OfCom must consider Facebook?

Social media deserves its share of scrutiny http://gu.com/p/46dja

Daily Mail and clickbait

A former Mail online employee has vented over what he sees as the base practices of the world's leading online newspaper site, allegedly shamelessly ripping off rivals content and rewriting this, knowingly publishing inaccurate content and misleading headlines, and above all employing clickbait as a central, core strategy. Here's a few snippets from Greenslade's column, worth reading in full (he always is!):

Excerpts below

BBC blasted by Culture Select Committee - new regulator?

THIS LONG POST CONTAINS:

• Analysis of the Culture Select Committee's largely scathing report on the BBC, which had many suggestions for reform of the BBC
• Details and analysis of media coverage of this, looking at how anti-BBC flak is formulated
• Specifically the issue of the BBC Trust: will it be scrapped in favour of a new regulator?
• Brief overview of some of the many other detailed posts on the Beeb

Wow - not a good day for Auntie Beeb; here's a flavour of what they face today, leading off from events yesterday; the Media Guardian's top 10 stories on the morning of 26th February, 2015:

The spectre of Sir Jimmy Saville raised once more, on of the low points in the BBC's entire history; a link made to tax avoidance, the political hot potato of this month given the furore over the HSBC tax avoidance revelations (and then the Telegraph ad revenue story); a clear growing consensus that the license fee must go (just not yet); and strong-worded condemnation of the BBC Trust, the current main regulator of the BBC. The Daily Mail will be loving this!

ANTI-BBC FLAK: THE MAIL'S GLEEFUL REPORT

DIGITISATION: Comparing print circulation with online users

We've been raising and discussing this point frequently recently, so lets pin it down with some precise figures.
The total combined circulation of UK daily national papers in Jan 2015 was just over 7m; for Sunday nationals it was 6.4m (Greenslade report). NB: these are ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulation) figures; an independent body whose figures govern what advertisers pay. Most of their content is locked behind a paywall; the Guardian maintains a microsite for ABC-related articles.

The Audit Bureau of Circulations (UK) or ABC was founded on 14 October 1931 by the ISBA (Society of British Advertisers) to provide an independent verification of circulation/data figures to facilitate the buying and selling of advertising space within UK national newspapers. [Wiki]

Table from Press Gazette. 'Bulks' means copies given away free/heavily discounted (hotels etc)

Advertiser power and Daily Telegraph HSBC scandal

IN BRIEF: The Daily Telegraph's Chief Political Correspondent resigned, claiming the paper's management spiked a series of critical articles on HSBC rather than lose out on the extensive advertising revenue from HSBC; HSBC had previously made a clear link (see Greenslade and others below) between a paper's coverage and continued advertising 'support'. The nature of the billionaire Barclay brothers' ownership comes into this, as do questions of the role of the press/media in a democracy. The case gives backing to long-established critiques of some Marxist academics who have analysed the impact both of conglomerate/billionaire ownership and the de facto licensing power of advertising (cf. 60s Times, 50s Observer, 00s Mirror and NoTW cases). [YOU CAN FIND A TASK OUTLINE HERE]

Who's this Peter Oborne chap?
Peter Oborne is the hero of the piece. Who is he? An avowedly right-wing 'chief political commentator' for the Daily Telegraph (although Greenslade, a target himself of Oborne, notes that Oborne doesn't always follow the right-wing playbook: criticising the pro-Israel lobby, praising(!) Ed Miliband, supporting the Human Rights Act...). He resigned in disgust at the paper allegedly blocking negative reportage of HSBC, the subject of recent revelations about its efforts in facilitating tax avoidance.

The Telegraph, lets be clear, angrily deny doing any such thing. (Or do they? 'The paper’s editorial on Friday, an illogical mix of bluster and obfuscation, appeared to accept that the breach had occurred.')


Read more - Grauniad/Greenslade bias?

BBC's coverage is less extensive but useful

The fallout from this continues - so look to read more on this, don't just depend on this post (written a week into the scandal on 22.2.15)! With Roy Greenslade following this closely, theguardian.com/media/dailytelegraph is a good source to use - you can decide for yourself if you think the potential benefit of doing down a broadsheet rival, or the left- v right-wing aspect of this are problematic with this coverage. I've used extracts from several, but I've also benefit of reading every article in full - you could too! The Indie doesn't boast quite as good a line-up, but has some quality media coverage (The Times is behind a paywall).
The BBC is a good alternative, though you'll need to do a search such as 'BBC telegraph oborne' to find articles; they don't make it so convenient to find linked articles.


