The Cartel: Four Years of Holding the Established Press to Account

Our special bumper fourth anniversary edition of Byline Times digs into the media mafia gripping both sides of the Atlantic

For Byline Times’ fourth anniversary print edition, only one topic was ever going to be on the agenda as our leading theme: the crisis in journalism. And I don’t know anywhere else that you’ll be able to read about it.

Particularly in Britain, the established press is an entire power bloc, exercising significant influence over our culture and politics, which goes nearly completely unscrutinised. The question is: why?

More than a decade on from the phone-hacking scandal that exposed the corrupting influences at the dark heart of the tabloid press (court cases for which are still ongoing as I write), the website of the newspaper that broke the story, the Guardian, no longer even has a ‘media’ section on its main menu tab. And yet, the problems of monopolistic ownership, the press and media class merger, and the warping of public debate and ordinary people’s lives haven’t gone away.

Is a future Labour government likely to tackle the issue? I am not hopeful. 

But the problems appear to be spreading from our print media to broadcasters, where ‘culture war’ programming aims to fuel division and distraction; while the BBC is increasingly captured by the Conservative Party and its tabloid enemies.

The fourth anniversary print edition of Byline Times takes in this crisis from all different angles. 

Snippets from our fourth anniversary edition of Byline Times

From the ‘Fleet Street Friendlies’ who ride to the Government’s rescue; to the emerging new links between the murders of Daniel Morgan and Stephen Lawrence; how press and police corruption can lead to miscarriages of justice; to the toxic tabloid culture that continues against women and other marginalised people in society. And that’s not to mention potential new allegations of the phone-hacking of MPs who were investigating the scandal that shut the News of the World on a parliamentary committee by the Murdoch empire.

Perhaps the one hope we have is the reality that cannot be ignored.

On both sides of the Atlantic, Rupert Murdoch’s empire is having to face up to its behaviour.

 In the US, Fox News settled the Dominion lawsuit – on lies spread by the channel of the 2020 US Presidential Election being ‘stolen’ for Joe Biden – for a staggering $787.5 million. Meanwhile, in the Royal Courts of Justice in London, Prince Harry and a host of public figures are attempting to bring News Group Newspapers (the publisher of the Sun and the defunct News of the World) to trial for newly emerged unlawful activities. 

But victories in the courts will never, on their own, be enough. Until the deep-rooted problems with the established media, and its impact on our public life, are properly confronted and acknowledged by elected politicians, the cosy culture of the cartel will continue in their favour. But read all about it, you won’t. 

Unless you subscribe to Byline Times!

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