According to the FT junior Murdoch said...
Delivering the keynote MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh television festival, James Murdoch said that not only the economic health of the media industry in the UK, but also democracy itself, were threatened by the failure to adapt to a fast-changing digital environment.
He likened the notion of a media dominated by the BBC and governed by Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator, to “creationism”, claiming that central planning and managed change never produced successful evolution.
...
But there was a better path, stripping regulation to a minimum and curbing the power of the BBC, whose “state-sponsored journalism” made it impossible for independent news to flourish on the internet.
If consumers were trusted to make choices, there was no need for heavy regulation because they would choose what they judged was best for them.
Rules governing impartiality in television news should be scrapped, Mr Murdoch claimed. “We should be honest about this: it is an impingement on freedom of speech and on the right of people to choose what kind of news to watch.”
Now of course it would be imprudent to suggest that Junior Murdoch didn't have his own corporate interests to promote here.
But he does make a few important points. First what's the point in having so much regulation when television provides such a simple user opt-out. That is, change channels/turn off theTV.
Second why do we have impartiality rules. Especially when the BBC's view of impartiality is sitting two statists on a sofa and allowing them to argue about how the state should spend other people's money.
And most gravely that the BBC is basically now a banana republic style state broadcaster. Which as Junior Murdoch points out has worrying implications for democracy.
I just hope Junior Murdoch shares my belief that the BBC needs to be privatised -- at the very least.
UPDATE 09:07
Note in the picture below the BBC's use of inverted commas in the title and double quotes in the first paragraph when using the word dominant. This could of course be an editorial blunder. But me thinks it reveals the BBC's view on this subject.
4 comments:
Murdoch Senior would've seen no irony in making that speech from the steps of 10 Downing Street. Don't believe a word he says, it's just Sky trying to expand into radio+; the apple rarely falls far from the tree.
Ask Andrew Neil if Murdoch Junior believes in success via merit.
But he does make a few important points. First what's the point in having so much regulation when television provides such a simple user opt-out. That is, change channels/turn off theTV.
i would make the only authoritarian bit of regulation this: all tv providers must make it possible to remove access to channels from their subscription. Technology is there to do this and it would give consumers greater control over what they receive and hold the media to greater account.
Once Murdoch has finished with the BBC, he’ll be going after us.
Just imagine how furious he’ll be when he realises both you and I (and Guido) do this just for fun. We don’t even need the taxpayer to fund our scalp claims. How is he going to deal with that?
It's a fair point @OH I believe he may try but I'm not sure he will succeed.
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