Talking about the prickly relationship between those in public life and the media is well and good. It is even better when, like Blair, those in public life acknowledge their own complicity in boosting the power of the news media, and their need to do this. Blair and his New Labour chose to ride the media tiger. And, though he survived, Blair has a gripping tale of his woes to tell.

He speaks of the technological changes that have created an endless news cycle, and the way in which this forces the media to pursue sensation at the cost of more sober reporting and analysis. But he does not touch on the three most serious issues concerning the news media, those that will determine their future: the ownership of the media, their seemingly endless decline into obsessing over the irrelevant (as in celebrity coverage), and the difficulties that the media face in their very survival in a changed world.

As Blair notes, relations between politicians and journalists have always been difficult. And this is as it should be. So the problems raised by the news media today should not be seen as political or ethical. Indeed, Blair and his government have done more than any muckraking journalist to make not only the news media but every citizen more cynical since Labour came to power 10 years ago. We need only note that a day or two after his speech on the state of the media, Blair was forced to acknowledge his role in keeping secret the payment of hundreds of millions of pounds to a Saudi mediator to secure a 43 billion pound arms deal. Let’s not even go into Britain’s foolish march to war in Iraq, where both Blair and George W. Bush were granted an easy pass by their national news media.

But the biggest problem that the news media face today is that the model of being serious, authoritative and expensive to produce is being challenged by a continuing fall in revenues. When news media can’t stand on their own feet, they become the playthings of other interests, whether political or business. The media start to experiment with their form and content, they seek protection, they popularize themselves. In this way, they are in danger of losing precisely what keeps readers and viewers with them -- because that shrinking audience is comprised of the people who do support serious media and give them the opportunity to adapt to the changes. Their owners will either undermine their newsrooms in order to cut costs, or they will exploit the power of the media in order to make business deals that will cover their costs. This inevitably distorts a democratic system in favor of those who wield power, including the owners of the press.

Blair did not touch on these issues, probably because, being the consummate politician that he is, he sees only the politics of the press and not their economic foundation. Or maybe he just needed to pull his punches -- being the politician that he is.