"It's the Media, Stupid."
AdAge.com: Working the campaign trail casually dressed
in a red mock turtleneck and brown corduroys, Mr.
Clark told the audience in Portsmouth's South Church
that "I don't think it is in the American public
interest to further consolidate the media." Answering
this reporter's question, the candidate said media
consolidation "is damaging to putting out diverse
opinions and fostering public dialogue. ... We need to
distribute the ownership in media. We need to have the
fairness in broadcasting rules put back in place."
Break Up the Corporatist Stranglehold on the News
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http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=39479
WESLEY CLARK SLAMS MEDIA CONSOLIDATION
Democratic Presidential Candidate Also Criticizes
Entertainment Industry
January 05, 2004
QwikFIND ID: AAP25T
By Ira Teinowitz
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (AdAge.com) -- The consolidation of
American media companies should stop, and rules that
safeguard local media company independence need to be
reinstated, Democratic presidential candidate Wesley
Clark said as he campaigned in New Hampshire over the
weekend.
In response to questions as he stumped across the
Granite State toward the Jan. 27 presidential primary,
the retired four-star general from Arkansas was
critical of both big media and an entertainment
industry he characterized as creating and selling ever
more violent video games to children.
Combat training videos
Mr. Clark said many of the video games now being sold
to consumers are more violent than the video game
simulations used by the U.S. military to train its
troops in the realities of combat.
In his broader comments from the campaign stage, Mr.
Clark attacked the Bush administration for, among
other things, its Iraq War policies, its failure to
track down Osama bin Laden, the loss of U.S. jobs and
inadequate health care measures.
Working the campaign trail casually dressed in a red
mock turtleneck and brown corduroys, Mr. Clark told
the audience in Portsmouth's South Church that "I
don't think it is in the American public interest to
further consolidate the media." Answering this
reporter's question, the candidate said media
consolidation "is damaging to putting out diverse
opinions and fostering public dialogue. ... We need to
distribute the ownership in media. We need to have the
fairness in broadcasting rules put back in place."
Violent images
Mr. Clark criticized the level of "violence and
violent images" in both media and video games. "I'm
very disturbed by a lot of the video games," he said.
"They are worse than any Army training games we ever
used. I think we need video games that teach people
constructive skills instead of hand-eye coordination
in the use of firearms."
"You have to work with all of the ratings systems we
have in the entertainment area," he said. "You have to
work with the leaders in entertainment. You have to
work with the leaders in communities to enforce
ratings systems, tighten them up and reduce prevalence
of violence" in entertainment.
On Saturday, Mr. Clark's campaign produced more than
600 people to hear his remarks -- the largest crowd
yet assembled for the candidate. A "Conversation with
Clark" event originally scheduled for a basement room
in South Church had to be moved to a larger assembly
hall. A second appearance later in the day at the
small North Hampton town hall was greeted by another
large audience, as well as a fire marshal enforcing
local occupancy limit laws.
Out-of-staters
The size of the turnout was swelled by residents of
other states coming to New Hampshire to get their own
view of the nine candidates competing in the
Democratic primary. Some of those attending the events
said they had come from New Jersey, Massachusetts and
elsewhere because of the unique personalized view of
the candidates offered by the New Hampshire campaigns
that kick off the presidential primary season.
"I've seen [Howard] Dean and [John] Edwards and now
Clark," said Gigi Brienza, of Princeton, N.J., at a
pancake breakfast for Clark in a Veterans of Foreign
Wars hall in Rochester. She said she had come to hear
the candidates' views on health care.
As he markets himself to the electorate of this state
peopled by hardly more than a million residents, part
of Mr. Clark's health-related message is that he
favors an increase in the number of people covered by
health care insurance.