Reaction to Blair media speech

Tony Blair's attack on the media has been rightly derided. I agree with many of the sentiments, having despaired routinely at the nature of much news coverage, which resembles a competition between banility and sensationalism (Doctor Who Is Not News). But like almost all politicians, Blair cares far, far, far too much about what the media. They assume all of the following:

• everyone reads the papers in as much detail as they do
• news journalists speak for the country
• public pereception of politicians is determined entirely by the media

None of these things are true to anything like the extent Blair et al believe they are. These assumptions have even proved fatal. Dr David Kelly was pursued as the source of a leak because of a slight factual inaccuracy in an early morning radio report from a third division reporter. In the US Lewis Libby has been convicted because (allegedly) Dick Cheney devotes himself to rebutting and ridiculing any journalist speaking about him, regardless of the fact that not a single vote is going to be swayed by the articles they've written.

Anyway. Blair's speech contained a reference to an old friend of ours, the Audiovisual Media Services Directive. He basically welcomed the fact that 'television' news streamed over the net would be subject to the same regulation as regular news. Here's an extract:

"OFCOM regulate broadcasting, except for the BBC, which largely has its own system of regulation. But under the new European regulations all television streamed over the internet may be covered by OFCOM. As the technology blurs the distinction between papers and television, it becomes increasingly irrational to have different systems of accountability based on technology that no longer can be differentiated in the old way."

Interesting. Find out more about the issue by reading our report on the Directive, here.