Does This 'Prove' Curran + Seaton/Chomsky's Point?
Curran and Seaton, as well as Noam Chomsky, have plenty of critics who dismiss their analysis as the frothing of lefty, indeed Marxist thinkers. Both have argued that advertisers exercise a de facto licensing system over newspapers, and wider media, and that advertiser preferences invariably mean that radical, counter-hegemonic (yes, Gramsci) content is marginalised. This is hardly a controversial view within Media Studies, but can hardly be considered as mainstream thinking beyond this academic field. Free market advocates would simply counter that the public gets the media content and outlets it wants through the market mechanism.

Tele deny Oborne's claims; condemn reportage of story; attack News UK [Murdoch press] as worse!!!
As the BBC reported,

The Daily Telegraph has published an editorial saying it "makes no apology" for its coverage of the HSBC tax scandal. 

Indeed, part of their response has been to condemn the BBC and Guardian for inventing this story, and even managing an attack on Labour/Ed Miliband! [source: PR Week]

In a promise to its readers published last night on its website, the newspaper makes no apology for the way it has handled allegations made against HSBC – allegations that were "so enthusiastically promoted" by certain media outlets.
The statement questions the editorial impartiality of the BBC, The Guardian and The Times over their dismissive response to MPs' expenses claims, which was revealed by The Telegraph in 2009.
The article then launches an attack on the Labour Party, accusing Ed Miliband of jumping on the HSBC allegations and using them as a "weapon against the Conservatives" to further fuel Labour's "deep-seated hostility to business".

The Tele was bullish in its initial response (PR Week article)

They then went on to attack News UK (Murdoch's newspaper operation) for causing the suicide of two advertising workers in their operation:

The Daily Telegraph has published an anonymous story on its front page suggesting that two suicides at a rival newspaper could be connected to pressure to hit commercial targets, days after its chief political columnist quit alleging that editorial decisions on the Telegraph were being influenced by commercial decisions.The article, which appeared on the bottom of the front page of the paper with the byline “Daily Telegraph Reporter”, said News UK, which publishes papers including the Times and the Sun, had launched an internal investigation into the deaths.The article claims there are “fears that staff are being put under unreasonable pressure to hit targets” in its commercial department. In an article on Friday night, Buzzfeed UK reported a source at the Telegraph saying: “I don’t think any journalist at the Telegraph agrees with what’s going on at the moment.”On Saturday, it published an update based on further contacts with Telegraph staff, who it said were “disgusted and bewildered” by the story’s publication. It added:

Three individuals with knowledge of the newsroom claimed the reporter who wrote the anonymous piece did not bring in the story themselves but was given it to write by their superiors at the newspaper. One source in the newsroom saw the reporter arguing with the news desk over the story, while a second described a newsroom culture where journalists could not veto stories they did not want to write.

(Dominic Smith, Guardian, 21.2.15)


Wider than HSBC coverage: Despicable Me 2, China, Russia...
Newsnight (BBC2's flagship news show) editor wrote a feature for the BBC on this issue summing up their findings:

Daily Telegraph journalists have said they felt discouraged from writing uncomfortable stories about a range of advertisers and commercial partners.

These included the governments of Russia and China, a film distributor and RBS, BBC Newsnight has learned.

Somewhat bizarrely (but thus memorably!) Despicable Me 2 has been drawn into the row, with the original 2-star rating upgraded to 3-star after the distributors bought extensive advertising for the film.

So ... is this corrupt practice endemic to our press? The role of circulation decline
Lets be careful about assuming or accepting that this practice is limited to the Tele alone - all papers are suffering the double-barrelled impact of circulation decline, as older readers die off without many newer readers taking their place and advertising revenue (along with readership) migrating online; many of the previous mainstays of press ad revenue have been largely lost to online rivals, while their websites generate a lot less per reader than the print editions.
We've just seen the Mirror hold its hand up and acknowledge it has been guilty of phone hacking, a practice popularly associated with the Murdoch tabloids, so lets not assume it is just the Tele indulging in this.
As ever, Greenslade has interesting comments on this. He is scathing on the Tele's editorial:

“We are drawing up guidelines that will define clearly and openly how our editorial and commercial staff will co-operate in an increasingly competitive media industry.” Rival publishers could have been forgiven for laughing out loud. No national newspaper owner has previously thought it necessary to codify one of the key planks that maintains a newspaper’s credibility. Despite threats from advertisers, editors revel in the opportunity to show they cannot be bought.

