May. 23, 2003 - 22:21 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

Mighty Mediast

Rupert Murdoch, that's who. Guess he wants to expand his empire of News Corp. to gain DirecTV, the largest Satellite TV provider. His argument according to David Ho of the Associated Press in Rocky Mountain News May 23, 2003 is that he sought to assure lawmakers Thursday that his proposed acquisition of DirecTV would not harm competition or limit consumer choices.

There is agitation afoot to ease the regulations it appears, mostly led by many large media companies. They are big, guess they want to get bigger. The biggies say that the regulations and rules are outdated.

According to the article, "A proposal being considered by the FCC would allow companies to own more TV stations in local markets. It also would eliminate many restrictions on one company owning combinations of newspapers and TV and radio stations in the same city.

Says here, "FCC Chairman Michael Powell and the two other Republicans on the five-member commission favor easing regulations." Further the article says, "Critics have asked Powell to delay the vote to allow more public discussion, but Powell has said no. Many lawmakers and Commerce Secretary Donald Evans back him.

Gotta try to get this one straight in my head first. There seems to be a rule preventing a single company from owning TV stations that reach more than 35 per cent of U.S. households. Now it says, "House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin, R-La, wrote lawmakers Wednesday, asking them to oppose proposed legislation requiring the FCC to keep a rule preventing a single company from owning TV stations that reach more than 35 per cent of U.S. households."

So, our fearless, peerless politicians think it would be a good thing that the media could be come owned by one corporation, company or Boy Scout Troop . . . . . . . . . Me, I think the danger of that kind of control can come from the Good Old Boy precept that any arm of the organization must speak with the same voice !

To me it looks as if a company owning a group of newspapers, magazines, radio stations and TV stations there is a very great danger of the company becoming a propagandist for any ruthless scheme that will give them more leeway in the things they do and also the possibility of that organization coming under government control.

So maybe I am paranoid but in my opinion it looks as things are going to the condition of, "Rules ? There are no rules." Why in the heck should any one person or company own so many media outlets ? Shoot, it is hard enough nowadays just trying to read between the lines of today's news as it is given, with TV talking heads and the crawler at the bottom of the screen and the slanted news articles in the papers. One problem I have seen for a long time is the bit of an article saying something on the order of, "X many people are affected, killed or crippled by ZZZ per year." Okay they said that and it might be true -- but what they don't say is how many people there are in the category that can be affected, which often can bring the per centage points to something like .000001 %. Half truths, half the figures, misdirection, an attempt to get folks all in an uproar about something that really has no great significance in the big picture.

Now in the wings is Rupert Murdoch who I think is trying for the title of Mighty Mediast . . . . . . . . .

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