Mr Fry’s tweets re Jan Moir, simply signposted the way for his million+ followers to see what was written and then he gave them an easy gateway to the PCC. That in itself is powerful, but it isn’t influence in the sense of changing mindset, or the mood. Most right minded people will have been outraged anyway, Mr F just made it easier for these people to vent their disgust.

We all saw the reaction when The Sun announced it was swapping its allegiance from Labour to the Tories. That’s the power of the press/news organisations. The potential ability to influence how the nation votes.

However, I will add that the power of the traditional organisation is diminishing. Information and opinion is now available from a myriad of sources and is becoming increasingly signposted for people of likemind, and who form communities on Twitter, to find.

So the power of Twitter isn’t the influence of the one, but the influence of the community.

There is an argument to say that as a voluntary code it has very little power anyway, but still, the idea of removing it and not replacing it with anything else at all is very interesting.

What would those who complained about Jan Moir’s think about that, I wonder?

Why should we want bodies to regulate newspapers when they are no more, or no less, influential than some individuals who communicate to large numbers of people online?

We already have the legal system that can be used when a newspaper or individual breaks the law. Why do we need anything else?

Come to think of it, why should a newspaper be responsible? Is The Sun expected to be responsible? What happens if it’s not?

On point 2: Ok, that’s why.