An Interesting Alternative to Corporate Media
Sick of the sickening commercialized, conservative bias of Fox News, talk radio, the pollution of traditional media like MSNBC, CNN, CNBC, the major broadcast networks? Are you wondering if local news stations could possibly get any worse? Do you get twinges of fear whenever NPR softballs the corporate crooks? Did it all have to turn out this way?
Well, guess what...perhaps the free market isn't what it seems. For the past 10 years or so, corporate behemoths like ClearChannel, Time Warner, Viacom, and Sinclair Broadcasting have all swelled to tremendous proportions, gobbling up all hope of a free and objective media in the United States.
In the 1960s and 1970s, it was not uncommon for local news to be filled with interesting, substantive information that actually served the public interest. Reporters were not muzzled by a relentless drive for profit, forced to deliver contrived, fear-based stories and frivolous stories that skirted the issues.
Yes, not so long ago, reporters could actually challenge the status quo with hard questions, tough criticisms, and deep analysis. Not anymore! The corporate monopolization of major news media in this country has destroyed the once-enriching media, filled with crucial stories and biting analysis, and transformed the media landscape into one concerned only with profit, at the expense of all else.
NPR and PBS in their current form are not the answer because they are forced to cover only topics too mundane or counter cultural to succeed on major media.
Those of who listen to Air America Radio on a regular basis by now know Dr. Robert McChesney very well. He's a renowned media analyst who for years has been a vociferous critic of meida conglomeration and corporate media malfeasance. In his recent book, "Our Media, Not Theirs," he makes a compelling cri de coeur for media reform. Ponder some of his strategies at http://www.robertmcchesney.com/
Here's a sampling:
Well, guess what...perhaps the free market isn't what it seems. For the past 10 years or so, corporate behemoths like ClearChannel, Time Warner, Viacom, and Sinclair Broadcasting have all swelled to tremendous proportions, gobbling up all hope of a free and objective media in the United States.
In the 1960s and 1970s, it was not uncommon for local news to be filled with interesting, substantive information that actually served the public interest. Reporters were not muzzled by a relentless drive for profit, forced to deliver contrived, fear-based stories and frivolous stories that skirted the issues.
Yes, not so long ago, reporters could actually challenge the status quo with hard questions, tough criticisms, and deep analysis. Not anymore! The corporate monopolization of major news media in this country has destroyed the once-enriching media, filled with crucial stories and biting analysis, and transformed the media landscape into one concerned only with profit, at the expense of all else.
NPR and PBS in their current form are not the answer because they are forced to cover only topics too mundane or counter cultural to succeed on major media.
Those of who listen to Air America Radio on a regular basis by now know Dr. Robert McChesney very well. He's a renowned media analyst who for years has been a vociferous critic of meida conglomeration and corporate media malfeasance. In his recent book, "Our Media, Not Theirs," he makes a compelling cri de coeur for media reform. Ponder some of his strategies at http://www.robertmcchesney.com/
Here's a sampling:
- Creating hundreds of new non-commercial community radio stations
- Applying existing antimonopoly laws to the media and, where necessary, expand their reach to restrict ownership of radio stations to one or two per owner. Consider similar steps for television stations and moves to break the lock of newspaper chains on entire regions.
- Establishing a formal study and hearings to determine fair media ownership regulations across all sectors.
- Revamping and supercharge public broadcasting to eliminate commercial pressures, reduce immediate political pressures, and serve communities without significant disposable incomes.
- Eliminating political candidate advertising as a condition of a broadcast license; or require that a station must run for free ads of similar length from all the other candidates on the ballot immediately after a paid political ad by a candidate.
- Reducing or eliminate TV advertising to children under twelve.
- De-commercializing local TV news. In return for the grant of access to the airwaves, which makes media companies rich, require that those companies set aside an hour each day of commercial-free time for news programming, with a budget based on a percentage of the station's revenues. This would free journalists to do the job of informing citizens, and allow stations to compete on the basis of quality news gathering as opposed to sensationalism.
- Revamping copyright laws to their intended goal: to protect the ability of creative producers to earn a living, and to protect the public's right to a healthy and viable public domain.
