Media witch-hunt missing issue of all-powerful BBC (From Daily Echo)
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Media witch-hunt missing issue of all-powerful BBC
4:55pm Friday 1st June 2012 in Editor Ian Murray's Blog
By Ian Murray, Editor-in-chief
Jeremy Hunt
AS the political in-fighting goes on around the career – or possibly soon to be lack of career – of Culture and Media Secretary Jeremy Hunt and what he thought about the proposed BSkyB takeover he was considering, the central theme appears to be getting lost.
The question at the heart of the debate was, and should still be, whether Rupert Murdoch’s media empire should have been given permission to take full control of the satellite TV provider it already owned a major stake in?
If anyone takes the time to read the now notorious email from Mr Hunt to the Prime Minister David Cameron on the issue, sent before he was appointed to consider the matter, it lays out the central argument.
Was it wrong, Mr Hunt asks, for Mr Murdoch’s News Corp to move into a new age where the company’s forms of media could converge – newspapers, online, TV – when the BBC was already there in so many ways?
Why were there concerns about the power of the Murdoch empire when the BBC already had so much influence on opinion in this country?
That question has been lost in the brouhaha that has followed the phonehacking scandal, the setting up of the Leveson public enquiry and other probes into the media and the Murdoch empire in particular.
It has been lost in a roar of disapproval from most opposition MPs who smell political blood, the non-Murdoch press and, of course, the BBC.
Lost also is the small matter that News Corp did not take over all of BSkyB and it is not known what final decision Mr Hunt would have come to.
But once all of this witch-hunt – for that is what it has now become – is finally over and those in the dock, guilty and innocent, have been punished, will anyone return to the central question of what to do to counter an all-powerful BBC that influences, fashions and in many ways dictates so much of how we live our lives in this country?
Somehow I doubt it.
How the witch hunters will gloat.
Comments(12)
peenut81
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11:04am Mon 4 Jun 12
peenut81
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11:12am Mon 4 Jun 12
I will tell you why, Because the BBC does not promote invading third world countries, unlike Murdoch, because the BBC gives limited airtime to racists like Kelvin Mackenzie, Murdoch's favourite editor, because the BBC is not perfect but News International is just plain dangerous, it exists as part of a global network of information providers, with more interest in profit than genuine journalism. News International is the mouthpiece of the 1% and brainwashes with crude propaganda to persuade working class folk in this country that their country is overrun by criminals, immigrants and spongers, rather like this cheap little rag you edit.
Ant Smoking MP
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8:23pm Mon 4 Jun 12
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Big difference Ian. The BBC belongs to us. Sky doesnt.
Dave Juson
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2:57pm Tue 5 Jun 12
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The Leveson Inquiry is obviously causing a lot of pain to those who would like to see a British version of Fox “News” available at the touch of a button, but it is certainly not a witch hunt. It’s a civilized investigation into dubious practices of institutions, such as the Sun and the News of the World, the Daily Mail and their ilk, that all too frequently conduct witch hunts. Come to think of it, your hands aren’t to clean when it comes to persecuting people are they Mr Murray?
ECHO echo echo echo
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4:35pm Wed 6 Jun 12
cliffwalker
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6:14pm Thu 7 Jun 12
Will this nonesense, promote the editor's career, perhaps?
Swaythling Boy
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6:59pm Thu 7 Jun 12
Markmag
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11:24pm Thu 7 Jun 12
Assuming he actually believes any of this, it's clearly wrong to the core. The BBC has hugely less power than any other media organisation, in that in everything that it does it answers to us, the British public. And we get this for less than the cost of a daily newspaper. What control do we have over huge US based publishing empires such as newscorp or Gannett? None, which is why you get away with writing such twaddle. When the BBC try to cut local radio, people are (quite rightly) angry and protest. When Gannett decide decide The Southern Daily Echo doesn't need an individual editor any more (like the Bournemouth and Dorset Echos) will anyone even notice Mr Murray pick up his P45? Maybe that's what really stings - people care about the BBC, no one cares about your rag.
Markmag
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11:30pm Thu 7 Jun 12
skeptik
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2:58pm Fri 8 Jun 12
memush
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7:13pm Fri 8 Jun 12
dennytg says...
5:29pm Fri 1 Jun 12
The whole investigation is whether News Corporation would acquire a monopoly of the news, with their daily newspapers, weekend newspapers, TV, On line, Satellite etc. Your prejudice is showing.