The Media Show

Rupert Murdoch's plans to buy out BSkyB have been questioned this week, with the leak of a report calling for Business Secretary Vince Cable to call in any deal for review. This would be under a law designed "to ensure the existence of a range of media voices, safeguarding the vibrancy of democratic debate". So should any takeover be subject to scrutiny? That is the discussion between TV executive David Elstein, former head of programming at BSkyB and Will Hutton, columnist and former editor of the Observer.The BBC has lost two leading figures this week, BBC One controller Jay Hunt and BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons. Jay Hunt starts with Channel 4 in January. What might this mean for the direction of the BBC and the programmes viewers see on BBC1? Media commentator Maggie Brown gives her view.London's 95.8 Capital FM is to go national, as the parent company Global Radio rebrands its local and regional chart pop music stations under the Capital name, just as it already has with Heart. Global chief executive Stephen Miron explains what lies behind the change. The British Film Institute has announced the discovery of 100 hours of tv dramas from the 1960s, lost until found recently in an archive in the USA. They include early performances by Sean Connery, Jane Asher and Dorothy Tutin, from a time when the tapes on which programmes were recorded were often wiped so they could be reused. The BFI's curator Steve Bryant talks about plans to show some of the plays in its "Missing Believed Wiped" season. The producer is Simon Tillotson.

Paul Staines, aka Gudio Fawkes, is the political blogger behind the story of William Hague and his special advisor. Critics describe him as an anti-journalist, un-accountable and a peddler of political soft porn. How does he respond? With a Papal visit to the UK imminent, issues like the ordination of women, and arguments about whether to build a Mosque at Ground Zero in New York, religion is never far from the headlines. But, can a secular media cover events in the world of religion effectively? And do newspaper article or television news have any hope of getting to grips with questions like 'Does God exits?' Former religious correspondent for The Guardian Stephen Bates and Baroness Warnock discuss. And the big story of the week. What exactly have we learnt from the New York Times' allegations about phone hacking at the News of The World, and why is an American newspaper so interested in what happens in the news room of a British tabloid? Steve Hewlett speakers to Professor of Journalism and former tabloid editor Roy Greenslade and Rupert Murdoch biographer Michael Wolff. The producer is Joe Kent.

When Mark Thompson spoke of "radical change" at the BBC and insisted that he was "up for the fight," in his speech at the Edinburgh TV festival, exactly what did he mean? Steve Hewlett speaks to the BBC's Creative Director Alan Yentob.In that same speech, the MacTaggart Memorial Lecture, the BBC's Director General also said that "it's time for Sky to pull its weight" - Sky's Director of Public Affairs David Wheeldon responds.The BBC's political editor Nick Robinson has written a blog headlined "Blair and Brown - an apology". It's tongue in cheek but refers to the jucier side of what Tony Blair has told us in his memoirs published today. But how much of what we now know - did we not know then? And what does it tell us about political reporting?And after Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp walked out of an interview with Sky Sports after his side lost at the weekend, and Sir Alex Ferguson continues to refuse to be interviewed by the BBC, we ask what value do post-match interviews hold? Steve is joined by Lynne Truss and Guardian sport's writer David Lacey. The producer is Joe Kent.