Ted Turner's Beef With Big Media

pizen writes "Washington Monthly has an article from Ted Turner where he talks about the problems with the media conglomerates and calls for them to be busted: 'At this late stage, media companies have grown so large and powerful, and their dominance has become so detrimental to the survival of small, emerging companies, that there remains only one alternative: bust up the big conglomerates.'"

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[mratitude]

I noted the Fox News mention but that is only half the issue from Ted's point of view.

The fact of the matter is that Ted sees a battle lost after it was won - Leftist ideologues controlled and were the "fourth estate" and "fifth column" elements in the United States and around the world for 50 years.

Today, Ted is seeing his religion taking a virtual beating in the public marketplace of the Internet and televised and broadcast media outlets such as Fox News and ClearChannel successes like Rush Limbaugh and so-called "conservative talk radio" in general.

Like all leftists of Ted's stripe, the idea gives them blood-spitting fits. Stay tuned, he's falling back on the usual leftist knee-jerk in this sort of situation - He'll want the leftist elites in government to "do something" as only people in government can do anything: Use force and resort to "scorched earth" tactics if necessary.

Ted has plans for the ashes. Count on it.

Turner not so big anymore?

[El_Ge_Ex]

FYI: Time Warner kicked Turner out. That's why he is suddonly so 'anti-conglomerate'.

Hypocrite. >:(

-B

Re:Calling the Kettle Black eh?

[tomhudson]

I RTFA. Turner's a whiner.

Here's a good example:

Loss of localism also undercuts the public-service mission of the media, and this can have dangerous consequences. In early 2002, when a freight train derailed near Minot, N.D., releasing a cloud of anhydrous ammonia over the town, police tried to call local radio stations, six of which are owned by radio mammoth Clear Channel Communications. According to news reports, it took them over an hour to reach anyone--no one was answering the Clear Channel phone. By the next day, 300 people had been hospitalized, many partially blinded by the ammonia. Pets and livestock died. And Clear Channel continued beaming its signal from headquarters in San Antonio, Texas--some 1,600 miles away.

Whose fault is this? Let's see.

1. Derailment - not the media's fault
2. Local authorities not having the right phone number - sounds to me like the local govt. screwed up there, not the media
3. Lack of local radio stations - well, that's no surprise: The 2000 US Census counted 36,567 people. - source is Minot's web site: http://web.ci.minot.nd.us/faq/

How the heck do you expect a "city" (a town, really) to support a whole bunch of radio and tv stations?

So, rather than telling me to read the article, why not take a second look at it with a critical eye - it IS Ted Turner, trying to justify why he hasn't done anything new lately.

Ted Turner for Capitalism!

[bill_mcgonigle]

You're quite right - when Ted Turner starts advocating captialist principles it's time to listen. (he has something of a reputation for being a socialistic liberal).

The problem with our variant of capitalism is that it leads to too much consolidation (our variation is that the legislature is for sale). When you wind up with three then two then one companies controlling 90+% of an industry there's no choice but for government to step in and regulate. When the government is dictating how companies are run that's a socialist state.

It's better for a government to intervene early and setup a market for competition. That serves the interests of everybody but those who might seek to dominate and profit from it.

Of course, it's hard to get there until you solve the legislature-for-sale problem. With media it's an especially vicious problem as media is the primary beneficiary of the dollars that a for-sale politician needs, regardless of the issue. That makes media the hardest place to fight this battle - they ought to get back to something easy like computers.

Now if the populous could put together a rational argument and decide elections based on logic and merit and not be swayed by emotional television commercials that would be a big help too. But noone wants to fix the educational system.

So, if Ted Turner is getting pragmatic in his old age and saying competition drives market improvements, then, hey, he's "Uncle Ted" today.