He notes examples of editors standing up to valuable advertisers:

When Distillers pulled its advertising from the Sunday Times during its 1960s campaign on behalf of thalidomide victims, the editor, Harold Evans, was supported by his advertising chief. Years later, when the Sunday Times had passed into Rupert Murdoch’s hands, Mohamed al-Fayed threatened to remove £3m of Harrods advertising from the paper because he didn’t like an article about his renovation of a house in Paris. Its then editor, Andrew Neil, turned the tables on him by telling him he was banning him from advertising, a move enthusiastically endorsed by Murdoch.

He gives another example from 1984 of a freelance scoop on BT, which was undergoing privatisation and spending a fortune  on associated advertising, being at first taken up then spiked by both the Mail and then the Express.

60s Times; Chomsky's filter; ad boycott campaign kills NoTW
So, having looked at how the narrative of press freedom through deregulation and government withdrawing from the press industry can be re-written as a cynical exercise in ensuring the "right people" were in control of the press (a phrase commonly used in contemporary Parliamentary debate over repealing stamp duty on newspapers); the 1960s case of The Times being compelled by unimpressed advertisers to ditch its new working-class (or C2DE) readership; Chomsky's contention that (dependency on) advertising operates as one of the five filters of the 'propaganda model'; and the extraordinary reaction of one of the world's most powerful media groups when advertisers, threatened by a series of Twittersphere boycott campaigns, began to pledge to withdraw all advertising from the NoTW ... now we have an even clearer, even more recent example to utilise. Ian Jack (below) adds a further historical example he claims shows the long-term and continuing impact of advertising preference: the decline of the Observer, once the dominant Sunday quality paper.




Suddenly, the press wakes up to its own elitist, hegemonic nature?!
This seems to have sparked critical comments the likes of which are rarely witnessed in our press about our press, such as Owen Jones' opening paragraph:

By and large, Britain does not have a free press. Our media is not run by the government, and nor does it engage in widespread censorship. Instead, the media is run by a tiny group of politically motivated moguls, themselves in league with other private interests through advertising or personal networks. Journalists from non-privileged backgrounds are filtered out through unpaid internships and expensive post-graduate qualifications, ensuring the media is a closed shop for the well-to-do. According to a report published by the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission last August, over half of the top 100 media professionals are privately educated. News coverage all too often reflects the priorities, concerns and prejudices of this tiny sliver of the British population. Rather than being a means to hold the powerful to account and fairly report issues, the media is the ultimate political lobbyist for our elite.

('Peter Oborne's resignation shows that the media shouldn't just serve the rich', 20.2.15, Guardian)

Ian Jack: Observer slumped after advertisers rejected its 1950s radicalism
Ian Jack provides an interesting perspective, attacking his own profession for the haughty disdain with which they've (and he includes examples of his own behaviour) held the advertising section that financially underpins the editorial enterprise. He gives as an example of how the Observer suffered by alienating advertisers: being seen as too radical in the 1950s (Jack argues) led to the Sunday Times overtaking it in circulation and advertising. The Observer had strongly condemned the 1956 British invasion of the Suez (cheered on by Israel), leading to condemnation in parliament and other media. You may see a strong parallel here with Piers Morgan's editorship of the Mirror, brought to an end over his strongly anti-Iraq War line.

“Patriotic” British companies wanted nothing to do with such an apparently treasonous paper; English Electric was still refusing to advertise in it 10 years later. Also, as Astor later wrote, “the loss of Jewish advertisers was very marked”. The paper had always been supportive of Israel, and according to Astor, had a higher proportion of Jewish readers than most newspapers; now the Observer’s implicit criticism of Israel for its part in the operation “caused the strongest possible agitation among Israel’s supporters”....In commercial terms, morality didn’t serve the Observer well. Its anti-apartheid stance sent South African advertisers elsewhere, and only in 1958 did it lift a ban on alcohol (with a decorous advert for dry sherry) after research showed that strong drink provided the Sunday Times with an extra 29 columns of advertising, enough to give it a four-page advantage over its rival. Today the Sunday Times outsells the Observer four-to-one. You can argue the merits of their journalism – which has the livelier, the better written, the less vulgar, the more politically appealing – but the roots of their relative success and failure lie in decisions made by newspaper advertisers 60 years ago. The reach is very long.

