Screw It, Let’s Do It. Looks like James Murdoch has been taking ‘lessons in life’ from Richard Branson.

Sir Richard, a minority shareholder in NTL, is unhappy because James has snuck in and bought a billion quid’s worth of ITV stock. Sir Rick’s anger has led him into the dangerous academic trap of asserting ‘strong’ media effects:

Government’s job is to regulate…Government’s job is to stop too much dominance in the media ending up in one person’s hand… Governments are scared stiff of Murdoch … if the Sun, the Sunday Times, The Times, Sky, the News of the World – just to name a few of the things that Murdoch owns – all come out in favour of a particular political party, the election is likely to be won by that particular political party.

And if you then tag on ITV to that as well, basically we’ve got rid of democracy in this country and we might as well just let Murdoch decide who’s going to be our Prime Minister. [BBC News]

Blimey! By Murdoch, I presume Sir Richard means James’s dad. But what about that election and democracy stuff? Does NewsCorp back winners, or make them? Are politicians really such vacillating reeds that they do whatever Rupert Murdoch tells them? Last time I checked Murdoch père couldn’t even stop his own news channel trashing one of his publishing houses…[See the O.J. saga]

Are we really such vacillating reeds that we vote the Sun/Times/NOTW line? Sky News and ITV News are regulated anyway – and to the best of my knowledge, Sir Trev never used to slip in a quick “Vote Maggie” at the end of News At Ten.

Branson is a showman. He can turn sour grapes into balsamic vinegar with Heston Blumenthal-style finesse. But let’s not be taken in. If you want to see how Virgin have already been playing ITV’s regional news then check out this post. Ofcom did investigate that…and they weren’t impressed.

Postscript: For further reading on the ITV saga, I recommend Steve Goldstein‘s entertaining piece: What do BSkyB, NTL know that the market doesn’t?