Abstract
From the British Journalism Review of 10 years ago (vol. 13, issue no. 1, 2002)
‘It is sometimes claimed that the BBC is one of the most sophisticated and effective political lobbies in Britain – a claim usually put in the form of an accusation coming mainly from its commercial competitors. In our view it is not true. The BBC publicists and lobbyists are, in the main, a clumsy lot. They usually fail to put their case as powerfully and persuasively as would certainly be justified.’
– Geoffrey Goodman, BJR editorial
‘As long ago as the 1947 Royal Com mission on the press we were trying to stop the ex tension of [media] ownership. We proposed – without success, I might say – adapting what they had in America, which was quite a lot of controls on monopolisation. We wanted to stop newspaper proprietors buying up more and more newspapers and, what with the development of television, we wanted really strong anti-monopoly rules. Unfortunately, that all collapsed under the pressures of Murdoch and co. Now we have a situation where there is next to no control over the number of newspapers and television companies one person can control.’
The infringements that have been allowed are a disgrace.
– Politician and journalist Michael Foot, interviewed by Bill Hagerty
‘… the interpretation of Britain as a better educated, more middle-class society which is seeking a more literate, slightly less hysterical press … misses the point by a mile. The reality is that many newly-affluent people are uninterested in news. They are totally indifferent to the news agenda itself because it largely revolves around the political process. They have found that they can live out their lives without the need to know about, let alone be involved in, political affairs. The market is king, money is the nexus, and people are therefore content to be consumers. They have become comfortable in an environment where everything is just fine.’
– Roy Greenslade, media analyst and author and a former editor of the Daily Mirror
‘However much American journalists may value fair and impartial reporting and the separation of news and comment, there is a bias in the U. S. news media, and never more so th an when the nation thinks itself at war. It's a bias in favour of patriotism.’
– Nick Higham, BBC media correspondent helping to cover the Afghan war