Stroo

In return for the support which newspapers like the Sun have given to Tony Blair, his Labour government has stood aside and looked the other way as Sky has built up its monopoly for televising Britain's Premier League football matches and continued to engage in the practice of predatory pricing, pitching the cost of the Sun, The Times etc just below the price of competing newspapers. Murdoch now has a new commercial agenda: he wants to introduce into the UK a politically opinionated television channel like his Fox Channel in the US; he would also like to see the BBC cut down to size. If the Conservatives, under their new leader David Cameron, synchronised their political agenda, with his commercial agenda, who knows, the Murdoch papers might change their political allegiance. To understand the scale of this influence, look at the Sun's front pages during last year's general election.

The Sun sells 3.2 million copies a day, it claims nine million readers. When the Sun decides which political party to support its choice is front page news. In April last year, a month before the 2005 general election, the Sun sought to suggest that its decision-making process was as significant as the Vatican's selection of a new Pope. Instead of white smoke emerging, the chimney at the headquarters of News International was photographed billowing out red smoke (the Labour Party's colour) and the headline said: "Sun smoke goes RED for Blair...One last chance". (Sun April 21, 2005).

A month later, on the very eve of the general election, the Sun published an exclusive interview with Tony and Cherie Blair. This was a "nudge, nudge...wink, wink" piece of reporting with Mrs Blair giving highly suggestive and extremely revealing answers about her husband. The front page headline gave a flavour: "We get deep down and personal with the Blairs...Why Size Matters". The text said: "Cherie says Tony needs a BIG one...a big majority!' And inside, alongside a photograph of a bare-chested Prime Minister, Blair was quoted as saying, in response to a question about his fitness, that he was "ready for it...five times a night". (Sun May 4, 2005). What more could the Prime Minister and his wife possibly have said to titillate the Sun and win the newspaper's support? In my view, the interview revealed the depth to which the Blairs would sink to retain the backing of the Murdoch press.

Next day on Election Day, the Sun's front page showed super-imposed photographs of the Prime Minister and his Chancellor of the Exchequer outside the doors to 10 Downing Street. The headline could not have been clearer in its advice to readers: "Vote Labour Today...Come on you Reds". (Sun May 5, 2005).

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Posted By: Old Git on June 27th 2007 at 16:54:29

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