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As well as agreeing strongly with your conclusions, could I add a belated comment here on what you have written recently about the John Kingdon book, Agendas, Alternatives and Public Policies -- and its evidence of media's lesser role in policy agenda setting.

As well as work internationally in media training and development, I train UK academics in relations with the media -- and am constantly aware that, when it comes to attracting the attention of politicians, a single media article can trump vast amounts of research effort.

It may be that Britain is very different from the US, but the Kingdon book, studying the 1970s, seems to be writing about a world very different from 2008. Regrettably, our current politicians have knee-jerk reactions to headlines and TV coverage -- one may not wish to applaud the influence of what is, all too often, very shallow media reporting, but its impact needs to be recognized.

Martin Huckerby