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Friday 23 April 2010

UK NEWSROOM WARS: CONFRONTING AN EDITOR THE JAMES MURDOCH WAY

Something unusual has happened in the UK media terrain. One proprietor of a global chain of media outlets has deem it fit to challenge a rival newspaper's content by confronting the editor as he worked in the newsroom.


James Murdoch, the chief executive of News Corporation Europe and Asia, and son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, marched into the rival Independent newspaper's newsroom unannounced, and gave its astounded editor-in-chief a surprise dress down.

James did not take kindly to a media campaign being run by the Independent, telling its readers that they would decide the outcome of the UK elections and not Rupert Murdoch. The son obviously felt the campaign slighted his family.

The UK press is however awash with other conspiracy theories, some surrounding the impending polls and which paper is supporting which party or whether or not other media firms should follow News Corp's decision to put up a paywall and charge for access to its online titles like The Times.

I just can't help but be amazed at the way the rich not only have doors open to them but can also forcefully pry closed doors, whereas the poor or less fortunate don't even get the chance to knock on the same doors.

How many people, I wonder aloud, have been aggrieved by what is published in the newspapers and are totally defenceless and without any avenue for recourse, whereas tycoons like James Murdoch breeze past all security checks and get to vent their anger or frustration at the offending paper's top management?

This is not an admission that the media is not fair and neither is it a confirmation that the media is infallible. Just an affirmation of how inequalities still, will continue to rule over mankind.

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