('Reporters hold their noses about advertising in newspapers. But history shows the risk that purists take', Guardian, 20.2.15)

Jenkins
Simon Jenkins often seems to be a right-winger placed in the Guardian to provoke that all-important reader/user interaction, and I note below a counter to his arguments in his column on the Tele. He makes a variety of useful, insightful points here:

HSBC had stopped advertising in the Telegraph in 2012 over a similar story to the Guardian’s, about tax evasion in Jersey, and the management was frantic to see revenues restored. In other words, HSBC was not just illegal and unethical but also a bully. The Guardian also recently had its HSBC ads “paused”, but declined to yield. That HSBC was chaired by an Anglican priest who took the government shilling as an ennobled minister merely illustrates the many-splendoured architecture of the British establishment.An American newspaper is said to have carried the ironic motto “As independent as resources permit”. Any student of the press knows what this means. A business page protocol ordains gentle treatment of proprietorial interests. Fashion pages would not exist without kickbacks, or travel pages without “contra” deals on hospitality and mentions. I remember perfume firms threatening to withdraw ads after stories on animal cruelty.

So, there is a certain degree of shamelessness in other papers clamouring to attack the Tele, a fair point.

He notes a famous, notorious even, example of the Murdoch press being muzzled to aid his wider empire's ambitions - he doesn't mention how Harper Collins pulped the hardback copies of Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten's memoirs, for which he'd been paid a 7-figure advance; or how the BBC was kicked off Star, News Corp's Asian TV network, both seen as being to protect Murdoch's prospects of doing business in China. He does tackle this though - and get in a dig at his own sainted paper too:

Rupert Murdoch was robust in backing investigative reporting at Times Newspapers, especially on the Sunday Times. He did so to a fault in the case of the phone-hacking News of the World. But his Times undoubtedly restrained its China coverage when he was struggling for a media deal with Beijing.Even the Guardian cannot be regarded as immune from such pressures. In March 2007 Labour’s short-lived Pathfinder scheme, involving dire housing demolitions in the north, was inexplicably eulogised in a Guardian supplement in return for an undisclosed payment from the government. Today its “branded content partner zone” is occupied by Unilever, “whose sources of revenue allow us to explore, in more depth than editorial budgets would otherwise allow, topics that we hope are of interest”. Hence this week’s frothy promotion, under the Guardian masthead, of a “green sex sustainable” condom – though it’s also fair to point out that the Guardian columnist George Monbiot launched a withering attack on the partnership in these pages.

If you read papers you advertorial

Prof. Brian Cathcart rubbishes Jenkins... Prof. Horder cites Bribery Act
Cathcart has written some key books on the press; he wasn't impressed with Simon Jenkins' arguments, and wrote a letter to the Guardian to say so...

Newspapers are a medium of information and if the information is false the reader is duped. Jenkins suggests that plurality protects us, yet with a few exceptions our national press operates as a cartel, papers covering up each others’ faults. The result is that uncorrected lies pile up in our public space, polluting debate and warping policymaking.
Two other points. As Oborne reminds us, newspapers have “a democratic duty to tell readers the truth”, and, as Leveson reminds us, they have an obligation not to “wreak havoc in the lives of innocent people”. These are responsibilities. Sadly, the corporate press refuses to take responsibility for anything.
Professor Brian CathcartKingston University London

On the same letters page, a (law) Prof. Holder argues that the Tele's actions, if true, might constitute a crime under the 2010 Bribery Act, a useful reminder + example: wider law fills in a lot of the gaps for the seemingly deregulated press.

Ownership, Accuracy and Press Power

TASK: In the 5:10 it takes this video to play, make brief notes on examples of a Chomskian concept that this video illustrates and the song lyrics specifically mention...

This is a case where the terminology essentially is the EAA, or at least a starting point for it. Use one of the following to find relevant EXamples (the egs I give use the Daily Mail and Ed Miliband; you don't have to use these):

1. You could try searches such as '2015 daily mail miliband' (the 2015 gets recent results: eg), 'daily mail miliband press regulation' etc (what specifically did the Mail do to try to discredit 'Red Ed' Miliband when he was pushing for a tough press regulator?);
2. You could gamble on a quick browse of the Daily Mail, the most likely source...
3. You could try the appropriate MediaReg blog tag

Please don't click on 'read more' until asked to

Keen book argues web monopolistic antidemocratic

The great internet swindle: ever get the feeling you've been cheated? http://gu.com/p/45jz2

If you don't get the preferred reading of the headline btw, its a play on a Sex Pistols (iconic 70s punks) film title and the famous final words of vocalist Johnny Rotten on stage before breaking up the band.

