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FCC to Permit Complete Media/Telecom Consolidation
rhwalker22 writes "Today's Washington Post has a piece reviewing some of the major decisions the Federal Communications Commission will be making in the next few months, moves that could fundamentally rewrite the rules for the broadcast media and Internet service providers. Excerpt: 'Opponents of the proposed rules fear that, taken together, they ultimately could lead to a few powerful conglomerates controlling the flow of electronic information, from programming of television and radio news and entertainment to owning the pipes that connect people to the Internet.'"
No, we prefer not linking to them, but given that most sites are switching to that, I don't really see a choice in the matter.
Yeah, I'm that guy.
The specific rules which are on the chopping block are the TV/radio crossownership restriction, the TV/newspaper restriction, caps on ownership on numbers of tv and radio stations that one entity can own in a market and nationally. See the Association of Independent Film and Videomakers advocacy page.
Another good resource is at the Center for Digital Democracy.
That info is pretty old. There is a new legal LPFM service, however it was severely hobbled after intense lobbying by industry which convinced Congress to take the unprecedented step of overriding the FCC on a technical matter. The outcome is hundreds of licenses were made available rather than several thousands, mostly in rural, sparsely populated areas. There are no licenses currently available with thousands more applications than there were frequencies.
For more info see the Prometheus Radio Project, they're former radio pirates that do grassroots organizing around this issue. They helped community groups apply for licenses and travel around helping to setup stations, are connected w/ lawyers and engineers that can help, really a great resource.
Brazil is a good example of what happens when media corporations are allowed to do whatever they want.
Brazil's biggest media company is called "Rede Globo" (Globo Network). They own radios (both AM and FM), TV stations across the country and newspapers.
It's hard to describe the power of such corporations although the US is beginning to have a glimpse of what happens when media becomes a tycoon controlled business.
Rede Globo's ascent to power began in the mid 60's when they sided unilateraly with the military (Brazil was forcefully ruled by the military for 20 years starting in 1964, with lots of torture and deaths -- all with the consent of the US governement, but then it's a different story). Newscasts at that time use to portray any opposer as "subversive". The whole thing grew to be what it is today: A big conglomerate with tentacles in all sections of the society.
One interesting example is what happened to "Fernando Collor", a whacko that eventually got elected as the Brazilian President some years ago. Globo supported Collor fiercely, as the other candidate was Lula (the current Brazilian president). Corporations were very afraid that a left wing candidate would win and Globo used all their power in favor of Collor. Later, winds changed and Collor started to go really nuts. Result: Globo gave all attention (nationwide!) to anti-Collor movements across the country. Lots of dust under the rug came to light and he was eventually impeached.
And if this was not enough, consider this: In the US, when Britney Spears starts singing on the radio you just say a few bad words and change the station (OK, OK, it's going to be hard to find a good one). In Brazil, when Globo wants to impose a new fad, you'll see that on TV most of the time, you'll listen on a few radio stations and on the highest circulation newspapers. You cannot escape the annoyance. You just cannot.
If you're interested in the effects of media consolidation and government propaganda, check out this short summary of a pamphlet Chomsky put out during the Gulf War.
I disagree with huge chunks of what he says in this pamphlet and subsequent pronouncements. But he has been writing about the consolidation and manipulation of the American media for many years, and if current trends continue, his annoying rants may mirror the truth more closely than any of us would like.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
AT&T has nothing to do with ITT. AT&T affiliated companies (meaning, companies which are made up of formerly AT&T employees and divisions) include NCR, Lucent, Comcast, AT&T Wireless, and the Regional Bell Companies.
The predecessor of AT&T was "The Bell Telephone Company" organized in 1877.
AT&T was formed as a subsidiary of "American Bell" in 1885 (American Bell had been formed by the consolidation of the Bell Telephone Company with Western Electric. In 1899, AT&T became the parent company of the entire Bell system.
Feel free to slam ITT, but leave AT&T out of it.
Thanks...
