The End of Murdoch?

The phone hacking scandal in the UK which forced the Murdochs to shut down the tabloid The News of the World is a blow to the Murdochs, though much of the rest of their media empire appears safe for now. Their appears to be much public revulsion in the UK into how some Murdock staffers engaged in phone hacking; celebrities, politicians, members of the royal family, and even crime victims. These activities certainly are hard to justify.

The deeper problem is that of media monopolies, like that which Rupert Murdoch has created in the UK and US, and how he has used it to push a right-wing agenda. Even worse would be a situation like that in Italy, where Silvio Berlusconi bought up all the country's tv networks, and then took over the country. In order to preven this kind of thing from happening, we need to allow greater public access to media, and prevent big concentrations of ownership.