Over the last couple of days, Rupert Murdoch's News International / News Corp has started to put its websites behind paywalls: The Times is already locked up, and The Sun and others will gradually follow.
This is magnificent news. These outlets are poisonous, distorted, propagandistic wells of bile. The less access people have to them, the better - and they won't pay because they're now used to reading individual stories on news aggregator sites, rather than devotedly sticking to one outlet. If only he owned the Daily Mail.
Even better - Sky Sports News is leaving Freeview. Thank heavens - it's the epitome of moving wallpaper. Calling it Sports News didn't make it news - endless titbits of inconsequential guff repeated endlessly, with whizzy graphics attempting to disguise the paucity of real news. Ebbsfleet Town's reserve goalkeeper has a sore knee. Sussex have let their assistant groundskeeper go. Some baseball player has played baseball.
The public sphere will benefit hugely from the clear air provided by the disappearance of this guff.
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