THE SKY IS FALLING, THE SKY IS FALLING

The United States needs an independent print, (newspaper,) media. One that does not rely on a big corporate infrastructure to determine what content should or should not be carried.

This is not about who selects, produces, and owns entertainment content shown on ABC, NBC, Fox, and CBS, but rather the unwillingness of these GIGANTIC media companies to provide America with more news and documentary programs that just might have exposed those who led us into the horrid wars we are in, and are trying to encourage another one with Iran, and who have surreptitiously violated our constitution.

Congress should not allow these guys to own newspapers in the markets that they serve with television content. Those fabulous Republican FCC Commissioners will do their best to give the "really big bad guys" whatever they want.

The Washington Posts coverage of the Watergate disaster would have been stopped if pressure was brought to bear by the administration on one of today's "mega-media" conglomerates. Who among us thinks that today's administration would not punish a broadcast network for reporting bad things about the war, or "minor" constitutional violations?

And now a personal story about the "very the powerful" pushing the less powerful around.

It was well over thirty years ago that I rejoined Screen Gems following the FCC decision to strip the broadcast networks of their distribution business. I was with CBS Enterprises, the company that sold rights to broadcast in syndication the programs that CBS owned, as well as the content produced and owned by CBS News.

Having been inculcated in the FCC rule concerning what the broadcast networks could do in Canada, I was having discussions with the Columbia Pictures lawyers in Washington in order to get the CBS Network to stop doing what they were doing in Canada that violated the rules. Our lawyers agreed to anonymously and informally discuss the CBS transgressions with the CBS Washington attorneys. I thought that by doing this surreptitiously, the people at CBS would not trace the complaint back to me.

I realize now, but was too unconscious at the time to understand that "my fingerprints" were all over the issue.

It took less then a week for my boss to receive a phone call from a very senior CBS executive telling him "keep Horowitz away from what we are doing in Canada." My boss, knowing that CBS was only one of three of our customers who ordered content from us, threatened to have me killed if I ever again messed with one of his customers, even if they were violating the FCC rules or "ANYTHING!"

That brings me to my point, something that mostly takes me a long time to get around to.

America needs as much independent Radio and Television ownership as it possibly can have, and certainly not less then it already has.

More ownership diversity means more opinions, and you can come closer to the truth when information comes from as many sources as possible. Wanting the public not to know what is true appears to be "the mantra" of all governments.

The real bad guys know that if they were able to limit the sources of news and opinion that they could do whatever they wanted to do.

Domestic wiretapping in our country was revealed, not by ABC, CBS, NBC, or Fox, but rather The New York Times.
Suppose GE owned the Times, do you think that it would have been easy for them to release the story" Perhaps you do, but I don't.

The more INDEPENDENT opinions we have, the closer we can get to the truth. The argument continues to be made that we have enough sources and diversity of information already, and after all we do have the internet. PLEASE DO NOT BUY INTO THIS!

If CBS. NBC, Fox and ABC would report tonight on their network news that "the sky is falling," 20 odd million American homes would hear it at the same time.

The Bush administration has arranged to have the media in our country the way they want it to be. If they arrange to have the major newspapers in our country controlled by the same people who own and control the broadcast media, it will not be a good thing for our country.

As Nixon and his people could not control the Washington Post during Watergate, and the New York Times could report on so many things that the Bush administration wants to keep secret, that would continue to be a good thing for America,

I have looked upon the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as the "spectrum" equivalent of the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department. They should enhance or strengthen the notion of competition, diversity, and localism and not do as they have done in the past, which has been to act on behalf of the major media companies. The FCC has, in my experience, invariably follows a politically motivated agenda in their rulings.

How sad for our country.

Where is Chicken Little when we need him?

Norman Horowitz

Comments

[tgeliot]

I read the Christian Science Monitor five days a week for independent, sound reporting of national and international affairs.

[mydogshakespeare]

"The United States needs an independent print, (newspaper,) media. One that does not rely on a big corporate infrastructure to determine what content should or should not be carried."

Surely, you have seen/heard/read Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!, Mr Horowitz? If not, check it out; website plus 500 TV and radio stations around the country. If so, why not give them a plug as a follow-up to this blog?

Coincidently, Ms. Goodman has a link to a 30 minute documentary essay about this very topic on her website. Read snippets from a transcript or watch the whole thing using RealPlayer.

[mydogshakespeare]

"The United States needs an independent print, (newspaper,) media. One that does not rely on a big corporate infrastructure to determine what content should or should not be carried."

Try www.democracynow.org website which accompanies their 500-station radio and TV distribution. If you like it, and smart-but-ordinary-looking Amy Goodman, then I'm sure you can do a better job promoting it than me.

Coincidently, Mr. Horowitz, the website has a link to Amy Goodman's documentary "INDEPENDENT MEDIA IN A TIME OF WAR". You can read transcript snippets or watch the 29:09 minute video.

[Lt]

all brought to you by the criminal republican/conservative agenda,

and that agenda was brought to you by the
faith based bribe and the mindless christian voter

[Merlin7]

Everything points to more media consolidation and less diversity of opinion and reporting.

When was the last time you saw a socialist on TV or read a newspaper column by someone who wasn't blandly moderate or predictably right wing? You won't anytime soon either.

Equally worrisome, the Mommy Mentality -- the much-desired female demographic -- is dominating both news content and political debates. America is becoming a giant, imperialist nursery, obsessed with consumer products while its corporations run amok around the world. The FCC is just an afterthought, a vestige of a simpler era.