Haven't read the book yet - indeed, Keen has published three, the first critiquing UGC, the 2nd social media - but hope to in time to feed some points into your exam prep.

It sounds like an interesting comparison with Anita Elberse's "Blockbusters", which rubbished the long tail theory as idealist piffle. Elberse brings a cold, detached economist's view to play, seeming unperturbed by the extension of conglomerate gigantism online, but Keen ... well, he's ANGRY. And the online monopolists won't like him when he's angry...

More later, but very interesting article - it could be argued that it is further, sharper backing for the declining, threatened press industry's argument that tough regulation will just accelerate the closure of some or all print titles, as circulation swandives and there is no let up in sight of the migration of advertising revenue online. 

Hmmm... unexpected point here from Apple, the world's biggest company:

Cook also pressed the privacy credentials of Apple Pay, the company’s recently-launched mobile payments technology, claiming that it runs against that industry’s trend for data collection on shoppers.
“We believe customers have a right to privacy, and the vast majority of customers don’t want people knowing everything about them,” said Cook, according to Mac Rumors.
“When you make a purchase, we make a little bit of money. It’s very simple, very straightforward. You are not our product, that’s our product. There’s no need for us to know what you’re buying, where you’re buying, I don’t want to know any of that.” (Guardian article)

One of Keen's books specifically argued that social media (what has been referred to as we media, or UGC), where the user is the product, is a damaging and negative development; I didn't expect to see Apple backing this view!

 

CENSORSHIP Should terror videos be banned?

This is a question which ultimately leaches into many areas of the debate around media regulation:

• does it matter if effects cannot be proven? The BBFC explicitly justify their work by arguing that "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"
• given that publicity is what such terror organisations as Isis are seeking, should the media self-censor ...
• ... or be forced to censor the graphic videos that are causing worldwide headlines and making this organisation a global brand?
• Should OfCom have the power to block (or censure/fine) non-UK media that enable this content over here? Fox News (USA) has caused ripples by re-posting a full, unedited video of a murder ... and this link has been widely passed around and promoted by Isis supporters
• UK newspapers have embedded extreme
• Mrs Thatcher memorably used the phrase "oxygen of publicity" to describe what terrorists desired - her solution, when TV regulators (both the IBA, soon scrapped, and the BBC: Death on the Rock and Real Lives rows) refused to bow to enormous pressure (a typical moral panic whipped up by her press supporters), was to ban 'extremists' from being heard on TV/radio
• media resistance to this led to John Major quietly repealing the law ... will we see a similar approach in 2015 and beyond as clamour grows now for similar action to banish Islamic extermists from the 'airwaves'?

I'll post further links; for now: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/feb/04/fox-news-shows-isis-video-jordan-pilot.

Whither Media policy post-election 2015? Privatisations ahoy?

UPDATE: SEE THIS POST ON PARTIES' POLICIES

Much more on this when time permits - and manifesto commitments, or just policy statements, are firmed up by the leading political parties. Will Auntie Beeb be sold off or financially eviscerated to prepare the ground for privatisation, just as the Post Office was gradually stripped of profitable contracts? Will OfCom be radically downsized? Will C4 be privatised, and will ITV lose all that PSB 'red tape'? Will Hutton argues that yes is the answer to all of these if the Tories win the election - but says nothing about the media policies of Labour, Lib Dems, Greens, SNP, UKIP or any party that might form part of a coalition government - possibly being handed responsibility for the DCMS, largely viewed as a backwater. I will see what I can find out...

Our unique television culture needs friends in high places.

