# UK Dopers: Does Sky News have a conservative slant? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 30, 2003, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-does-sky-news-have-a-conservative-slant/221805 "2003-12-30T18:19:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2003, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-does-sky-news-have-a-conservative-slant/221805/1 "2003-12-30T18:19:13Z")
UK spending more than a few minutes in the Pit probably realize that Fox News, a cable news channel in the United States owned by Rupert Murdoch, has a very strong Republican/right-leaning bias. If my knowledge is up-to-date, Rupert Murdoch also owns Sky News, a cable/satellite news channel in the UK. I haven’t seen any pitting of Sky News for any sort of editorial bias, though. Does Sky News, like its Fox cousin in the US, have a Tory/right-leaning bias? How strong is the bias? If Sky News doesn’t have an editorial bias, why would Rupert Murdoch create a right-leaning network in the States? Why not in the UK too? ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2003, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-does-sky-news-have-a-conservative-slant/221805/2 "2003-12-30T18:26:30Z")
They’re obliged to stay ‘fair and balanced’ by UK regulators, so they couldn’t behave like Fox if they wanted to. As to whether they _do_ want to, emplying Richard Littlejohn seems to suggest that they do. If you want a laugh, look at [http://skynewstribute.co.uk/index.asp](http://skynewstribute.co.uk/index.asp) ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2003, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-does-sky-news-have-a-conservative-slant/221805/3 "2003-12-30T19:36:27Z")
I understand the obligations the BBC are legally under, [for example:](http://www.bilderberg.org/bbchartr.htm) Royal Charter, **3.2. ©**"contain comprehensive, authoritative and impartial coverage of news and current affairs in the United Kingdom and throughout the world to support fair and informed debate at local, regional and national levels; " . . . but what obligations are Sky under and to which “regulator” becasue I don’t know (besides to Rupert the free-marketeer himself) - do you have a cite ? Fwiw, I’ve never seen Sky news - why would I? - so can’t comment. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2003, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-does-sky-news-have-a-conservative-slant/221805/4 "2003-12-30T20:17:45Z")
As can be seen from other threads I have no time for Fox News but I have no problem at all with SKY News. I find that it is as fair and unbiased as any other UK news channel ( BBC and ITN ) .If this is imposed on them by what was the ICT and is now OFCOM I do not know but I have never heard any complaints about that station’s output from any political party or other organization ( ICT = Independant Television Commission ) ( OFCOM= Office of the Communications Regulator) ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2003, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-does-sky-news-have-a-conservative-slant/221805/5 "2003-12-30T20:31:12Z")
For ICT please read ITC ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2003, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-does-sky-news-have-a-conservative-slant/221805/6 "2003-12-30T22:09:28Z")
**OFCOM** sez: > [@](#): > > 3.1 Due impartiality > > The Broadcasting Act requires the ITC to do all that it can to secure ‘that due impartiality is preserved on the part of the person providing the service as respects matters of political or industrial controversy or relating to current public policy’. > [@](#): > > Extracts from the Broadcasting Act 1990 > > […] > > 1. General requirements as to licensed services > > The Commission shall do all that they can to secure that every licensed service complies with the following requirements, namely: > > […] > > that any news given (in whatever form) in its programmes is presented with due accuracy and impartiality; Sky News has been accused before now - that nice man Littlejohn. [Complaint rejected](http://media.guardian.co.uk/rupertmurdoch/story/0,11136,951171,00.html) (bottom of story). ---
**Author:** ![Avenger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de0a6/32.png) [@Avenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avenger)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2003, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-does-sky-news-have-a-conservative-slant/221805/7 "2003-12-31T18:41:33Z")
I would class myself as fairly liberal and I watch Sky News a lot and find it very reliable. I think it is not just the regulatory framework, but also the fact that they have the BBC to compete with that ensures that Sky News is far from a British version of Fox News (we can get Fox News on the Sky Network, so I occasionally watch that when my intestines are up to it and I want to be nauseated). I think that British viewers have a different expectation of TV News than of their newspapers to be honest and I don’t think a Fox News style station would be at all successful. I don’t have a problem with the Littlejohn show (I don’t watch it, the man’s an insufferable idiot), it’s clearly packaged as an opinion show, not as ‘news’. Likewise, on Fox, it’s not the opinion shows that offend me, but the lack of any distinction between news presentation and opinion. I have seen interviews carried out by presenters on Fox, ostensibly as part of their news coverage, that have absolutely horrified me.