Who controls the news?

The circulation of the once glorious Times of London has plummeted because it is viewed as a tool of Rupert Murdoch, while that of the independent Guardian has zoomed. Virginia Abernethy sends us an article from the latter (14/4/03), here extracted: "Rupert Murdoch's Fox network is among the US media giants accused of tailoring its war coverage to curry favour with Michael Powell, the George Bush-appointed chairman of America's media regulator who is facing mounting pressure to scrap media ownership rules.

Mr Powell, the son of US secretary of state Colin Powell, is under intense lobbying pressure from the US broadcasting industry to abolish safeguards that restrict limits on the number of TV and radio stations a company can own in a market. Fox, together with network heavyweights CBS and NBC, is pressing the US federal communications commission to dump rules that prevent a TV broadcaster from owning another network or a radio station and newspaper in the same market. Under the existing US regulatory regime, no broadcaster may reach more than 35% of the national audience and there are strict limits on how many TV and radio stations a company can own in any market. The Centre for Digital Democracy, a non-profit agency in the US that promotes diversity in digital media, believes news organisations in the US have a "serious conflict of interest" when it comes to reporting the policies of the Bush administration. Mr Murdoch has been criticised for imposing his pro-war stance on all News Corporation-owned media outlets. These media giants stand to make untold billions if the FCC safeguards are eliminated or weakened."