According to The Guardian’s Media Monkey James Murdoch and Robert Peston engaged in a spat following Murdoch’s MacTaggart Lecture on Friday evening at the Edinburgh International Television Festival.

Peston had the opportunity to formally respond when he delivered the Richard Dunn Memorial Lecture the following afternoon, although he claims in the text of his speech that he didn’t alter the text following Murdoch’s blast at the BBC.

Peston made four points in his speech called ‘What future for media and journalism’:

• The traditional business model of news providers is broken and needs to be “overhauled”
• In a 24/7 digital world, individual news organisation may be less powerful than they were, but content and its creators are king
• Digital requires journalists to work multi-channel – TV, radio, online and print
• Democracy demands “a choice of high-quality news providers which are confident in their ability to explain complex important issues in a clear and accessible way”

No one in the media industry could find fault with the first three points. The fourth forms the genesis of the row between Murdoch and Peston. But even here Peston appears to find common ground with Murdoch.

[…] I completely understand why James Murdoch has argued that the BBC’s online news service looks like state-subsidised unfair competition. Much of the private sector sees the BBC as crowding out legitimate commercial players.

But Peston has a counter argument. He says that while a fair commercial market is important, so too is the fair distribution of knowledge and information. “Should we be relaxed if ‘can’t pay’ means ‘can’t know’?” he said.

Its an argument that returns to the core tenents of the BBC Charter.