In the UK the print media wields immense political power. The extent to which corporate media baron Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corporation owns 30% of British newspaper circulation, has been wooed by first Conservative and then Labour leaders attests to his enormous influence. It is such that it is rumored, in 1994 Alastair Campbell would take the offered job of press secretary to new party leader Tony Blair only if Blair looked through some 'documents'. The documents turned out to be front pages from the Sun. Campbell's message was clear - if we don't get Murdoch on our side and appeal to the right wing Sun, we wont win. (They got him on board and they won, although it is arguable whether it was, "The Sun what won it"). Many years before the Murdoch-Blair rapport, Murdoch had been, in the words of a former editor of the Times, "One of the main powers behind the Thatcher throne". He went on to say "Rupert Murdoch and Mrs Thatcher consult regularly on every important matter of policy, especially as they relate to his economic and political interests". This sort of power in the hands of an unelected, ultra right wing billionaire with global corporate interests is democratically not ideal to say the least. You only need to read the front pages to see how the political agenda is being set by the the fear mongering, hysterical and inaccurate tabloid press.