BBC DG invites flak by suggesting watershed outmoded

UPDATE, FEB 2015: STEPHEN FRY SWEARS DURING BAFTAS

The BBC stoutly defended Fry, and the principle of free speech, though said it 'noted' the concerns expressed for this post-watershed swearing. For some, the watershed isn't enough!
At one point, he told his audience it was “pissing down with stars”. He also introduced Tom Cruise as “Tom f**king Cruise” as he ambled on stage to present an award.
“We received complaints from viewers unhappy with some of Stephen Fry’s language while presenting the Baftas,” a statement on the BBC’s complaints website read.
Attitudes to strong language vary enormously and we considered very carefully how to reflect this.
“Stephen, whose irreverence and style is extremely well-known to viewers, has presented the Baftas for several years. Any strong language was used after the watershed, and there was a presentation announcement at the start of the programme warning viewers that the broadcast would contain language of this nature.
“We accept that some viewers disagreed with this approach, and this feedback has been noted.”

Before you ask, the Mail was a tad cross at all this, shockingly enough (whilst squeezing in a load of large celebrity pics).

Both the BBC's film ratings and the TV (and radio) watershed face a problem which can be summed up in that one familiar word: digitisation. If young kids can effortlessly access TV or films at any time with any rating, can we really maintain the pretence of control? As more of us timeshift instead of following schedules, the concept gets even weaker.

There are other arguments against a watershed: why should adults, not least those without children, be restricted in their viewing?

The BBC have addressed and acknowledged some of these points, arguing that they provide valuable information so that those parents who choose to can make informed choices - though cinemas don't have any legal wriggle room to let parents/children decide.

Cinemas themselves will surely join any calls for deregulating film controls - they face fierce, intensifying competition from TV and mobile platforms, with TV advantaged by the ease of getting around age restrictions.

Read this article for a debate on the watershed between editors of prominent magazines, Robin Parker (Broadcast) and Boyd Hilton (Heat). Perhaps ironically, given Heat isn't exactly reknowned for classy, child-friendly material (but does attract young readers), it's Hilton who takes the pro-watershed line.

Below the line: an overview of how the Mail, Indie and others reported this story.

Sunifesto Murdoch right-wing vision made explicit

Wee bit careless to present so few ethnic minority faces?

I can't recall seeing quite so detailed, especially from a tabloid, as this before - an all-encompassing manifesto that quite neatly provides the clearest possible evidence of The Sun and thus Murdoch's (as much as he absurdly continues to deny influencing his papers' viewpoints and agenda!) ideological orientation.

The timing is smart - the political parties are yet to publish their manifestoes, and UKIP, Labour, Lib Dems and Tories (the major right-wing/centre-right parties) will all feel some pressure to adhere to some of this classic neo-liberal agenda.

Roy Greenslade has been discussing Murdoch's recent, rather surprising, use of Twitter to make public his previously 'private' (they were clear enough if you read his papers!) views and partisanship:

For Murdoch’s inner circle, such open political expression is a thing of wonder. Before the age of social media, he kept himself firmly in the background, careful not to expose his own public views while actively seeking to sway elections through the editorial endorsements in his many newspapers across the globe.“He made clear to his editors which politicians deserved support and those that didn’t,” said a former News Corporation executive. “But unless it was time for an endorsement, those conversations remained private.”The former executive added: “Now with his Twitter feed, the world can see how he is thinking all the time. Which is unusual for Rupert, who liked to keep his own counsel. It has surprised many of us to see him go so public.”

Its worth reading his article in full. A bit more:

Murdoch watchers see the dual-track emoting of his Twitter feed and the editorial pages of his newspapers as symbiotic. The social media site does not only provide the media magnate a direct channel to vent his opinions – it also acts as a prompt for Murdoch’s editors, they say.
David Folkenflik, who is NPR’s media correspondent and the author of Murdoch’s World: The Last of the Old Media Empires, said that “Twitter has changed the ball-game. Every Murdoch editor around the world will be monitoring that feed very closely – they check it repeatedly – to see whether he’s expressed himself again.”
As the power of newspapers has waned amid the fragmentation of digital discourse, the relationship between Murdoch and his newspapers has arguably turned upside-down. Before the proliferation of other news sites, he used his newspapers to amplify his personal political views; today, with the News Corp empire bigger than ever, he uses his personal Twitter feed to amplify the influence of his newspapers.
As the former News Corp executive put it: “As newspaper endorsements become less and less important, this is one way for him to maintain a high political profile.”
That trend remains visible in the UK, where Murdoch pushed the power of newspaper endorsements to the limit with the Sun’s famous 1992 front page on the day after the Conservative party’s general election victory: “It’s the Sun Wot Won It”. Today, the Sun has to work that much harder to have the same impact – this week it launched the endorsement process for the UK’s May general election, 100 days before the event. It dubbed the paper’s campaign the “Sunifesto” and flagged it as “100 days to save Britain”.

