Even though their last attempt in 2003 was shot down by a Federal Appeals Court, the GOP controlled FCC under Kevin Martin has decided, despite public and congressional disapproval that we need less diversity in the media and as of yesterday has made it far easier for the handful of heavily Republican near monopolies that own most of the newspapers, TV and radio stations in the US to move toward unobstructed media consolidation in all markets. In the cases where such cross ownership isn't allowed by the rules, waivers will be granted and if there is no preference for "conservative" viewpoints, I will be amazed.
There's still hope that a wrench can be thrown into the machine once more and another handover of public property to the corporate barons prevented, but we have to let our senators know and we have to do it now. 25 of them have already pledged to overturn this outrageous ruling but we need more - unless of course you really want a country where all you can read and hear is Michelle Malkin, Rush Limbaugh and lyin' Bill O'Reilly.
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6 comments:
Do you think that any of our legislators actually listen to us?
They listened to the public on this issue back in 2003 and apparently a flood of calls and letters got the FISA bill withdrawn the other day - so it's worth trying again.
You have more faith in our legislators than do I - considering I have -0- faith it isn't hard to beat me.
I'm ambivilent re the FCC ruling. I see very little of the MSM that is blatantly right wing - notable exception of course being Fox.
I don't see any effort being made to silence liberals. Folk like O'Reilly, Rush, Hannity, etc, are cash cows. They check the polls and play to their audience and their audience spends their money. Money talks.
Me, I go to PBS.
We have but no choice to work through our elected representatives.
We have to keep fighting, raising visibility to issues. Our problem is that too many of our fellow citizens just tune everything out. They don't digest what is going on in the world or this country.
We have but no choice to work through our elected representatives.
Actually, we do have choices. Stop watching and reading the crap. The internet provides way too much opportunity. If they consolidate ownership of the news, stop being a willing consumer of it. Find alternative sources.
I assume that's what most of us are doing already.
So long as they don't have their hands on the internet (not yet anyways), protests should be directed to boycotting their product. Consolidated or not.
It's not that media ownership is blatantly right wing, it's that they are subtle about it. Stories that run or don't run are often determined by owners policies and it's no accident that lies are often postulated in the name of "balance" simply because they don't want to let injurious stories go without casting doubt on the truth.
How many networks bothered to tell you the full story about the Swift Boat Veterans lie campaign? It's worse at the level of local radio stations that predominantly air right wing talk and there have been cases of people being fired for carrying stories, for instance about BGH in milk, that are true.
One of the worst effects is the reduction of minority owned stations and locally owned stations with the loss of local viewpoint and perspective and coverage that goes with it.
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