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This is a link post Online petitions? Well they always work.
But seriously - this one is worth a look. Rupert Murdoch is looking to up his stake in BSkyB to 100%, which will effectively turn it into a Fox News-esque mouthpiece for him and all his little wizards. This petition is to Vince Cable, and asks him for a full and fair investigation into the purchase rather than letting it go through on the nod, as it were.

Worth the 30 seconds of your life it will take to fill in, IMHO.

Kitten-ball says to sign it, anyhow.


 (I helped save b3ta! barryheadwound Mul-ti-pass? Multipass!, Wed 7 Jul 2010, 9:59, Reply)
This is a normal post Not sure I agree with you on this Bazza....
There are laws in place to ensure SKY news has to, at least pretend, retain an impartiality.

As for Murdoch increasing his stake, he's the person who took HUGE finiancial risks to get the whole off the ground in the first place.
he's the one who invested massively in sports and movie rights, when everyone else was saying pay-tv would never work.
Why shouldn't he be able to reap the financial rewards of his huge financial investment.

Don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of ANY corporate monolith. But i get the impression that some (Murdoch, Gates) get a rougher than others (Jobs, Schmidt)...

Blimey, that was a long one
 (I helped save b3ta! Joe Scaramanga with a G-double-O-D vibration, Wed 7 Jul 2010, 10:08, Reply)
This is a normal post But... Kitten-ball..?

(I helped save b3ta! barryheadwound Mul-ti-pass? Multipass!, Wed 7 Jul 2010, 10:14, Reply)
This is a normal post kittenball is lubberly....
but his hypno powers won't work on me!
 (I helped save b3ta! Joe Scaramanga with a G-double-O-D vibration, Wed 7 Jul 2010, 10:18, Reply)
This is a normal post But the one thing that separates Murdoch & Gates and Jobs & Schmidt
is monopolies.
 (I helped save b3ta! mr.dogshit The world's premier anthropomorphic canine faeces, Wed 7 Jul 2010, 10:24, Reply)
This is a normal post I would argue
Jobs has monopolised the MP3 market just as much as Gates has monopolised the OS and software market.

Murdoch doesn't have any monopolies.
 (I helped save b3ta! Joe Scaramanga with a G-double-O-D vibration, Wed 7 Jul 2010, 11:01, Reply)
This is a normal post The impartiality point is reasonably sound...
What's more worrying about Sky news is that it's of such thunderously low quality.

Sky claims to have been breaking the news for 20 years. It doesn't realise how true that claim is.
 (I helped save b3ta! Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Wed 7 Jul 2010, 10:28, Reply)
This is a normal post *** Comment of the day so far ***

(I helped save b3ta! Professor Fnord Regius Professor of B3ta Chronology, Wed 7 Jul 2010, 10:31, Reply)
This is a normal post *takes bow*

(I helped save b3ta! Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Wed 7 Jul 2010, 10:32, Reply)
This is a normal post The thing is, if that's the argument against it
then it's based on taste, rather than any sound legal reason to stop it happening.
 (I helped save b3ta! Joe Scaramanga with a G-double-O-D vibration, Wed 7 Jul 2010, 10:57, Reply)
This is a normal post TBH
I couldn't care less if it was a 100% Murdochian outlet - As it stands, virtually nobody watches it, BBC News 24 has cornered the market, and if it WAS to become a Faux News-esque mouthpiece - I believe they'd sink even further.
 (I helped save b3ta! mr.dogshit The world's premier anthropomorphic canine faeces, Wed 7 Jul 2010, 10:18, Reply)
This is a normal post I have to disagree on that point
BBC News 24 is arm chewingly bad in many ways. The presenters can't seem to get anything insightful from any 'real people' they talk to (for example eyewitnesses) and the professional commentators get free reign with their agendas most of the time.

I get the impression some of their presenters live in a dormitory outback of the studio and never leave the building.

I'm not saying Sky is the shining beacon of news coverage but given the choice I'll always rather watch Sky. In practice I flip around to balance the news anyway.
 (I helped save b3ta! Professor Fnord Regius Professor of B3ta Chronology, Wed 7 Jul 2010, 10:25, Reply)
This is a normal post Really?
I get Sky "news" inflicted on me via the TVs at the gym. It's wrenchingly bad - unless you're interested in the news alerts about a footballer or TV talent-show poppet doing something trivial.
 (I helped save b3ta! Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Wed 7 Jul 2010, 10:31, Reply)
This is a normal post I'm not saying it's not bad
But the presenters on the BBC really make me despair. It's like a badly cooked English Breakfast, the BBC have better ingredients but they cook them really badly.
 (I helped save b3ta! Professor Fnord Regius Professor of B3ta Chronology, Wed 7 Jul 2010, 10:40, Reply)
This is a normal post The only 'news' I watch is Breakfast on BBC1
which offers roughly 5% news and 95% 'celebs' whoring their wares with meaningless vox-pops on frankly pointless subjects. This morning they had some real filler material as their 'reporter' went to some dodgy estate and asked the general public if they would support the Germans in the World Cup. Fascinating stuff.

