Friday, November 09, 2007
Times editor says Murdoch "never" instructs editorial lines
Here's an interesting interview by Roy Greenslade with Robert Thompson the Editor of the Times. I imagine that whether you believe what Thompson says about Murdoch never instructing or interfering editorial will depend entirely on your preconceptions and/or personal prejudices.
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6 comments:
Some miracle that so many of his papers have the same line as Murdoch, then?
I wonder if the use of 'instructs' is used very deliberately (and he wouldn't be including 'applies critical pressure' or the like).
I don't have any objection to people taking over papers and the like -- I'm a heartless capitalist, after all. I just wish that Murdoch didn't turn everything he touches to vacuous crap.
By Jingo! I do believe that a Squadron of Pigs has just flown past. I know they were pigs as I was not wearin me rose tinted glasses.
What an unimpressive creep.
He's suggesting he just sits back and allows his three New Labour stooges (Philip Webster, Tim Hames and Tom Baldwin) to slant the news.
Although I instinctively believe that Murdoch may be the most Machiavellian [sic] of media moguls, I was forced to reconsider (though not lose that wariness) a couple of years ago.
I had the very good fortune to drink long into the evening with a former Sky News War Correspondent and anchor, who insisted that the degree of editorial interference at Sky was less than he had experienced at other channels (BBC being one). He maintained that, as a journalist, he felt less constrained in saying exactly what he saw when working in the Murdoch empire than at other outlets.
He acknowledged that the Mogul is a newspaper man at heart, and perhaps takes a more active editorial interest in that medium than in Sky news, but I though the story was interesting in itself.
Have we perhaps overestimated RM's desire to shape the message? Maybe the same (populist)message runs through all his outlets, because he tells them all to follow the public consciousness, at different levels of engagement. That would explain the consistency at least as well as any conspiracy theory.
Is he, perhaps, more benign than we believed? I suspect not, but it would be good to hear what people think...
Morus
Surely bollocks.
well, let's just wait till before the next General Election. If the Editor is inclined to back Labour, Murdoch will be telling him otherwise...
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