The End of Peter B. Collins and the Need for Media Reform

We may have to get progressive talk shows put on the Endangered Species List, now that the president has reinstated it. Otherwise there won't be any voices on the air except the voices of the right, whether "centrist" (corporate) or explicitly far-right (corporate). As Brad Friedman notes in his report on Peter B. Collins's forced departure, the economic crash is threatening to finish off those last few figures who have managed somehow to resist the oligopolistic tide that has by now all but submerged the US media.

That purge, now near-complete, has actually been in the works for years. It was the purpose of the vast "de-regulation" of the media begun by Reagan back in '87 (soon after the corporate press obligingly refused to look too deeply into Iran/contra) and continued by Bill Clinton nine years later (and a fat lot of good it did him.)

Those grand strokes were the eventual result of a big semi-covert effort that had started up much earlier, when, in the early Seventies, the US Chamber of Commerce and the top tier of its membership (some dare call it "the ruling class") resolved to take the country back from all those citizens who had been acting up against the war, for civil rights for all, for the environment, etc. Such was the groundwork for the Reagan/Clinton hand-off of our airwaves (and the cable system) to the likes of GE, News Corporation, Disney and Time Warner, and the aptly named Clear Channel. With that network in charge, and quite absolved of any public obligation, those trying to tell some truth out loud soon found that they were struggling to be heard.

So now Rush Limbaugh's voice -- along with those of Hannity, O'Reilly, Ingraham and the aptly self-named "Michael Savage," among others -- bellows inescapably from coast to coast, while those who are at least as talented, but honest, rational and well-informed, have got to work like hell to find, and build, their audience (which is, increasingly, on-line).

This can be done: Thom Hartmann, having now left the implosive Air America, is doing it and Mike Malloy is doing it. (Now Randi Rhodes is also off the air.) That such talents have to work that way, while all those lethal gas-bags come in loud and clear, is a clear sign that the US media is in dire need of change, of just the sort that Team Obama promised us last year.

For the dominance of all those rightist blowhards is not based on the market, although their fans keep saying that it is, in countless fuming posts and letters to the editor. Contrary to that talking point, the crackpot views of Rush et al. have only fringe appeal -- as we, and all the world, saw clearly on Election Day, and as we see especially clearly now that the economy's collapsed. Most people out there were quite thrilled to see Jon Stewart clean Jim Cramer's clock. So where is that big audience for Glenn Beck, and Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity, and all the other hirelings out there channeling Herbert Hoover?

Let's face it: There's been no such big audience for quite a while. When sharp progressive talkers have been able to compete, they've done quite well -- just ask Phil Donohue, who lost his show five years ago despite the fact that it was MSNBC's top-rated offering. (Internal memos shortly made it clear that he was dumped because he was against Bush/Cheney's war.) And now that network has Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow in prime time, with Joe Scarborough shunted to the mornings. Meanwhile, Thom Hartmann has been besting Rush in markets where he's had the chance -- but, by and large, he hasn't had the chance; and neither has Peter B. Collins, or any other able dissident.

So what this country needs, ASAP, is media reform; because the media culture now in place is not a genuine expression of our real opinions or desires, but a gigantic corporate imposition on us all. For far too long we have assumed that what we see and hear (and read) comes mostly from the right because Americans are mostly on the right: not just throughout the "heartland," but, ludicrously even in New York, L.A,, Chicago, San Francisco. Thus we must reform the US media -- break the oligopoly, restore the broadcast code, and build a genuinely non- commercial public system) so that we'll know not just what's really going on, but also, even more important, who we really are.

Comments

[mellene]

I've listened to Peter B for many years and am most sad to see him leave live am Radio. I understand he'll be back around June with podcast only for those who want to listen via the internet. Every day it becomes more apparent that MSM has a chokehold on what they'll permit listerners/viewers to see. I guess we can see that fascisim is alive, well and growing rapidly in this country.

[DickTater]

I'll say it again, No Corporations want to advertise on a Network who will be exposing their crimes on air.

News is a conundrum, the truth hurts. Who is going to subsidize and underwrite this? The same folks who are getting rich off of ruining our world, fleecing our citizens, poisoning our water, running healthcare for profit? Well, they would be the primary targets of good journalism, hard-hitting and truthful news, and progressive talking heads.

