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How Sky News Became a Household Name
Sky News is one of the most influential news broadcasting agencies of the modern day. An impressive achievement when considering how young the organization is—especially compared to a competitor like the BBC, which has been operating since 1922.
While other news organizations have developed alongside modern journalism and the rules that govern it, Sky News broke onto the scene by identifying the pitfalls of their forerunners and avoiding them. This has allowed them to quickly become a household name and attain considerable credibility in a short time. However, it has also left many individuals unsure where they tend to lean on the political aisle.
Is Sky News Biased?
Whether Sky News tends to lean one way or the other is usually a matter of personal opinion rather than discernible fact. They do not openly lean towards the left or right, as some news agencies such as Fox News in the United States tend to.
Sky News operates under Ofcom broadcasting regulations like all other broadcasting organizations in the United Kingdom. This means they are required, by law, to be impartial and unbiased with their coverage even when covering sensitive issues that tend to have an obvious right and wrong.
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These laws were enacted to prevent broadcasting companies from having too much control over the flow of information. Historically, this has led to upticks in propaganda and misinformation. And given many people are still unsure whether they are receiving unbiased news and where their chosen news source sits on the political compass, these laws have had questionable success.
Sky’s Reputation in the News Industry?
Sky News has benefited from the modern age of computing and real-time news being accessible across the world to billions of people. Having a basis in telecommunication, they had already made it clear they are an industry presence before they even started to grow their brand as a reputable news source.
Since they are relatively new on the scene, it has not always been as clear where they stand politically as there isn’t as much data. A direct comparison to another supposedly unbiased broadcasting agency is the BBC. The BBC, at its core, is intended to be completely impartial due to its public ownership.
However, BBC News has a reputation for being more aligned to the left. Conversely, Sky News has repeatedly been accused of leaning further to the right. This is especially true of Sky News in Australia, which quickly became one of the largest broadcasting channels there and thus one of the most influential and prone to criticism.
Behind the Scene Influences
The problem with a corporate-owned news source is that there will always be influences from the person, or persons, who own the news source filtering through into what’s being published or broadcasted. Sometimes this is unintentional, and it’s difficult to be completely unbiased at all times, but often it’s not. Time and again, bias is not only intentional but aggressive and manipulative.
Sky News is owned by the Sky Group, a division of Comcast. It was founded by Rupert Murdoch, who has interests in a plethora of other media outlets such as Fox News. Given Rupert Murdoch is openly on the right, and many of his media companies have been and are also on the right, it has long been assumed that Sky News is right-leaning.
The Challenges of Being Impartial
While Sky News is bound by law to publish only unbiased and impartial fact-based stories, not opinion-based, it’s quite clear that isn’t always the case. This isn’t a problem exclusive to any single broadcasting company or political ideology. It’s challenging to be completely unbiased about something you have an opinion on.
While technically Sky News is at the center of the political spectrum, it tends to lean further to the right, given its ownership and directorship history. It’s up to viewers to decide whether or not they feel it tends to overstep in one direction or the other. But it’s safe to say that Sky News is not as balanced in its broadcasting as many competitors.
7 Responses
Saw Sky News Australia on YouTube. I could not believe the misinformation it aired on our situation during the presidential campaign. Rather horrified. Unbiased by UK law? I rather wonder what is UK law? I wonder what US law is? We are supposed to be a free society yet it appears we are taking a huge step backward. Seems no one ever learns from history. We make the same mistakes no matter the century.
I was a little taken aback by the idea of Sky News being “centrist” or “unbiased” as well. The page even brings up Sky News Australia, but just says, “it’s bigger so it’s more likely to be attacked.” Gee… how convenient of a rating for them…
I’m with you Joy. You may not have worded it as such, but this rating sounds like complete bunk garbage.
Nor do I think this effort to make the left and right seem the same is exactly fair or impartial: conservatives are all about austerity politics, pull up your bootstraps and take care of yourself, (along with a varied crowd of eugenicists and bigots). Meanwhile, the only things the left seems to harp on is our planet is dying, the poors are dying, and… idk. Maybe we should do something about that.
Isn’t it weird that we’re being asked to believe that these two things are the same? Or maybe I’m just tired of Centrists quietly supporting Eugenics. Don’t mind me, Joy. I am devoid of any on this planet. xD
Liberal Media/Americans are now starting to comment on international news outlets like Sky, France 24 etc with wild and unverified accusations about the condition of the U.S. Their sheer lunacy knows no bounds and I for one apologize for this stupidly. The silent majority of Americans are not like this.
Sky News Australia is one of the most balanced media sources in Australia. It features the best political coverage and is the first news source to break breaking news. Sky News Australia is Australia’s News Channel.
Don’t talk such rubbish. UK-based Sky News is completely impartial. I am a UK ex-pat in the US and I know what’s happening in the world by using several news sources, national and international, UK and US-based.
UK Sky News is unbiased and definitely not left or right-leaning.
Conversely, Australian Sky News is like US Fox News on steroids.
I agree with you John
Watching James Morrow is like watching Tucker Carlton in disguise. An we all know how truthful he is.
sky news is defiantly Torie news even the way they title their political videos on Youtube and the way they report it it’s painful to watch it. It’s very manipulative and subtle yet so obvious.