Comments on: The media in politics

By: Katherine

Katherine — Mon, 24 Oct 2005 13:26:03 +0000

There is no need to be patronising Andrew. I type too quickly. And I read the whole thing. The point about the BBC rather leapt out at me because I don’t personally feel qualified to comment about the internal politics of the Tory party.

By: Jarndyce

Jarndyce — Sun, 23 Oct 2005 10:23:22 +0000

with a bit of luck, heÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s going to the next Prime Minister. Been at the mushrooms with Dave the Tea Boy again, Andrew? Perhaps this might be truer: In the event of bird flu wiping out upwards of 5 million Labour voters plus one David Cameron....

By: constablesavage

constablesavage — Sun, 23 Oct 2005 10:11:09 +0000

You can’t have a serious debate because the BBC has a monopoly?

Half right.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 09:55:51 +0000

Katherine: It’s David Davis, dear. I wrote his name some 4 times in the post. Get it right. After all, with a bit of luck, he’s going to the next Prime Minister.

If you’d read to the end of the post, you would have seen that I balanced my criticism of the Beeb with criticism of the private sector monopoly/oligopolies as well. Some readers seem incapable of reading past the first contentious point in a post in your hurry to get to the ‘Say It!’ button at the bottom of the piece…

You’re quite right about the word majority though. I should have used plurality. News on the BBC in some form is watched by more people than any other news outlet in the UK (print or broadcast), as far as I can tell from the last governer’s report.

By: Katherine

Katherine — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 09:39:25 +0000

Erm, I really really really don’t want to start a debate on the merits (or not, depending) of the BBC, but it does seem odd that you talk about the media, the print press, editorials and such and then make a statement like:

“In a country where the majority of the population get their news, and therefore opinion, from a monopoly state broadcaster, we canÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t have a serious debate.”

That does seem somewhat contradictory. The lack of serious debate is not because of the BBC (which, by the way, is not where the majority of the population get their news) but because of any number of complex reasons that you start to touch on before getting side tracked into a political broadcast on behalf of the David Davies party.

By: Jarndyce

Jarndyce — Thu, 20 Oct 2005 15:32:39 +0000

_welcome to a very liberal hell_

Why, what’s liberal about NuLabour?

By: David Vance

David Vance — Thu, 20 Oct 2005 15:28:05 +0000

Andrew,

Well argued – I share your concerns. Here’s come the new Conservatives, indistinguisable from nuLabour..what a joke. The media now run the Conservative Party – welcome to a very liberal hell.

By: Antipholus Papps

Antipholus Papps — Thu, 20 Oct 2005 14:07:18 +0000

Do you really think there is any hope left at all for this country?

We’ve collectively committed the supreme international crime. Habeas Corpus is gone. The merging of state and corporate power is now complete.