Say goodbye to another cherished American quality...
 

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission said that commissioners are "very concerned" about media ownership consolidation ahead of a vote that is expected to relax rules on the issue.

What this means, guys, is if you think your news and other broadcasts are bad now, wait until every genre of news, including print, is owned by only a handful of corporations with very obvious political inclinations.

LA is already the worst market for this. Disney owns ABC, Viacom owns CBS, Chicago Tribune owns KTLA and The LA Times...keyword on that: "Chicago." Westinghouse, I believe, still owns NBC.

As of Monday, when this "relaxation" goes through, the age of one-sided journalism will really come into vogue.

DD remember the movie...."Network"....it sure seems to have come to pass hasn't it. Paddy was right. Back in the day network news was considered a Public Service and not for profit...each network had to provide so many hours of Public Service each day per the FCC..the airways are considered to be Public. Then in the 1970's some bright bulb in the corporate structure figured the news could be for profit...thus each network is now vying for ratings so that they can sell their advertsing spots for more money than the other network....thus if it bleeds it leads and the juicier the better...

DD you forgot Rupert owns FOX

Rupert is also looking to buy Hughes which owns DIRECTV.

Homogenous..everything will be like McDonalds....plastic, prepackaged, information... Big Mac or Quarter LBer it will all taste the same...leading you to purchase the newest and improved brand of deodrant or mouth wash out there....and guarnteed never to upset the stomach of the consumer so that he may hesitate to buy

Rupert is highly dangerous! He is a market man who "taps the vein" of what he knows America wants; not what it needs.

Odd thing about Murdoch is he's a strict Catholic and a tiresome conservative.

I can't watch FOX. It is such lousy, one-sided news, I'd rather watch asphalt grow.

But more and more, that's the way a lot of news is going. Entertainment programming is the same, as are movies.

Homogenized is the word.

BTW: welcome back 12own911. :)

It seems that avenues of communication are popping up faster than corp's can buy them. -- I'm not too put-off by this.

Cell phones, OTOH . . .
what's with selling bandwidth ("publicly owned") to providers, THEN, taxing the hell out of the service!?

Think about what percentage of your cell bill goes to "securing from the government" the bandwidth you're using. Then note the huge tax tacked on. Talk about taxing the air. http://www.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/shake.gif

Communication was what brought down the coup to oust Gorbachev...Yelestin was able to prevail....there were too many avenues of communication for the coup people to control.

However the average guy just wants to sit in front of the box and watch the latest NBA, NFL, MLB playoff and doesn't care about the destruction of the rainforest in Brazil or.........he doesn't realize that something out there could effect him or his children radically...

You're not? Being an original thinker, I think you would be.

Smoke signals seem to be the last honest form of communication I can think of. :(

You NAILED IT, Tabby. Because that NBA, NFL, MLB is an easy market with boneheads galore who sop up the advertising.

But...

If a "responsible" network were to air something about the Brazilian rainforest for any extended length of time, say an 8-hr. day, this would be the result:

1) Major USA industries would pull their ads from the broadcast and network entirely, because a good portion probably contribute to the Earth's demise.

2) Such a broadcast about the rainforest would never occur anyway, so it's a moot point.

3) John Q Citizen knows as much about a consequential issue as he did 8-hrs ago - nothing.

Broadcast thinking is let's go the safe route and do #2.

That's how I feel about CNN.

Hey, you forgot NASCAR...

Well . . .you and I will be okay; those in the herd are the one that shoud be worried. ;)

It seems to me that "messages" are powerful though smart packaging, more so than monopoly of coverage.

Many tune-in to the homogenous crap because they won't have to think. . . ..like McDonald or Starbucks- consistancy pays.

Yeah-NBA, NFL, BFD . . .these guys need something with a false conterversy to talk about. (they can't always count on the weather to be doing something interesting.)

So, as it is, the guys massaging the popular message already have control of that audience. The people whom want infomation and opinions of a different slant, have seen a recent increase in resources (internet) IMO.

BG:CNN has been going downhill since Turner lost control of it, though he in and of himself was his worst P.R. campaign.

There was a story a couple years ago about famed financial reporter Stuart Varney; British guy, real likeable sorta' pudgy face, who was filling in the slot occupied by the self-serving prophecy which is Lou Dobbs.

Seems as if it was Ash Wednesday, and Varney is a devout Catholic. So, he goes to church, gets ashes rubbed on his forehead, so forth and so on.

Stuart goes into work afterward, with the ashes still on his head (strict Catholics don't wash the ashes off - it's a sin, you know).

Anyway, Ted walks in and more-or-less announces, "I wish these religious freaks would get over themselves," and hence Varney quit on the spot.

Mouth of the South.

Anyone read the Forbes article about him? Not that I weep for a guy who's down to his last "billion," but I'm not sure his ship isn't sunk at this point. No one's listening to "The Mouth of the South" anymore.

I think Teddy's last great effort will be to find Steve Case and Gerald Levin (both of whom ruined Time Warner and CNN), and blowtorch 'em both.

But hey, you got to hand it to Ted. He is a great lover of Capt'n Planet - the environmental superhero.

I reccommend you all read a book called "The Media Monopoly" by Ben K. Bagdikian. VERY interesting read about the idea of corporate media control and forced consumerism.

Thanks dd. It is good to be back. Strokes are hard work and I need a break from it. :D

The Rainforest is boring...to much thinking involved....so all the media would have to do is schedule a playoff game against the Rainforest program on PBS etc and no one would watch.......

BTW I don't watch professional or college sports...will turn on the Stupid Bowl or maybe a World Series Game but thats about it....Thats about all I can stomach.

Must admit I do like to watch boxing and very rarily golf... love to see those guys beat each other senseless. thos golf matches can be brutal.

Oh...about Teddy...toooo bad that Steve Case bought Time Warner with AOL stock when it was ohhhh so high and now it is ohhhh so low.... couldn't happen to a better guy....and his now ex Janie Fonda...they deserve each other....I wonder which of them couldn't stand the other?

I met Teddy about five years ago when I was at Warner Bros. TV Animation. That guy was the loudest person I've ever talked to. He literally shouts when he speaks. He was alright with me, though. Cared a lot about the product. Had a thing for classic animation, which makes a guy alright in my book, for sure. Didn't seem to know squat about digital animation or Animee, but then what's there to know about that?

Yep anybody who has a reverence for things past is allright so long as they don't colourize it.

Speaking of that...Zanucks The Longest Day was done in BW, because thats the way news reels were done at the time...Zanuck was at D DAY as part of a combat photography crew....so to see that movie in colour makes me cringe.

Watched King Vidors...The Big Parade wt John Gilbert 1925....Amazing...the scenes with the French girl as she is parted from Gilbert as he goes off to battle.....the lonliness and isolation that is portrayed as you see the soldiers march past her and finially as she is alone on the road....very powerfull imagery without a sound.