Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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 Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 5:30 pm Post subject: Does Rupert Murdoch have FAR too much power? |
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http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2087755,00.html
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| Rupert Murdoch faces the most serious challenge yet to his dominance of the British media after Alistair Darling, the trade secretary, called yesterday for a full investigation into News Corp's influence over the way the British public gets its news. |
Rupert Murdoch (unelected) has extraordiary power in the English speaking world. He dominates the media in Britain and Australia, and also has his nasty little paws on some of the US's media pie. He has even made serious inroads into China.
Through his enormous media empire, he has power to influence both the electorate and governments. Primeministers are afraid of him and seek his approval. Indeed during Thatcher's time in office, Murdoch was privately nicknamed 'The Primeminister' in Whitehall, because Thatcher would consult him before implementing any new major policy.
I remember in the mid 1990s in the UK when The Guardian announced that the then leader of the opposition party, Tony Blair, had had dinner with Mr Murdoch. Within a fortnight, friends and acquaintances who read The Times, were telling me that labour looked like a goer, and they were seriously considering voting for Blair. Suddenly, after 17 years in the wilderness, labour were in the running again. They had Murdoch's approval. Which also meant, they'd tailored themselves to appease him.
Why do we allow the concentrated ownership of media in our democracies? |
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