"James Murdoch, the heir to his father Rupert’s global News Corporation empire, tonight accused the BBC of undertaking a “chilling” land-grab of the media that posed a “serious and imminent” threat to the future provision of news in Britain. "What as opposed to his Dad berating the government for not changing the rules so that he can own more of it? He even has a backhanded clonk at The Guardian while he's at it:
"“I saw recently an article in which the editor of The Guardian (Alan Rusbridger) suggested that the government should fund local news coverage of court proceedings and council meetings, a profoundly undemocratic and ruinous idea.”Yes, because News International has been prepared to get its wallet out for that too, obviously. Oh and he seems to be under the impression that people read the BBC News website because it's there rather than because it offers better quality than some of its commercial cousins:
"Dumping free, state-sponsored news on the market makes it incredibly difficult for journalism to flourish on the internet,” he said. “We seem to have decided as a society to let independence and plurality wither. To let the BBC throttle the news market and then get bigger to compensate.”Because people only read the BBC News website to get their news and don't surf anywhere else. You'd think he was from some rival media conglomerate.
For an example of what happens in the independent marketplace, local staff at the Metro have been kicked out after Associated Newspapers decided to close the regional offices putting some very good journalists out of work and effectively shutting down another regional news service.
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