The Bush administration has installed another head of the FCC, Kevin Martin, that seeks to further consolidate ownership of our media as if the previously Bush appointed Michael Powel was not enough but thinking what? What could possiblly be driving this dark effort toward narrower and narrower media ownership? The FCC's argument, dominated by republican appointees, is that newspapers are not making enough to stay afloat and therefore need to be able to merge with radio and TV stations but are in fact averaging better profits than the average Fortune 500 company. Certainly some republican owned papers consistently siding with the Bush administration have finally lost readership needing help themselves. Or is it just.more crass service again to the corporate rich. No doubt some in this administration reason that if headed for difficult times there must be singled minded consensus within the U.S. about how to navigate those coming tough times? Either way expect from this leadership more surrender to the efficiency of facist policy.
Is large corporate ownership of the media, virtually all media, in the form of only 6 corporate entities free press? Some cities and it's thousands of needed to be informed citizens are dominated by one major media outlet. Is that what the founding fathers had in mind when they established free press, 6 large corporations with the interests of the rich and powerful in common controling, for the entire country, what we see and hear? When your congressmen are bought off by the rich and powerful and your press is all but completely owned by the rich and powerful what do you get? Can the truth squeek through somewhere, somehow to the people.
When you have only 6 very wealthy media outlets controlling all we see and hear it is very likely you will have narrow consensus presentation of news. You do not have to look very far to see the pitfalls of such limited "free press". A good example of this consensus media presentation was the near unanimous cheerleading of us all into the Iraq war without a significant voice of dissent. One of the most clearly miscalculated and misjudged war efforts in the history of this nation and not a network voice questioning the decision to go to war. The 6 media outlets allowed no questioning of the decision to go to war. It is incredible to this writer that the new head of the FCC can now push for even narrower media ownership and coverage, that is placing more of the power of the media into the hands of these even fewer and more powerful entities in the face of such a display as the media leading us into the Iraq war. Make no mistake this is not solely the responsiblity of the Republican party but this media consolidation also took place during the Clinton administration. We cannot depend on the Democrats to stand in the way of this digression from true free press. This is clearly a move that will have to come from the people themselves. This time the government is dependent on the people, dependent on what we each do. We have to write our congressmen, write the FCC, make a big stink they cannot ignore. People should be in the streets over this because if you do not do something about this you will not be able to develop consensus viewpoints to do something about anything else. Right? Sure you get your wrestling, sitcoms and reality shows. Big corporate media will always throw you piles of bones for your brain amid bits of steak but are we really going to be so stupid as to just ignore this narrowing ownership of the media, narrowing of offered viewpoints?
We will remain a healthy nation only if we have a diverse number of viewpoints out there for all of us to consider. The truth was out there before the Iraq invasion but the media owners would not allow it to get through because they themselves think alike with similiar view and mind. Do we really want to think like that? I don't think so. The FCC wants to slip this decision through behind closed doors by Dec. 18th. They are trying to get this through during the dazzle of the Christmas season and the heavy election coverage period. It is a sorry timing and tactic by this republican "inspired" FCC and we as citizens would surely be doing something more consistent with the season but we are called as citizens to act now!
Contact the FCC, Federal Communications Commission - Tell the FCC you do not want Big Media to get any bigger!
http://www.fcc.gov/contacts.html
Contact your congressman -Ask your congress to hold full public hearings on the issue of media ownership immediately!
http://www.manesandtailsorganization.org/congress_110th.htm
Tell them you oppose this effort to further consolidate media ownership!
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