The feral media

BBC:

Tony Blair has said the media can operate like "a feral beast" and its relationship with politicians is "damaged" and in need of repair.

The prime minister said relations had always been fraught, but now threatened politicians' "capacity to take the right decisions for the country".

The arrival of web-based news and blogs and 24-hour television news channels meant reports were "driven by impact".

Mr Blair also said newspaper and TV regulatory systems needed to change.

In a speech to the Reuters news agency on public life, he said the media world was becoming more fragmented, with the main BBC and ITN bulletins now getting half the audiences they had previously and newspapers fighting for their share of a "shrinking market".

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.

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The left wing media in the UK is beyond the pale and the worst is the BBC, which has pretensions of being unbiased. The action of the media in undercutting the war in Iraq is a betrayal of the trust they have been given. One of their problems is they think they should have been tougher and prevented the liberation of Iraq. They seem determined to lose the Iraq war as quickly as possible.