Snow used his speech in Edinburgh to criticise the media industry for ignoring the disadvantaged and attacked Facebook for facilitating “cancerous” fake news, warning that its duopoly with Google has “decimated” the market in digital revenue many hoped would sustain quality journalism.
He also urged the industry to do more to engage with audiences in the wake of events including the Brexit referendum, Donald Trump’s election as US President and the recent Grenfell tower disaster in the UK – all of which he claimed highlighted a disconnect between a media elite and society at large.