The Competition and Markets Authority has provisionally ruled that 21st Century Fox’s bid to take control of the 61% of Sky it does not already own was not in the public interest due to concerns about media plurality. The CMA says the Murdoch family trust would have “too much control over news providers in the UK across all media platforms and therefore too much influence over public opinion and the political agenda.”

Which multi-platform media giant really dominates the news industry in Britain? The BBC controls some two-fifths of the news market, nearly double that controlled by Sky and News UK.

Which family really has for decades had too much control over British public opinion and the political agenda on multiple media platforms? Which family dominates BBC coverage of the Royal Family, general elections, budgets, as well as the flagship weekly current affairs shows; Question Time and Any Questions? The Dimblebys…

Any Questions last night came from the Royal College for the Blind in Hereford with the Lord Blunkett, David Davis, the dotty General Secretary of CND, Dr Kate Hudson, and Quentin Letts. The mix compered by Jonathan Dimbleby. At the end, as the audience was still sitting there, Dimbleby gave them a lecture about the horrid right-wing wanting to close the BBC and urging them all to write to their MP, ministers etc. Oddly partisan for a Dimbleby…

Not only was this unusual – and quite a test of his status as an impartial presenter – there is also the fact that Hereford is the seat of Jesse Norman, chairman of the Culture Select Committee, which has just launched a savage judgement on the BBC Trust, calling for it to be scrapped. Jesse’s report also took the Beeb to task for organising that round-robin letter by BBC stars to try to speak up for the Beeb. Dimbleby is swimming in quite dangerous partisan waters here, surely…