The M word and m'learned friend

The issue of Rupert Murdoch and his News Corporation is back on the front page. It hasn’t been far from it since he expressed the desire to take over the rest of BSkyB that he does not own.

There’s a lot of hysteria that swirls around Mr Murdoch’s empire. It’s one of those rare matters upon which it is all but impossible to gain a completely objective view. Almost all the media who mediate our understanding of these things have some axe to grind. We are all, after all, in competition with his newspapers, websites, and television channels.

When therefore it falls to politicians to determine the outcome of Mr Murdoch’s desire to intensify his media holdings in the UK, the issue of impartiality moves from the media to the Ministers.

Technically, Mr Murdoch’s stable has been ostensibly even-handed in his support for Labour and Tory led governments. Mr Murdoch himself enjoyed close relations with Mrs Thatcher, Mr Major, and Mr Blair in turn. It has seemed to matter less what party they represented, than that they were in power.

We do not know the precise nature of the relationship with Mr Cameron, beyond knowing as a matter of public record that he has been an early visitor in the Coalition Premier’s tenure at Number Ten, and that they have had the odd social encounter since.

Questions have also been raised about UK taxes and Mr Murdoch’s empire.

Today we understand that the Telecoms regulator Ofcom has ruled that the BSkyB matter should be referred to the Competition Commission. But The Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has issued a stay of execution allowing Mr Murdoch’s News Corp to come up with ways of avoiding such a referral – selling Sky News, or shutting it down, or reducing newspaper holdings, or some such.

I have referred before to what Private Eye calls “m’learned friend”. Sources close to the Ministry involved, DCMS, told me last week that civil servants there now fully expect “m’learned friend” to take the final decision.

Then, I suppose someone will ask, does “m’learned friend” read The Sun, does she watch Sky Sports? Does he, or she, have a view on women in sport?