Media Consolidation

America, we have a problem...  Multi-media conglomerates are buying up everything in their paths.  And the only people who suffer, are, oh, wait US, the American people.   

Recently, Jon Monday of the Fallbrook Village News (http://www.freepress.net/news/29478) reported that media consolidation is an issue that affects both liberals and conservatives.  Monday points out the origination of the FCC was to regulate broadcasters and ensure diversity of ownership and opinion, to serve the public interest and to serve local needs. However, in 1966, the FCC deregulated media ownership causing a massive buyout of many local media. In 2003, the FCC made an even worse move by allowing crossover ownership of media outlets, allowing conglomerates to own multiple media channels.  

Currently, six multi-media corporations own a significant majority of all the media outlets within the United States.  They control what we watch on television and in the theaters, what we listen to on the radio and what we read in print.  They feed us information they feed we need to know and delete the information they deem unnecessary.   Consolidation affect everyone.

One of the major effects that mass media consolidation has had is the offering of local programming and public affairs have greatly decreased.  National stories such as presidential elections are given far more television airtime than local elections.  Disasters in small or rural towns are often unable to be reported over some radio stations because the local station is often owned by an out-of-town, often out-of-state company that have fixed programming.  Some formatted stations, such as those owned by Clear Channel, are continuously overlapping songs on different stations.  Their formats have become so predictable that you can almost set your watch by them.

Political bias has also had a large effect on the media.  It allows the company owners to change or squash stories that do not adhere to the management’s political beliefs.  They can refuse to air documentaries, news stories, films, songs, speeches and advertisements.  This allows companies to control everything we see and hear.  

By allowing one company, or a small number of companies, to control multiple forms of mass media, we are allowing the companies to dictate to a democratic society biased or slanted views and opinions.  It gives a small number of people a large amount of control over what we learn, what we see and what we hear.  Consolidation causes a lack of diversity in opinions and fewer opportunities to voice those opinions through the media.

This country was built on diversity, opinions and perseverance.  We struggled to gain independence from oppression and tyranny.  If we, the people, do not stand up to FCC and we allow media conglomerates to control every stitch of our media we might as well rename the country Big Business because that is who will rule us.