Media Brief

I'm the BBC's media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

Former chaired the House of Lords communications committee Lord Fowler adds his voice in the Guardian to those calling for Vince Cable to examine News Corporation's bid to buy all the shares in BSkyB. He says "There is an essential question of public interest: namely whether one company has too much media power and too much influence on the political debate of the UK."

Dan Sabbagh says in the Daily Mirror that President Obama has hit back at Rupert Murdoch's Fox News "whose presenters openly compare America's first black president to Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein". He says Mr Murdoch's position in the US is nothing compared to the power he already wields in the UK.

Henry Porter says in the Guardian that Rupert Murdoch has managed to achieve what most assumed was impossible: a more or less harmonious agreement between the BBC, the Daily Mail, the Guardian Media Group, the Telegraph Media Group and the owners of the Daily Mirror. He says all "are lining up against his plans for market domination with the purchase of all BSkyB's shares".

John Whittingdale, chairman of the Culture Media & Sport committee, says it's "extraordinary" how much the BBC pays in redundancies and it "shows a casualness with licence fee-payers' money". The Sunday Times reports [subscription required] that the BBC's head of religion received a redundancy payment of up to £364,000, only to be rehired less than a year later to advise the director-general on religious affairs. A BBC spokesman said: "While this involves redundancy costs in the short-term, to honour contracts and employment law, over the long-term they represent cost savings, as posts close permanently."

The Telegraph reports that the BBC has been criticised by Conservative MP Philip Davies, a member of the Commons Culture, Media and Sport committee, for sending 25 people to cover the Chilean miners' rescue. A BBC spokesman said: "The plight of the Chilean miners has aroused worldwide interest. It is a long running story taking place in one of the world's most remote locations."

The BBC's newspaper review shows Lord Browne's proposals on the funding of universities in England - including the removal of the cap on tuition fees - draw much attention in the papers, because they are likely to spark a clash between the coalition parties.

Links in full

• Lord Fowler | Guardian | Why Cable must reel in News Corp's bid for full control of Sky
• Dan Sabbagh | Mirror | Obama takes on the last media baron
• Henry Porter| Guardian | Vince Cable must be bold and break Murdoch's stranglehold
• Sunday Times | BBC chief rehired after payoff
• Telegraph | BBC sends 25 to cover rescue of 33
• BBC | Newspaper review

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• Read Friday's Media Brief