"What we have is much closer to plutocracy,
where the massive concentration of wealth at the top
protects and perpetuates itself by controlling the ends and means of politics.
...The airwaves belong to all of us, right?
...We heard the other day of a candidate for office in a Midwest state
who complained to the general manager of a TV station
that his campaign was not getting any news coverage.
“You want coverage?” the broadcaster replied.
“Buy some ads and then we’ll talk!”
...The media companies and their local stations
– including goliaths like CBS and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp
– stand to pull in as much as $3 billion this year from political ads.
...[From] a letter from the deans of twelve of our best journalism schools:
“Broadcast news organizations depend on, and consistently call for,
robust open-record regimes for the institutions they cover;
it seems hypocritical for broadcasters
to oppose applying the same principles to themselves.”
Hypocritical, but consistent with a business that values the almighty dollar over public service.
The industry leaves nothing to chance.
Through its control of the House of Representatives,
it got a piece of legislation passed this past week
euphemistically titled the FCC Process Reform Act.
George Orwell must be spinning in his grave – this isn’t reform, it’s evisceration.
...There was a noble attempt by California Congresswoman Anna Eshoo
to include in this bill an amendment that, like the FCC proposal,
called for stations to post on-line who’s putting up the big bucks for political ads.
Shocker — it was rejected.
Score another one for the plutocrats.
Bill Moyers
No comments:
Post a Comment