links for 2010-07-26

• White House forced into U-turn over Shirley Sherrod race row | World news | The Guardian
  This is what happens when broadcasters are unregulated.
  (tags: fox sherrod USA politics race broadcasting impartiality regulation)
• Stick up for the BBC. It's the last bulwark against rule by the mob | Will Hutton | Comment is free | The Observer
  An organisation such as the BBC, committed to impartiality and accuracy, is seen as a last bulwark against populist government by the mob. Yet in Britain one wing of the coalition government is set upon attacking it, regarding the American media model as one we should copy. Matters are made more ominous by the degree of emerging cross-media dominance by News International – matched only in a western democracy by Berlusconi in Italy – that will be further sealed when Mr Murdoch's bid for the balance of BSkyB he does not own is nodded through by the coalition. Lack of courage by weak politicians, with Blair and Brown especially culpable, is set to bequeath Britain the worst of the Italian and American media. Our culture and our democracy are at stake.
  (tags: bbc impartilaity media regulation politics UK observer willhutton journalism news)