Smash hit

Editors do not behave in this way because they are told what to do. Indeed, Greg Dyke, the current boss of the BBC, is a good friend of Tony Blair’s. The BBC coverage of the war is a serious threat to the Prime Minister. If Greg Dyke were to go down to the newsroom and tell the boys and girls to play up the victories in Iraq, he would no doubt get a flea in his ear. However, producers, editors and presenters of similar views do flock together. The brisk midmarket populism of Sky attracts people who, were they in print journalism, would fit comfortably into the staff of the Daily Mail, just as the BBC newsrooms attract Guardian types. What they choose to show us is what they believe to be true; the bias is in their beliefs.

The digital revolution is not yet universal, either in terms of countries or households. But it has already gone far enough to have overtaken many aspects of the existing media. For news of the war, as opposed to analysis and opinion, television has long since overtaken the newspapers. Television even dominates the strategy of warfare; the whole shock-and-awe doctrine is based on psychological warfare waged by television. Bombs are dropped in order to be filmed and shown on the box. Wars have always been fought by influencing people’s minds, and television is the open road into the minds of allies as well as enemies.

However, television channels used to be a scarce resource. The digital revolution has changed all that; it is a pluralist revolution. So far, two of the network news channels of the United States are not currently available in Britain. There is no English language version of French television news, though EuroNews almost fills that role. There is no Russian channel. Nevertheless, we are moving towards a global market in news and opinion. In this war, the British viewer has access to eight news channels in English and can only obtain a balanced view by watching most of them.

In five or ten years’ time, there may be 20 or more global news programmes in English. China has only recently appeared on Sky Digital. CCTV is already a new voice for China which had not previously been heard. When a Chinese political analyst argues that a quick and successful war might make the US Administration dangerously arrogant, but a longer war might make the US more cautious, that is a significant Chinese point of view. Any country which wants to get its point of view across to the rest of the world needs a television news platform, available on household television as well as on the internet. Flexibility and independence make private channels more plausible and stay broadcasting.

Television is the cultural force of our age. It changes the culture of its viewers, but it is also shaped by their cultures. One hears some unexpected cultural echoes. On CCTV one can pick up echoes of the Maoist identification with post-colonial and peasant people. The Chinese do identify with the idea of Iraqi guerrillas.

But one could also hear the tones of Confucian scholarship, with its respect for authority, and one could even hear the fair-mindedness of Buddhist psychology. It is reluctantly stated that the American advance on Baghdad has been “rather fast”. The Americans are as culturally conditioned as the Chinese, if with a briefer history, and no doubt we are as well. Fox and CNN, however, belong to separate US cultures: CNN sounds as if it had all been scripted on the campus of a liberal arts college in New England, or perhaps California; Fox sounds much more Southern — Texan and tough-minded. In the same way, the BBC belongs to the elite world of British universities, but ITV and Sky sound more like active business people.

Fortunately, public opinion does not follow television guidelines. With this growing number of news channels, we shall all be able to find a channel to our taste. Even now, most of us find it perfectly easy to disagree with the channels of our choice.

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