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How “free" is the UK press when over 75% of it is owned by a handful of billionaires?

It could say a lot more, and it leaves out a few important names, but at least it says something


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Alan
Alan
Feb 24, 2018 4:33 PM

Is a free press applicable to a surveillance state such as Britain where the lawmakers are, by and large, self appointed? State legislation continues to criminalise thoughts contrary to officially sanctioned narratives. The danger isn’t via billionaires, more the regime that dislikes freedom of thought.

elenits
elenits
Feb 24, 2018 1:11 PM

It would be interesting to find out who the other 25% are and which papers they control.
Great post, thank you.

MichaelK
MichaelK
Feb 24, 2018 11:51 AM

It’s merely a bourgeois dogma, and article of faith, that one is expected to repeat endlessly regardless of whether it’s true or not. But, if one were to express the opposing view one could probably kiss a career in journalism goodbye.

Fair dinkum
Fair dinkum
Feb 24, 2018 1:41 AM

‘Press’ and ‘free’ should not be used in the same sentence.

George Cornell
George Cornell
Feb 23, 2018 8:25 PM

How free is the British press? How dignified is Donald Trump? How noble was Jimmy Saville? How honourable is Tony Blair?……

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Feb 25, 2018 9:47 PM
Reply to  George Cornell

Apparently the Fraudian is reporting that Blair and Michael Wolfe are falling out over who is the greater liar. What a microcosm of the dystopia that totalitarian Rightwing dominance has created.

thepoliticalgrow
thepoliticalgrow
Feb 23, 2018 7:07 PM

Very important topic!
I actually really liked the chapters in Owen Jones’s “The Establishment” on this topic.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Establishment-how-they-get-away/dp/0141974990
I doubt that the British media is much of an outlier in this domain, however.

WeatherEye
WeatherEye
Feb 24, 2018 4:41 AM

Ah yes, Owen Jones the establishment scumbag.

Leslie Campbell
Leslie Campbell
Feb 24, 2018 11:52 PM

Owen Jones is an establishment shill. He informed me, via that bastion of Soros/Blair Neoliberal corporate globalist debt slavery and continuous wars, that as a man I needed to attend re-education by the LGBTQIA etc etc police. To stop me beating my wife and children. Because being a man is the cause of all social injustice and at the root of all that is evil in this world. Then he announced that he knew better than the democratic mandate of Labour Party members given to Jeremy Corbyn. And called for him to stand down because Wes Streeting was in love with the terrorist leader of Israel’s Likud party and the Guardian populated by pathological Zionists that hate Jews and just want to build a temple to Solomon, slaughter animals and worship Baal the evil Satanic god that Jesus sent packing from Jerusalem.

thepoliticalgrow
thepoliticalgrow
Feb 25, 2018 9:18 AM

I am really unsure about some of your comments here. What exactly are you refering to in the second part of your comment?
I am not exactly a personal fan of Owen Jones, but I liked his book. I beleive there was a lot of well-researched and informative content in there. That does not mean that he is himself and admirable person or has political beliefs I would stand behind.

BigB
BigB
Feb 25, 2018 12:27 PM

TPG: I’m with you about the comment and Jones. I always enjoyed the irony that he became an established anti-establishmentarian by writing his “doctorate thesis” of an anti-establishment polemic? If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em! [to be read with a received working class pronunciation!]