The power of the press

Coinciding with the appointment of James Murdoch as Chief Executive of BSkyB, his father Rupert Murdoch has cast doubt on News Corp's support for the Labour Party in the next general election - Murdoch papers may switch to Tories.

The media tycoon, Rupert Murdoch, last night signalled that his newspapers may switch their allegiance to a reinvigorated Tory party at the next election, in comments likely to cause further alarm among Labour's already jittery high command.

Mr Murdoch, who owns the Times and the top-selling Sun, said the "jury's out" on Tony Blair and warned that his publications would be "torn" if the new Conservative leader, Michael Howard, turns the Tories into a viable alternative.


This is an issue that I find very hard to get my thoughts straight on; on the one hand I believe in a free press being able to say whatever they like about political parties and persons but on the other it just doesn't seem right that a corporation can insiduously influence the votes of its readership, and this power is used as a lever to shift the governments agenda.

No taxation without representation also crops up. Companies pay taxes but aren't represented in government; how else are they to have representation other than by harnessing the votes of 'followers'?

Should newspapers be forced to be impartial like TV news is? Is it ok that The Sun wields such power? What are the alternatives?

Posted by Paul at November 15, 2003 07:34 PM |
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