I am Lee Baillie

Our favourite Aussie granddad Rupert Murdoch has told a House of Lords Communications committee review that Sky News could be more popular if it emulated its American counterpart Fox News a bit more.

Most people are aware that a rule exists for UK news broadcasters regarding impartiality. Broadcast news must remain so, meaning political bias is a big no-no in the United Kingdom. So Rupert Murdoch’s idea for a more ‘American’ Sky News seems to imply that a change in the law is required.

Sky News is owned in full by BSkyB (Sky), a 39% owned subsidiary of Murdoch’s News Corporation. Sky News’ chairman also happens to be James Murdoch, Rupert’s son.

Recently, Rupert Murdoch also told the Committee that he takes editorial control over his tabloid papers in the UK, The Sun and the News of the World. He decides what political party to support and what the papers’ stances are on Europe.

It’s against the law for him to operate the same control over his two other papers, The Times and the Sunday Times.

But in a country that is already heading further and further in to a wholly-owned and operated media conglomerate of political bias and cheesy entertainment being pushed out as ‘news’, can Murdoch’s comments really be taken with such a pinch of salt as they usually are?

There’s no denying that the Murdochs have massive power over the entire media world what with news broadcast, print and films all long-established with News Corp. but, who is Rupert, an Australian with his loyalties to his American business, to decide what the UK’s favourite papers and news broadcasters support politically? It’s comparable to a Yank telling a Brit how best to run their country.

Okay, that’s an exaggerated analogy, but they both equate to a blow to national pride, something that Americans and Australians feel just as strongly about, I’m sure. Or maybe we’re all just too stupid to take notice of the state of the country’s news media. Perhaps we’re just used to the ever-changing face of the news. Perhaps it’s just the way the cookie crumbles, as our cousins across the Pond would say. Or maybe, just maybe…we don’t care enough?