OSC Ranks the Ten Most Influential British Commentators

The Open Source Center (OSC) of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence recently ranked the individuals whom it considers to be the ten most influential political commentators in the British press and profiled them in an OSC publication (pdf).

These commentators — from the BBC, Sky News, the Guardian, and elsewhere — are “listened to and read by cabinet ministers, business leaders, and fellow journalists. Many of them have close links to senior politicians and have been responsible for breaking stories that set the political agenda,” the OSC document said.

The OSC publication, which has not been approved for public release, is marked “for official use only.”  Furthermore, its “authorized use is for national security purposes of the United States Government only.”  What the relevant U.S. Government national security purposes of such material might be was not specified.

A copy of the document was obtained by Secrecy News.  See “United Kingdom — Profiles of Influential Political Commentators,” OSC Media Aid, October 22, 2008.