I reckon it is true. The public regulate to a degree in that if it is crap they won't buy it but media in the widest sense tell us what we want. The iPad was the wonderful invention that nobody needed. I'm glued to my bugger now.

Governments alone can truly regulate. Ask any despot. Speaking as an advisor to a government regulator in a different field perhaps my use of the word was in the technical rather than the broad sense. The dilemma being a free press within a regulatory framework is not a free press. It is free within the constraints of the regulator and whilst we can be fairly comfortable with that, my point was that events such as this result in tighter control and regulation so the press freedom is chiselled away at.

Laws do exist to prevent monopoly situations as the bloke with the fluids fixation tells us, and when Murdoch brags that he decides who forms the next government he ain't joking. But conversely how do you scrutinise government without freedom of your own business?

The fifth estate indeed.

Oh, Thatcher was the first villainess, correct. But not the first villain.

Assuming villainess is a word. I assumed villain to be gender neutral but there you go. Learn something every day. Even if the source is suspect.