Murdoch handed virtual media monopoly

“The whitewash,” headlines The Independent, after Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation empire was given government approval to take full control of BSkyB, the UK’s largest public satellite broadcasting company. Murdoch can now press ahead with the hugely contested purchase of the 61 per cent of BSkyB, valued at £8bn, that he does not already own. “The proposed deal is controversial due to the degree of control Mr Murdoch would exert over the British media,” the Independent explains. “He already has 37 per cent of the British national newspaper market through his ownership of The Sun, the News of the World, The Times and the Sunday Times." According to a Professor of Communications at the University of Westminster, "This deal will create a hugely powerful newspaper, television, online and ISP media conglomerate which will dwarf every other media organisation in the UK, and would not be permissible in most other democracies."