He was replaced by Charles Douglas-Home who was sufficiently deferential

He was replaced by Charles Douglas-Home, who was sufficiently deferential. Murdoch had let it be known that Charlie was a temporary editor, which did not suit Charlie at all, so he was eager to please. We were soon given to understand that no criticism of Margaret Thatcher or Ronald Reagan was allowed Other changes followed. "I give instructions to my editors all round the world," he told a member of staff, "why shouldn't I in London?" His first editor, Harry Evans, fought for editorial freedom but lasted only a year; Murdoch put it about that he had spent too much money, and maybe he had, but the fact is that pressure on his editorial policies became relentless only after Mrs Thatcher complained about him. Rupert Murdoch's attempts to censor Chris Patten's book will not have surprised anyone who has worked for him, least of all those of us who were writing leaders for The Times when he bought the paper in 1981. The previous owner, Lord Thomson, had never interfered with editorial policy.

Murdoch started gently but within a few months had swept aside the guarantees of editorial independence that he had given to Parliament and the directors. Together they will work out what shape this show will take, and how much it will emulate its American progenitor.The man leading the current affairs offensive on Britain's largest commercial channel is clearly enthusiastic about its potential to become ITV's new current affairs flagship. Indeed, pondering aloud, Steve Anderson poses the question: "Will it co-exist with World in Action, or will it be there instead of World in Action?"You start to see what he means when he says that his younger brother can expect no special favours.. Five different outfits are bidding for that contract, and whoever wins it will be obliged to work with ITV's sole news supplier.

He is perfectly positioned to do so, since his office is situated in the same Grays Inn Road block as ITN.A few weeks ago, Anderson made a point of dropping into its newsroom and addressing the staff."It was the first time anyone from the Network Centre had gone to them to outline the reasons why we are thinking of moving News at Ten to an earlier slot," he says. "I basically told them they were great, and that, whatever happens to News at Ten, ITV expects them to go on providing the best news programme on British television. That's why we've given them another five-year contract, worth pounds 50m."Anderson is prepared to pay ITN even more for helping to make a success of the British version of 60 Minutes, which he is planning to launch. Too much of their journalism looks as though it's coming down from the Himalayan peaks."Steve Anderson speaks from experience about the Beeb. These have traditionally operated as totally separate fiefdoms, but Anderson is determined to bring the two strands together. Indeed, the only politician on the programme will be Gordon Brown."We're determined to do the Budget in a totally different way from the Beeb, whose coverage will be dominated as usual by lots of politicians and men in braces in dealing-rooms," says Anderson "The BBC's news and current affairs is cold They're still too lofty.

As it happens, he does think that the best thing done by that documentary strand in recent times was the two-part investigation into rogue housing repair firms, captured on secret spy cameras."I'm actually committed to World in Action doing investigative journalism," he says. "I also want to see it becoming much more topical and revealing. It must tell us something new about something that matters."Relating to real people will also be the guiding philosophy next week, when ITV offers alternative live coverage of the Budget for the first time in five years. Personal finance experts and consumer affairs correspondents will present an instant analysis of the effects of the Chancellor's statement on ordinary folk, who will give their "vox pop" reactions to outside broadcast units in the gritty northern city of Sheffield, as well as at a motorway service station and a pub. "To pull in ABC1 viewers - those with the loosest affiliation to soaps - we stopped chasing second-hand double-glazing salesmen down back streets in Peterborough and started hitting much bigger high-street names, such as Dixons, Ford and BT."The fact that Steve Anderson previously edited BBC consumer programmes, such as Watchdog and its spin-offs, has prompted speculation that World in Action is set to become much more "consumery". "We're always going to get beat, but we don't need to get beat 10-nil."He has already demonstrated that he can raise the ratings of factual programmes. It was then given a better slot against the much less popular Emmerdale, where it pulled in more than 8 million viewers."We did this not by dumbing down but by smartening up," says Anderson.