Uncle Rupert Is Not As Bad As Auntie

I have tried to work myself up about Rupert Murdoch's purchase of the rest of Sky. But I can't. I truly can't.

As long as it keeps carrying RT.

And as for the rest, will the causes that are otherwise confined to RT receive less coverage than they do at present? How, exactly, would that be possible?

There are worse things than Sky News, although whatever happened to those Independent Directors?

I always said that they ought to be elected by and from among Sky subscribers, or perhaps even by a wider franchise that that.

Such a move would certainly shame the BBC.

Now, I love the BBC. It provides the clear majority of the television that I watch, and almost all of the radio to which I listen.

The only non-BBC radio programme with me in its regular audience is George Galloway's, and talkRADIO is now owned by Murdoch. He has expressed no desire to take it off air.

But the BBC provides little or no platform to those who understand the lesson of the EU referendum result in the United Kingdom, and of the election of Donald Trump in the United Kingdom, which is that the workers, and not the liberal bourgeoisie, are the key swing voters.

The BBC provides little or no platform to those who locate identity issues within the overarching and undergirding context of the struggle against economic inequality and in favour of international peace.

The BBC provides little or no platform to those who welcome the fact that the EU referendum was decided by those areas which voted Leave while voting Labour, Liberal Democrat or Plaid Cymru for other purposes, and which have thus made themselves the centre of political attention, except, of course, on the BBC.

The BBC provides little or no platform to those who celebrate the leading role in the defence of universal public services of those who would otherwise lack basic amenities, and the leading role in the promotion of peace of those who would be the first to be called upon to die in wars. 

The BBC provides little or no platform to those who have opposed from the start the failed programme of economic austerity.

The BBC provides little or no platform to those who have opposed every British military intervention since 1997. 

The BBC provides little or no platform to those who opposed Tony Blair's privatisation of the NHS and other public services, his persecution of the disabled, and his assault on civil liberties, all of which have continued under every subsequent Government.

The BBC provides little or no platform to those who oppose Britain's immoral and one-sided relationship with Saudi Arabia, and reject the demonisation of Russia.

The BBC provides little or no platform to those who have the real eyes to realise real lies, seeing the truly fake news as propagated in support of the economic policies of neoliberal austerity and the foreign policies of neoconservative war.

The BBC provides little or no platform to those who reject any approach to climate change which would threaten jobs, workers' rights (including the right to have children), travel opportunities, or universal access to a full diet.

The BBC provides little or no platform to those who seek to rescue issues such as male suicide, men's health, and fathers' rights from those whose economic and other policies caused the problems.

And the BBC provides little or no platform to those who refuse to recognise racists, Fascists or opportunists as the authentic voices of the accepted need to control immigration.

Over-concentrated media ownership, especially by a foreign national who is not based in this country, is inherently problematic.

But in the very great scheme that is these things, the biggest problem is not Rupert Murdoch.