FYI:
From IPA:
ROBERT McCHESNEY,
Professor at the Institute of Communications Research at the University of
Illinois and author of "Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics
in Dubious Times," McChesney, who participated in a CNN discussion on the
future of media with Time Warner head Gerald Levin a week ago, said today:
"This deal culminates five years of frantic deal-making that have seen our
media culture come to be dominated by less than 10 transnational media firms
operating in largely non-competitive markets.... It hammers the last nail in
the coffin of those utopians who regarded the Internet as providing the
mechanism to radically change our media culture for the better. The Internet
was established by massive public subsidies and now, without a shred of
public debate, the system has become the plaything of a handful of
billionaire investors who use their power to commercially carpet bomb every
possible moment of our lives."
BEN H. BAGDIKIAN,
Author of "The Media Monopoly" and professor emeritus and former dean of
the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at
Berkeley, Bagdikian said: "This acquisition is standard in the strategy of
media corporations that no significant media company in the country will
remain independent."
From FAIR:
MONOPOLIZING THE NEWS AWARD -- The New York Times
The day after Viacom -- the movie, cable TV and publishing powerhouse --
announced plans to purchase CBS and become the third-largest media
conglomerate in the world, the New York Times devoted seven articles to the
proposed takeover. But there was no space to quote a single critic about the
threat to consumers or to democracy posed by this concentration of media
power. There was room, however, for quotes from various upbeat Wall Street
analysts, and for a reporter's reference to the bygone era of the 1970s: "In
those quaint days, it bothered people when companies owned too many media
properties."
Respectfully,
Jay Fenello,
New Media Relations
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http://www.fenello.com 770-392-9480
Aligning with Purpose(tm) ... for a Better World
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"We are creating the most significant new jurisdiction
we've known since the Louisiana purchase, yet we are
building it just outside the constitution's review."
-- Larry Lessig, Harvard Law School, on ICANN
