Murdoch and Hunt

Does the Murdoch media control the UK political scene? It is fair to say that it does to a degree as it was without doubt the cheerleader for Thatcher, for Blair and to a lesser extent for Cameron but I agree with those who maintain that rather than lead its readers it reflects the views of the majority of them and thus of the voters. The majority knew that the only way to get this country on its feet again was by voting for Thatcher so that Parliament could take power back from the unions. The Murdoch press supported this idea. God knows why the majority voted for Blair but the feeling that after 17 years of Tory rule it was time for a change was also reflected in the Murdoch papers but how wrong Murdoch was to vilify Major who ran both a more decent and a better government than Blair and was no more wrong over Europe than the Labour government proved to be. Murdoch regards Blair as his friend and what a sorry state such cronyism has got us into with Brown and Cameron trying to become Murdoch's best friend too. Brown was seen by everyone as having one penny short of a shilling and the Murdoch press followed along as well which inevitably led to their support of Cameron in the 2010 election. Murdoch therefore takes the line that will sell most newspapers and from a business or commercial point of view he's right. There is no doubting his business ability. When it comes to television he recognised that in the States all the main channels take left of centre views and that there was a huge space in the market for a right of centre channel which could be exploited. He has filled that space admirably and very successfully with Fox News. The BBC (a monopoly organisation with 60% of the broadcast market in the UK) and its left of centre soul mate the Guardian are both scared witless by the thought of Murdoch entering the UK broadcast market with a UK version of Fox News. They don't like the competition not only from a commercial point of view but from the political point of view. They both take the view that democracy is good but only if the left wins all the time. That is why they will do literally anything together with their friends in the Labour party and in the Lib Dems to stop Murdoch buying the 60% of BSkyB that News Corp does not already own. They believe that if Murdoch were to own BSkyB it would be turned from a somewhat vapid left of centre channel into a right of centre one with the same success as Fox. There is after all a gaping hole in this country for a right of centre TV station that is ready to be exploited. At some point if Murdoch doesn't fill it someone else will. No wonder the left is screaming for Hunt's scalp.