Again, paraphrasing Carville's brilliant forumation in
1992, "It's the Media, Stupid." Here is another
painful and dangerous reminder -- from one of those
brave men and women whose names has been scraled on
the John O'Neill Wall of Heroes...
Bill Moyers: "Big Media companies keep getting bigger -- with more and more power over our lives. This week's deal between General Electric (GE) and Vivendi means that GE'S NBC, which helped elect Arnold Schwarzenegger Governor of California, has just picked up not only Universal Studios...Now the most powerful Republican in Congress, Tom Delay, the House Majority Leader, won't let a vote happen. The effort to reverse the FCC is dead in the water, sinking the democratic process with it. "
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1010-13.htm
Published on Friday, October 10, 2003 by
CommonDreams.org
Bill Moyers on Big Media
Big Media companies keep getting bigger -- with more
and more power over our lives. This week's deal
between General Electric (GE) and Vivendi means that
GE'S NBC, which helped elect Arnold Schwarzenegger
Governor of California, has just picked up not only
Universal Studios, but the USA, Trio and Sci-fi cable
channels to go with CNBC and MSNBC, all part now of a
$43 billion dollar empire.
Then, there's radio. The non-partisan Center for
Public Integrity is out with a new study showing that
in each of 43 different cities a third of the radio
stations are owned by a single company. No company's
supposed to own more than eight in any market, but the
media giants thumb their nose at the rules all the
time. In 34 of those 43 markets, one company owns more
than eight stations.
The big daddy of all is Clear Channel Communications
-- 1200 stations altogether. In Mansfield, Ohio, Clear
Channel owns eleven of the seventeen radio stations in
your town. In Corvallis, Oregon, over half of what
people hear is decided by Clear Channel -- seven of
thirteen radio stations.
Cumulus Media is the second biggest radio empire.
Cumulus, remember, banned the Dixie Chicks. Cumulus
owns eight of the fifteen radio stations in Albany,
Georgia.
It's a similar story in television. No single company
is supposed to control more than one television
station per city, except in some big markets. But look
at what's happened in Wilmington, North Carolina,
where there are three network affiliate stations --
Fox, NBC and ABC. This year, the Fox station changed
hands. On paper, the new owner was Southeastern Media
Holdings. But then Southeastern Media announced that
Raycom Media would help manage the company. Raycom
already owns the NBC station, so it combined the two
news departments and laid off much of the staff.
But hold on to your hat -- Raycom and Southeastern
Media Holdings turn out to be part of the same
company. Now there's not only one less independent
news operation in Wilmington, there's also one less
media company.
The flimflamery goes on. In 33 other cities, stations
that are supposed to be competitors have found clever
ways to undermine the existing rules, mergers and
takeovers, for example. Remember when Viacom married
CBS and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp ponied up for the
television stations owned by Chris-Craft? Those deals
put both conglomerates in violation of the rule that
no one company can control stations that reach more
than thirty five percent of the total audience. But so
what? The FCC just rolled over, winked, and gave both
conglomerates temporary waivers of the rule. A little
time passed and this summer the FCC raised the limit
to give the big guys what they wanted, anyway. But
that giveaway brought protests from over two million
citizens; they turned the FCC into a beseiged Bastille
on the Potomac. Such indignation from the grass roots
caused even the Senate to say, "Whoa, something's
going on. People really care about this issue." And
the Senate stopped the FCC in its tracks. There are
enough votes to do the same in the House. But then,
General Electric, owner of NBC; News Corp, owner of
Fox; Viacom, owner of CBS; and Walt Disney, owner of
ABC, brought on the hired guns ... the lobbyists ...
to wage a Trojan War on Congress. A passel of former
insiders moved through the revolving door, rolodex in
tow, trading their influence for cash -- top aides of
the Senate Majority Leader, the House Majority Whip
and of John Ashcroft himself.
Now the most powerful Republican in Congress, Tom
Delay, the House Majority Leader, won't let a vote
happen. The effort to reverse the FCC is dead in the
water, sinking the democratic process with it.
Bill Moyers is host of NOW with Bill Moyers, airing
Fridays at 9pm ET on PBS (check local listings at
http://www.pbs.org/now/sched.html)
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