Hunt learns not to trust the media
By Ned Simons - 3rd March 2011
Labour MPs were left fuming today by Jeremy Hunt's announcement that he will allow Rupert Murdoch to expand his empire to take control of BskyB.
But they were angry not just at the decision itself, but the way in which the announcement was made.
Hunt came to the Commons to make the announcement at 3pm, much later than would be normal practise.
Following the culture secretary's defence of his decision, Labour's Tom Watson rose to complain about the "intolerable" fact that Hunt saw it fit to "parade around TV studios before making the statement".
MPs get very upset when the media are briefed on policy changes or announcements before they are given a chance to scrutinise them in the Commons.
A key part of Hunt's defence of his decision to allow the controversial takeover of BskyB by News Corporation was that Rupert Murdoch has in-turn agreed to loosen his grip on Sky News.
He reassured MPs that "these undertakings would ensure that Sky News is spun-off as an independent public limited company" leading to greater editorial independence for the 24 hour news channel.
Speaker Bercow, in his best 'I'm not angry I'm just disappointed' voice, said he had been led to expect that no media interviews would be given on the subject before Hunt came to the Commons.
Chastising Hunt he said it could be regarded by some as a "discourtesy to the House" if he had decided to break that promise.
Hunt said that he was "of course prepared to apologise" if there was any element of parliamentary procedure he had not followed correctly.
But he pleaded that he had only given one TV interview under the strict instructions that it would not be broadcast before he gave his statement to MPs.
"The deal I made with media organisations was they should not use it until after the statement was made," he said.
The confusion arose, he said, when he discussed the BskyB issue during an earlier debate in the Commons. Leading some to jump the gun on the embargoed video clip. The BBC appear to have posted the video here at 11.50am.
A quick witted Chris Bryant pointed out that the fact that several TV stations broke the embargo showed "undertakings made by media organisations" were perhaps not as reliable as Hunt had moments earlier been trying to persuade MPs they were.
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