[HalleBurton]

Who in Congress, or perhaps, the FCC will introduce anti-monopoly rules, like how many stations a network can control in a market, or limit the spread of influence of owning radio + tv + newspaper in the same market?

Who will propose a minimum quantity of live and original content per venue to limit remote feeds to stations?

Who will require again that broadcasters be licensed to keep any Joe Blowhard from having his own soapbox of hate platform (think community standards?)

Who will require that stations using the public airwaves having to reapply for and defend their use of their frequency in the public interest?

Who will limit the lifespan of a communication corporation to prevent a consolidation of unchallenged power and influence?

[NoPCZone]

Clear Channel, Salem & other large chain owners of radio stations are on the brink of bankruptcy and prices for stations are down- way down. Now is the time for those with the pocket to snap up some prime on-air real estate and get Jones, Nova-M, Air America or something else expanded into Red Amerika.

Alternatively, a show of support and strength for progressive radio voices might spike their interest. Nothing breaks the ice with a pinched business leader like the opportunity to make money.

[Downtown]

Couldn't agree more, but progressive talk has been in the doldurms (at best) for years now. That's why started Progressive Blend Radio (www.pbradio.net) four years ago - to try to put truly progressive voices out there. We welcome all the new 'net-broadcasters but until we can get into people's car radios like Hanoi Rush and the rest, it's going to be an uphill fight at best.

[DickTater]

Mr Miller is right on....but do people really get the DEPTH of what has been done to us?
Our airwaves were stolen from us by people who wanted to sell cornflakes and dandruff shampoo.

Now it has become a do-or-die organ of the corporations. If we knew HALF of what they swept under the rug, and kept us from seeing, they would have to kill themselves on on-air just to atone for it.

Alas, it is a vicious cycle. The Corporate Media cannot cover the biggest problems we face, because the causes are CORPORATE. Corporate Media cannot go around blaming corporations and exposing them. Their biggest money makers are advertisers, also CORPORATIONS. SO, Corporate Media would be slitting their own throats, and their advertiser's, if they exposed what was really happening in our country and if they really reported the news. SO instead, they expose Madoff (who really isn't part of the big Corporate Culture) and hunt for missing blonde abductees and show hillbilly gunfights and Cop Shows targeting street people to keep our eyes off the REAL CRIMINALS.

Since Media is a Corporate and Advertising based system....since it was stolen and twisted....no start-up or Lefty Media can get any traction. No Corporation wants to try advertising on a Media which will soon be exposing their crimes on-air.

[gripesofwrath]

Ah, Mark?
Randi Rhodes has been off the air for over a month now. Rhodes had a contract dispute (breach of contract) with Sheldon and Anita Drobny, who ran NovaM radio into the ground. Nova is no longer in existence. This also affected Mike Malloy who is now broadcasting on his own.
The situation is severely hampering progressive voices from being heard. yes, they do well. But until progressives with money (hello, Oprah? Arianna? Hollywood? Ted Turner? George Soros?) get together and form a media entity that can compete, those voices will continue to be silenced.
The problem with progressive radio so far is that people with lots of money but NO experience in radio decided they wanted to "play radio". So instead of hiring real pros to run the network, they figured they could do it themselves. And they screwed up. You have to do more than hire talent for the airwaves. You have to hire people who know how to run a radio station/network.
With the economy in the dumps, there are radio stations that are struggling. Now might be a great time to buy some and create a network that wouldn't be at the whim of ClearChannel or any other right wing entity.
It's like here (HuffPo) and the Daily Kos. These two sites (and some others) have brought progressives together in amazing ways. But it's not enough. We need radio and TV too.

[Ohioan730]

I can tell the media has been manipulated all my life because its such a shock for me to see war torn bodies on prime time TV nowadays. We never saw those things on TV when I was a child during Raygun's administration. Another by-product of that was the nuclear anxiety I suffered back then because there was no way to know if the truth was being told and if there would be any warning before Russia launched their weapons. It created in my young mind a fear of Russians and the traces of it remain to this day. I cant explain how relieved I was to know that Obama would sign a peace deal with the Russians so we have no more problems with them. LOL! He must have been scared as a youth as well.

[kimk3]

Great artifcle.