Focusing on his suggestion that media be better regulated and description of them as “feral beasts” – most of the media live up to his description of them, and intent to print what sells. Most fail to report his broader comments on the transformation of communications today.

He said fierce competition for stories meant that the modern media now hunted “in a pack”.

“In
these modes it is like a feral beast, just tearing people and
reputations to bits, but no one dares miss out,” he said. The result
was that the media was increasingly “and to a dangerous degree” driven
by “impact” which was, in turn, “unravelling standards, driving them
down”.

But then goes on to say…

“Newspapers fight for a share of a shrinking market. Many are now read on-line, not the next day. Internet advertising has overtaken newspaper ads. There are roughly 70 million blogs in existence, so I’m told, with around 120,000 being created every day. In particular, younger people will, less and less, get their news from traditional outlets.”

This one is really great:

“The reality is that as a result of the changing context in which 21st Century communications operates, the media are facing a hugely more intense form of competition than anything they have ever experienced before. They are not actually the masters of this change, they’re in many ways the victims.”