A commenter on this facebook group wrote: “Would it really matter if they all consolidated? They are all owned by huge corporations anyway.”

Yes, it would matter. Things are already bad enough as it is. The last thing we need is more consolidation.

Here is why it would matter:

• Concentration of ownership increases the likelihood of conflict of interest, incentives for bland, homogenized content and corruption.

  An owner of a Southeastern advertising agency puts it like this: “Clear Channel will do anything they can, threaten me, go to my clients directly, anything to get control of the markets. And once they’ve got control they can do whatever they want, including raise the rates. They’re a clear example of what can happen with deregulation. They’ve ruined radio, as far as I’m concerned. Any now they’re licking their chops to be able to control more of what the public sees and hears.”

• Another concern raised by media activists is the lack of access to diverse viewpoints. Amy Goodman explains:

  “The lack of diversity in ownership helps explain the lack of diversity in the news. When George W. Bush first came to power, the media watchers Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) looked at who appeared on the evening news on ABC, CBS and NBC. Ninety-two percent of all U.S. sources interviewed were white, 85 percent were male, and where party affiliation was identifiable, 75 percent were Republican.”

  It is important to remember here that the media cheerlead the iraq war, watches inaction on global warming with complacency and lack gender and ethnic diversity.. This introduction to a webchat with Ed Baker of the University of Pennsylvania Law School explains:

  “As early as 1947, a major study predicted that media consolidation would be one of three factors to threaten freedom of the press in the United States. Today that threat has intensified with only 14 cities operating competing, separately-owned daily newspapers in 2002 compared to 180 in 1940. Nor is this an exclusively American problem. According to Media Channel, six global corporations currently dominate world media, dabbling in publishing, television broadcasting, radio and mass entertainment.

  While on the surface fewer privately owned newspapers might not seem to pose a threat to press freedom and democracy at large, critics warn that fewer media outlets means fewer voices heard and fewer opinions expressed. Critics also allege that consolidation translates into more emphasis being placed on profits than on content, something that ultimately does the public a disservice.”

  Where were the anti-war voices in 2002? “In the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, there was even less diversity of opinion on the airwaves. During the critical two weeks before and after Colin Powell’s speech to the United Nations where he made his case for war, FAIR found that just three out of 393 sources — fewer than 1 percent — were affiliated with anti-war activism.”

  Where were the skeptics when the Supreme Court effectively decided a Presidential election in 2000?

  These voices were excluded from the dialogue by the big six. One can’t help but wonder how things would have played out with a diverse and independent media.

• Some media moguls may have a sinister agenda:

  “Although Murdoch’s press interests in America are far smaller than in the UK, he still owns a flagship title in the right-wing New York Post. Murdoch’s Weekly Standard, the main organ of the Neo-conservative movement, helped form the ideological basis for the war. It is a war that Murdoch has never shied away from backing. Yet, despite the war’s disastrous course, Murdoch has taken little blame for it. It is too big a issue and too divisive to lay at the feet of one media mogul.”

  Fair has more:

  “Since its 1996 launch, Fox has become a central hub of the conservative movement’s well-oiled media machine. Together with the GOP organization and its satellite think tanks and advocacy groups, this network of fiercely partisan outlets–such as the Washington Times, the Wall Street Journal editorial page and conservative talk-radio shows like Rush Limbaugh’s–forms a highly effective right-wing echo chamber where GOP-friendly news stories can be promoted, repeated and amplified. Fox knows how to play this game better than anyone.”

Please do your part to fight media consolidation.

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