David Barak
http://makela.ws/
Comment removed based on user account deletion
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power" -- Mussolini
More information about this (section titled "7 Fascism"). Particularly the following:
The programme of the Fascists, as drafted in 1919, was vehemently anti-capitalistic. The most radical New Dealers and even communists could agree with it. When the Fascists came to power, they had forgotten those points of their programme which referred to the liberty of thought and the press and the right of assembly. In this respect they were conscientious disciples of Bukharin and Lenin. Moreover they did not suppress, as they had promised, the industrial and financial corporations. Italy badly needed foreign credits for the development of its industries. The main problem for Fascism, in the first years of its rule, was to win the confidence of the foreign bankers. It would have been suicidal to destroy the Italian corporations.
Fascist economic policy did not--at the beginning--essentially differ from those of all other Western nations. It was a policy of interventionism. As the years went on, it more and more approached the Nazi pattern of socialism. When Italy, after the defeat of France, entered the second World War, its economy was by and large already shaped according to the Nazi pattern. The main difference was that the Fascists were less efficient and even more corrupt than the Nazis.
But Mussolini could not long remain without an economic philosophy of his own invention. Fascism posed as a new philosophy, unheard of before and unknown to all other nations. It claimed to be the gospel which the resurrected spirit of ancient Rome brought to the decaying democratic peoples whose barbarian ancestors had once destroyed the Roman empire. It was the consummation both of the Rinascimento and the Risorgimento in every respect, the final liberation of the Latin genius from the yoke of foreign ideologies. Its shining leader, the peerless Duce, was called to find the ultimate solution for the burning problems of society's economic organization and of social justice.
From the dust-heap of discarded socialist utopias, the Fascist scholars salvaged the scheme of guild socialism. Guild socialism was very popular with British socialists in the last years of the first World War and in the first years following the Armistice. It was so impracticable that it disappeared very soon from socialist literature. No serious statesman ever paid any attention to contradictory and confused plans of guild socialism. It was almost forgotten when the Fascists attached it to a new label, and flamboyantly proclaimed corporativism as the new social panacea. The public inside and outside of Italy was captivated. Innumerable books, pamphlets and articles were written in praise of the stato corporativo. The governments of Austria and Portugal very soon declared that they were committed to the noble principles of corporativism. The papal encyclical Quadragesimo Anno (1931) contained some paragraphs which could be interpreted--but need not be--as an approval of corporativism. In France its ideas found many eloquent supporters.
It was mere idle talk. Never did the Fascists make any attempt to realize the corporativist programme, industrial self-government. They changed the name of the chambers of commerce into corporative councils. They called corporazione the compulsory organizations of the various branches of industry which were the administrative units for the execution of the German pattern of socialism they had adopted. But there was no question of the corporazione's self-government. The Fascist cabinet did not tolerate anybody's interference with its absolute authoritarian control of production. All the plans for the establishment of the corporative system remained a dead letter.
I think you drank too much beer when you were up here. Please tell me where in Canada you can get cable TV AND Internet for $40 Canadian! I live in Ontario and I pay $40 for broadband cable, $40 for cable TV, and another $20 for digital cable. That's $100 not $40. The cheapest internet/digital package I can get is $80. I looked at the prices in Calgary and the prices are similar. (and yes I know that's still cheap compared to most parts of the world-i'm not complaining, I'm commenting)
You are correct about the investment in infrasturcture. Places out west offered adsl in the early 90's when most ppl had slip accounts, and most ppl didn't even hear about the internet. Saskatchewan upgraded a huge chunk of its' copper wire to fiberoptics in the 80's in order to bring data communications to rural communities! How's that for foresight? One thing I notice is that there is a big difference between western canada and eastern canada. Western Canada is quick to adopt new technologies and innovations, while Eastern Canada has old school thinking-if it aint't broke don't fix it. For example, in Quebec many pay phones are still rotary.
A good little place to keep up with the mergers and conglomerations in the media world is at Who Owns What.
The Columbia Journalism Review keeps good tabs on such things.