I find the only 'news' worth watching anymore is Newsnight. I long for the day when the UK gets its own Daily Show.
 (I helped save b3ta! Dr Drink, Wed 7 Jul 2010, 10:38, Reply)
This is a normal post Yes for Newsnight.
I don't even include that as BBC News output. It's just a properly made programme that has news as it's topic.
 (I helped save b3ta! Professor Fnord Regius Professor of B3ta Chronology, Wed 7 Jul 2010, 10:42, Reply)
This is a normal post I read that as 'shining bacon'.

(I helped save b3ta! @RBFesquire Good luck b3ta, was nice knowing you. So long., Wed 7 Jul 2010, 10:44, Reply)
This is a normal post 24 hour news has ruined journalism
its made them lazy
 (I helped save b3ta! Rebel biscuit stercore sumus et nos esse novimus, Wed 7 Jul 2010, 12:41, Reply)
This is a normal post "This would be a disaster."
...and it could open the door to biased news.

"If thousands of us e-mail Vince Cable, we can persuade him to make the right decision and oppose Murdoch’s master plan."

So basically you they want to do what they accuse Murdoch of doing, only they don't have their own media outlets so they will use social media outlets instead.
 (I helped save b3ta! Professor Fnord Regius Professor of B3ta Chronology, Wed 7 Jul 2010, 10:20, Reply)
This is a normal post I hardly think ...
that using a social media campaign to encourage a democratically elected representative to use the tools of process available to him in order to arrive at an informed decision on the matter, equates to strongarming said process through sheer financial muscle, but your call.

And I think you're forgetting kitten-ball in all of this.
 (I helped save b3ta! barryheadwound Mul-ti-pass? Multipass!, Wed 7 Jul 2010, 10:25, Reply)
This is a normal post Yes encouraging the informed lawfully correct decision is great, and I'm all for it
but the biased pre-determined scare-tactics narrative being pushed to get people to act is a Fox News tactic no? One proven to work admittedly ;)

At the very least it's a little ironic.

P.S. Kittenball is straight out of the World of Goo
 (I helped save b3ta! Professor Fnord Regius Professor of B3ta Chronology, Wed 7 Jul 2010, 10:29, Reply)
This is a normal post World of Goo? Is that a site?
I hesitate to google it from work... Pic was facebook'd to me last week - no idea of its origins.
 (I helped save b3ta! barryheadwound Mul-ti-pass? Multipass!, Wed 7 Jul 2010, 10:32, Reply)
This is a normal post It's an indie game, totally harmless
Here's some gameplay of level 1 www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMyY7jo7PRQ
 (I helped save b3ta! Professor Fnord Regius Professor of B3ta Chronology, Wed 7 Jul 2010, 10:44, Reply)
This is a normal post Hahaha see what you mean :)

(I helped save b3ta! barryheadwound Mul-ti-pass? Multipass!, Wed 7 Jul 2010, 10:46, Reply)
This is a normal post Nice kitten-ball

(I helped save b3ta! t0ria has forgotten how this all works, Wed 7 Jul 2010, 10:38, Reply)
This is a normal post anything owned by Newscorp
is a fountain of right wing bullshit.. and why not. If I owned a media empire I'd make sure the editors were running anti Conservative stories 24/7.
 (poochengeez, Wed 7 Jul 2010, 10:52, Reply)
This is a normal post Yeah, fuck the Simpsons and Family Guy and their right wing agenda!

(I helped save b3ta! Joe Scaramanga with a G-double-O-D vibration, Wed 7 Jul 2010, 11:02, Reply)
This is a normal post true, true
both theme tunes have subliminal right wing agendas
 (poochengeez, Wed 7 Jul 2010, 11:13, Reply)
This is a normal post When maggie gets scanned,
it says 'NRA4EVER' or summink like that.
 (I helped save b3ta! @RBFesquire Good luck b3ta, was nice knowing you. So long., Wed 7 Jul 2010, 11:20, Reply)
This is a normal post It doesn't actually say that
it was a joke from the '100th Episode' special. It actually says "ERR"
 (Vlad the Inhaler forgot his password, Wed 7 Jul 2010, 13:28, Reply)
This is a normal post You could always watch different channels.
Or, you know, read a book or something.

What people do with their private property, be it my back garden or someone's multi-billion pound corporation, is their own affair.
 (Vlad the Inhaler forgot his password, Wed 7 Jul 2010, 13:26, Reply)
This is a normal post like the bin laden family fortune?

(I helped save b3ta! Sextant goes to him is emotionally erect, on this day, Wed 7 Jul 2010, 13:56, Reply)
This is a normal post Having 100% won't change anything
News Corp have the biggest share and therefore control over BSkyB anyway. With the other 60% of the shares they'll just get 100% of the profits.
 (Scary, Fri 9 Jul 2010, 18:50, Reply)