Murdoch, molding men's minds, and the FCC sell-out
Published December 21, 2003
Republican Michael Powell, Chairman of the FCC, has jammed through another give-away in the media arena. This time, it essentially gives one of the largest-and-getting-larger-still media companies in the world a corneron the global satellite market, and increases its huge holdings in the US marketeven more.
In a 3-2 vote along party lines, Federal Communications Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein joined fellow Democrat Michael J. Copps in opposing News Corp.'s purchase of a controlling stake in DirecTV. They said more stringent conditions were needed to prevent News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch — whose empire includes Fox Broadcasting, two dozen cable channels and 35 television stations in 26 cities that reach 44% of U.S. households — from squeezing or retaliating against rivals that don't play by his rules.
"With this unprecedented combination, News Corp. could be in a position to raise programming prices for consumers, harm competition in video programming and distribution markets nationwide and decrease the diversity of media voices," Adelstein said in a statement. [FCC Approves News Corp.'s DirecTV Bid subscription]
The Justice Department said they would notoppose the deal.
It's part of the current Republican policy of paying back Big Media for their Big Campaign Contributions. Eleven media companies own about 90% of all the media in the US. And now we're going to get all the news [the right wants us to get] all the time.
Michael Powell, son of Colin Powell [but I sometimes wonder if Michael wasn't adopted], did a similar thing earlier this year, too.
- Murdoch, molding men's minds, and the FCC sell-out
- Published: December 21, 2003
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- Section: Culture
- Writer: Hal Pawluk
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Comments on this articleComments
We could all just stop watching TV. Reading newspapers...etc.. then when there al bankrupt we'll start up again :P
Murdoch is a particular problem because he's single-minded and won't give up.
With his print media, he broke the union and fired 6000 workers in England by shutting down his plant and restarting a mile away.
In the US, when starting the Fox network he ran into limitations on ownership by a foreigner, so he became a US citizen.
He supports and is supported by neocons, and owns Faux News and the Weekly Standard, not mention scores of other properties.
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We need an increase in media diversity. We must bring back the fairness doctrine, reverse the concentration of ownership, and get a Democratic majority on the FCC before they have a chance to reduce Internet access to the property of major corporations.