The fourth estate's coup d'état  In this fierce polemic, John
Lloyd, one of our most distinguished commentators, argues that
the British media is increasingly powerful, irresponsible, and
destructive of democracy  It's a little more than a year since
the BBC reported, on 29 May 2003, the sensational revelation -
subsequently dismissed by the Hutton inquiry - that the Prime
Minister had knowingly lied to persuade the country to go to war
in Iraq. In that year, a kind of lull has been observed in the
great struggle between the media and the governing class for
power over the national narrative that is one of the hallmarks
of British public life.  There's no peace, much less a treaty.
The struggle goes on. In the British Press Awards in March, the
top prizes went to the Daily Mirror and the Independent, the
papers most vividly and uncompromisingly anti-government in
stance. (In the private party to celebrate winning the Newspaper
of the Year award, Simon Kelner, the Independent 's editor, told
staff that his was