only real concern is that such developments would prompt a race to the bottom in partisan provision, and stretch our already highly tribal politics to breaking point. That though could be just the opportunity needed for a new, neutral, news channel that would keep the BBC on its toes!
In the 21st Century our media is changing rapidly. Fox News UK might not be the disaster some fear.
Charlotte Henry normally blogs at www.virtuallynaked.co.uk, and is Vice Chair of Liberal Youth – the youth and student wing of the Liberal Democrats.
Comments
notraving / July 05 2011 4:07pm
This is the most inane nonsense. You don't like the bias of the Guardian and the Daily Mail, so you don't read them; fair enough. What do you read? That's the point: there isn't any bloody objective print journalism left. How exactly is it helpful for the same thing to happen to broadcast journalism? On the one hand, you dislike bias, but on the other you want more bias. You are presumably not an idiot, but you really need to think this through a bit more.