<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Sir David Attenborough has said that British broadcasters should be able to air opinionated and politically-biased news programmes. The broadcasting veteran claimed the wide variety of choice in TV channels now available to viewers meant that strict rules on news impartiality no longer applied. Attenborough&amp;#039;s comments echo the thoughts of BBC director general Mark Thompson, who last week suggested that an equivalent of America&amp;#039;s right-wing Fox News channel should be allowed to launch in the UK. Thompson said that the strength of web journalism has meant that public service broadcasters such as the BBC and ITV no longer have a monopoly on news programming. Speaking on BBC One&amp;#039;s The Andrew Marr Show, Attenborough agreed with Thompson that its time for the rules on news impartiality to be relaxed. &amp;quot;I think that the multiplicity of channels makes a quite totally fundamental difference to the sort of television I went into, which was a monopoly. If you are a monopoly, you have to be unbiased,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;But if you have 50 channels then maybe there should be areas where people should say, not exactly what they like, but at least be biased.&amp;quot; Fox News has become hugely popular in the US for its news coverage with a clear right-wing slant, but Ofcom currently prevents British broadcasters from expressing such political opinion. Last week, Thompson told a Whitehall seminar on impartiality in broadcasting that the UK public should be free to access a &amp;quot;range of opinionated journalism&amp;quot;. &amp;quot;There was logic in allowing impartial broadcasters to have a monopoly over the broadcasting space. But in future, maybe there should be a broad range of choices,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;Why shouldn&amp;#039;t the public be able to see and hear, as well as read a range of opinionated journalism and then make up their own mind what they think about it?&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/media/news/a294086/attenborough-backs-biased-tv-news/>