THE SUNIFESTO: ANALYSIS

As to that 'Sunifesto', there are a few especially interesting points to consider:

Balanced broadcasters? Don't bank on it...

Our ‘impartial’ broadcasters have become mouthpieces of the elite http://gu.com/p/453g6

This is a piece by columnist George Monbiot, a prominent left-wing environmentalist (who can be seen in one of Russell Brand's regular YouTube videos); he argues:

The illusion of neutrality is one of the reasons for the rotten state of journalism, as those who might have been expected to hold power to account drift thoughtlessly into its arms.

He details a scandal at the Canadian equivalent of the BBC before examining the BBC's highly partial, biased reportage of the economic crisis and the austerity policy that our three major parties have all agreed upon. As you read this, consider that Chomsky's propaganda model has 'source strategies' as one of the five filters, with flak (for any foolhardy enough to question austerity) also an issue here, alongside the anti-Communism (i.e., anti-left-wing) filter too:

Snooping laws mockery of press freedom

It's ironic, if in keeping with long-term governmental policy (of both Labour and Tory flavours), that the PM was in Paris to show support for the huge freedom of speech rally ... then announced his intention to support a further extension of already jaw-droppingly broad police and security services powers to eavesdrop. The right of journalists to protect sources' identities is a long-held (though contested) one, fundamental to the notion of a 'free press' that the Charlie Hebdo case has seen so widely proclaimed and reclaimed as a fundamental 'western democracy' value.
Alongside super injunctions, obscure security notices and committees, libel law, and even proclamations from the Electoral Commission, it is a solid reminder that the narrative of press regulation goes well beyond the soap opera of the formal regulator in all its many guises: GCP, PC, PCC, IPSO...

‘Freedom of expression’ anti-snooping campaign launched over Ripa changes http://gu.com/p/44p63

Government regulate blogs 4 election...but not press?!

Can the electoral commission be serious about political blogs? http://gu.com/p/44zg2

Roy Greenslade reports on the Electoral Commission effectively bringing in backdoor (statutory; it is a government office) regulation of one part of the press: political blogs:

I don’t think we should overlook the revelation by Guido Fawkes that the Electoral Commission believes political blogs may need to register as “non-party campaigners” ahead of the general election.How bizarre. Guido’s alter ego, Paul Staines, was right to have rejected the “Putinesque” plan, as should other blogs contacted by the commission, such as ConservativeHome, LabourList and LibDemVoice.This is so last century, a heavy-handed and nonsensical response to the flowering of political debate in the digital world. Given that newspapers and magazines are exempt from such treatment, it is also unfair.

He continued:

Press, Fourth estate, Freedom, Democracy: Paris murders

I was just reading through a recent post which included this bullet point:

• even though many press arguments on press regulation are self-serving nonsense, this is an important point that should not be dismissed! 'Freedom of the press' is a basic of democratic norms

The link between the media and democracy, which the scandalous behaviour of the press has rather obscured even while editors and owners condemned any enforced regulation as undemocratic, has been a leitmotif, or meme (recurring theme), within much of the coverage of the Paris murders of a left-wing magazine's staff.

RIP Charlie Hebdo workers.

The examples I'll give below are all from the press, but this has been the dominant discourse of TV coverage too, with the many protests that sprang up seeking to demonstrate support for a free media as much as opposition to 'terrorist' killings.

As difficult as the routine inaccuracy, sensationalism, bias, arrogant, dumbed-down tabloidised approach of newspapers may make it, you should not discount the importance of the argument that a free press/media are central to any functioning democracy. What should also be considered, though, is whether a deregulated, free market in ownership (and content to a degree) is compatible with this lofty notion.

There is another issue here - given the fuss over 'lads mags' like Zoo and Nuts, with newsagents now forced to put these on top shelves in part-covered packaging, protection of children being the familiar justification, should newspapers put graphic news images on the front page? Is this compatible with protection of children from unsuitable content? Does the need to inform/freedom of speech outweigh this? Does it matter if we're talking about a broadsheet or a tabloid?

The Times put an unpixellated shot of the dead policeman on its front; the others pixellated it, and The Guardian, in its gallery of front pages (see below), noted that they had re-pixellated this.

Below the line are further front pages from the Telegraph, Guardian and Times - this was a consensus view that crossed the left-right divide.