Bek’s Reviews > Democracy under Attack: How the Media Distort Policy and Politics > Status Update

Leveson was unequivocal about the need for a much stronger and more independent press regulator with statutory backing to ensure its independence and effective powers...Leveson declared: 'the press provides an essential check on all aspects of public life. That is why any failure within the media affects all of us. At the heart of this inquiry, therefore, may be one simple question: who guards the guardians.'

"'...there is more media and there is a lot more noise, but there is less understanding by the public of what's actually happening with the political debate.'" - 'It's time to bury spin', Alastair Campbell, British Journalism Review (2002)

"'...Recent research shows that only six per cent of respondents regard any newspaper as the most fair and unbiased source of news, compared with 14 per cent radio, and 70 per cent for television.'" - 'An independent review of government communications' (Phillis Report), January

"The main concern of the respondents [of Guardian Media Supplement, 10 & 17 January] was the media's persistent negativity and destructiveness. David Bell, Chief Inspector of Schools at the time, declared: 'a lack of coverage of positive stories can create the impression that a system - in my case education - is in a perpetual state of crisis. this simply is not true.'"

"[Anthony Sampson] found that the leaders [of centres of power - Whitehall, Westminster, banks, academia, etc. ] he interviewed 'mention the media more often with fear or dislike rather than respect, and have a contempt for their short horizons, their superficiality and destructiveness. " 'Who runs this place? The anatomy of Britain in the 21st century' - Anthony Sampson