‘Dangerous levels of concentrated ownership’ in UK media: Just 3 publishers control 90% of print reach

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https://leftfootforward.org/2023/10/dangerous-levels-of-concentrated-ownership-in-uk-media-just-3-publishers-control-90-of-print-reach/

“A free, independent and plural media is essential to the functioning of a healthy democracy.”

Image shows UK newspapers.
Image shows UK newspapers.

Just three companies control 90% of the UK’s national newspaper market, in what’s been labelled a ‘dangerous level of concentrated ownership’ of UK media.

The “Who Owns the UK Media?” 2023 report, published by the Media Reform Coalition at Goldsmiths University, found that three companies – DMG Media, News UK and Reach – control 90% of the UK’s national newspaper market. The three companies also control 40% of online reach.

Press Gazette also reports: “The data suggests that if DMG Media were to succeed in its expected bid to acquire Telegraph Media Group it would increase its print market share from 42% to 47%.

“DMG Media’s share of the online news market is estimated at around 10% looking at just the top-50 UK newsbrands.”

The report warned that the dominance of the three publishers of print and online news, gave them “an unrivalled position for setting the news agenda”.

https://leftfootforward.org/2023/10/dangerous-levels-of-concentrated-ownership-in-uk-media-just-3-publishers-control-90-of-print-reach/

Continue Reading‘Dangerous levels of concentrated ownership’ in UK media: Just 3 publishers control 90% of print reach

Rupert Murdoch’s history of political influence

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Murdoch repeatedly meets UK prime ministers in secret. The deal is that Murdoch sets the agenda and provides support to these right-wing politicians in return for favourable treatment. It should be recognised and accepted that Murdoch is a foreign tax evading billionaire so politicians are promoting private foreign interests over those of their country.

4 January 1981 Margaret Thatcher and Rupert Murdoch meet in secret with the meeting repeatedly denied since. Thatcher agrees that Murdoch can aquire the Times and Sunday Times newspapers thereby controlling a huge proportion of UK newspapers without a referral to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission.

Murdoch attacks and breaks the power of the UK newspaper unions with the support of Thatcher’s government and UK police.

The News of the World phone hacking scandal damages Rupert Murdoch’s influence. The News of the World hacked the phones of murder victims and thereby damaged police investigations as well as hacking the phones of royalty and celebrities.

Murdoch’s political influence returns following the phone hacking scandal.

Boris Johnson's thumbs up from Rupert Murdoch
Boris Johnson’s thumbs up from Rupert Murdoch

Murdoch owns prominent UK politicians Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Priti Patel. Boris Johnson gets the thumbs-up to be UK prime minister from Murdoch at the London Olympics, Priti Patel and Michael Gove attend Murdoch and Jerry Hall’s wedding celebrations in London. Priti Patel behaves as Rupert Murdoch’s private secretary e.g. here and here.

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The Weird, Creepy Media Blackout on Recent Assange Revelations

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The Weird, Creepy Media Blackout on Recent Assange Revelations

Mass media are owned and controlled by wealthy people in coordination with the secretive government agencies tasked with preserving the world order upon which the media-owning plutocrats have built their kingdoms, says Caity Johnstone.

By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com

As of this writing, it has been three days since the Icelandic newspaper Stundin broke the story that a key witness in the US government’s case against Julian Assange had fabricated allegations against the WikiLeaks founder. And yet, somehow, Assange is still in prison. 

Weirder still, not one major western media outlet outside of Iceland has reported on this massive and entirely legitimate news story. A search brings up coverage by Icelandic media, by Russian media, and by smaller western outlets like Democracy NowWorld Socialist WebsiteConsortium NewsZero Hedge and some others, but as of this writing this story has been completely ignored by all major outlets who are ostensibly responsible for informing the public in the western world.  

It’s not that those outlets have been ignoring Assange altogether these last few days either. Reuters recently published an interview with Assange’s fiance Stella Moris. Evening Standard has a recent article out on Assange’s plans to marry Moris in Belmarsh, as does Deutsche Welle. It’s just this one story in particular that they’ve been blacking out completely.

And it’s not that the mainstream press are unaware of this story. Mainstream western reporters spend a lot of time on Twitter, and Assange’s name was trending in the United States after the Stundin story broke. Tweets about the article by high-profile accounts like WikiLeaks and Edward Snowden have many thousands of shares each. They’ve all seen the article. They all know it’s newsworthy. They’re just choosing not to report on it.

It reminds me of the blanket media blackout that occurred while the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons was hemorrhaging leaks revealing a US government-tied coverup in the alleged chlorine gas incident in Douma, Syria. Immensely newsworthy stories were breaking every few days on a major international scandal, yet not a peep was made about it by the mainstream press. 

We are being lied to. Constantly, and in more ways than we realize. By omission, by distortion, by half-truths and by outright deception. Our minds are being actively messed with by powerful people with limitless resources to ensure their continued domination of the planet at any cost. Our very perception of reality is being assaulted on myriad fronts. Until humanity finds a way to wake itself up from its propaganda-induced coma, the abuses of the powerful will continue.

Caitlin Johnstone is a rogue journalist, poet, and utopia prepper who publishes regularly at Medium

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