-Caveat Lector-
Surely the writer wrote this while high on drugs.TOTALLY BACKWARDS,
UPSIDE DOWN and UNTRUE!
On Tue, 22 May 2001 13:08:40 -0700 radman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> -Caveat Lector-
>
> Tuesday, May 22, 2001
>
> Big media pushes news to the far right
>
> <http://www.sfexaminer.com/opinion/default.jsp?story=OPfuchs0506w>
>
> The biggest lie fed the American people by conservative pundits is
> that the
> United States is dominated by the "liberal media." As if Rupert
> Murdoch,
> Michael Eisner, General Electric, Time-Warner AOL and Viacom are
> owned and
> operated by liberals.
> Not only are these folks ultra-conservatives, but the people they
> hire to
> voice their opinions are so far to the right, they give independent
> journalism a dirty name. No, my friends, the corporate media is in
> the
> hands of right-wing kooks parading as moderates and pushing the
> political
> envelope further and further to the right.
> That great political scientist Hannah Arendt said American democracy
> would
> live or die as a result of the marketplace of ideas. If the
> marketplace is
> closed down because one political philosophy predominates, than
> democracy
> will die. And that has happened over a period of time because of the
> burgeoning power of media conglomerates and the destruction of
> independent
> journalism.
> Now we are about to see another major assault on media journalism by
> the
> Federal Communications Commission. The new chair of the FCC is
> Michael
> Powell, the son of Colin Powell.
> For decades the Supreme Court has ruled that no media company should
> own
> more than one medium in a market and that television market
> penetration
> should be limited to no more than 35 percent. That ruling helped
> provide
> competition in the marketplace and a diversity of ideas. The rulings
> also
> prohibited cross-ownership of radio, newspapers and television in
> the same
> market.
> But now the FCC and the appeals courts have become sympathetic to
> the free
> speech rights of corporations and more skeptical of the role of
> government
> in promoting diversity in the mass media. Of course, the nation's
> largest
> TV networks, cable companies and other media businesses have become
> powerful financial contributors to political parties.
> Powell is invoking free speech in his interpretation of the rules
> governing
> broadcast restrictions. He objects to the government imposing rules
> that
> limit how many people one company can talk to. He says, "There is
> something
> offensive to First Amendment values about that limitation."
> The FCC will review this rule and determine what modifications are
> warranted. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
> has a
> case before it that involves just that issue as Viacom, Inc., the
> parent
> company of CBS, finds out whether it has to divest stations to come
> in
> compliance with the 35 percent cap.
> Earlier this year the D.C. appeals court threw out similar
> restrictions on
> cable TV companies, an action many believe signaled a change in the
> networks' war against the broadcast limit. In that case the court
> determined that limiting the number of subscribers one company can
> reach,
> impeded too heavily on free speech.
> And within a few weeks officials at the FCC said the agency will
> begin to
> loosen a 26-year-old regulation restricting a company from owning a
> television station and a newspaper in the same market.
> Some consumer groups have denounced the court's decision, saying it
> would
> further concentrate media power in many markets with limited
> competition,
> sharply reducing the diversity of viewpoints on the airwaves and
> diminishing the number of companies.
> These rules, which the courts and Powell want to do away with, have
> protected the American public's access to news, information and
> programming
> reflecting many political views, different perspectives and tastes.
> The
> erosion of these protections means that the ultra-conservatives will
> not
> only dominate the airwaves, but monopolize it.
> What Powell and the courts are missing in all this is that since the
> beginning of radio, the federal government has regulated the
> airwaves,
> taking the unequivocal position that it belongs to the people, not
> to the
> corporations. Businesses were allowed to broadcast using the
> airwaves as
> long as they maintained certain rules and standards.
> People like Rush Limbaugh could never make it on radio because of a
> rule
> that gave equal time to persons to respond to political attacks by
> commentators. Radio commentators were very careful in how they
> broached
> their attacks in the old days. That rule went out when Ronald Reagan
> became
> president and Democrats in Congress agreed to the change.
> Perhaps the best example of where the media in this country is
> headed is
> best illustrated by Jane Akre and Steve Wilson. They won the Goldman
> Environmental Prize for trying to report on the potentially
> cancerous,
> genetically modified hormone rBGH in milk. Under pressure from
> Monsanto,
> the manufacturer, Fox Network refused to air the reports and
> eventually
> fired the journalists.
> Akre successfully sued Fox for violating Florida's whistle-blower
> law and
> is now defending the settlement in the appeal process. But no other
> television network picked up on that report, or approached the two
> to have
> them report this important piece of news.
> We are sterilizing the news in this country and every media company
> is in
> lock-step making certain that corporate America's interests are
> protected
> against reporters who would challenge them by broadcasting the
> truth.
>
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major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
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Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
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