Media power grab looms in the US

ON MONDAY, the FCC will centralize control over the US press.

Their plan is not so crude as an outright government takeover of the US media -- TV and radio stations plus cable, newspapers and magazines.

Instead, the Administration will just let their friends buy it all up. Under the guise of deregulation, FCC Chairman Michael Powell and a few of his cronies propose to drop restrictions on media consolidation.

Most Americans -- except Big Media conglomerates, of course -- regard this as a Really Bad Idea.

Naturally, the indendepent media (what's left of them, that is) are up in arms, as reported by Yahoo Canada Media Watch. But they're overmatched in most markets by the weight of existing controlled media: ClearChannel, Fox, TimeWarner, Disney/ABC, cable TV networks, and the giant newspaper chains that dominate most midsized cities in the US.

But others are also speaking out about this looming media anschluss.

Former Clinton administration FCC Chairman Reed Hundt is interviewed in Salon here. Says Hundt, "It's the culmination of the attack by the right on the media...."

And Ted Turner, who built CNN into prominence before selling his own media empire to TimeWarner, wrote an incandescent guest editorial in Friday's Washington Post here.

The FCC will probably tilt the playing field of US journalism sharply to the right on Monday. However, for the sake of US democracy, we can only hope Ted Turner will be proven right in saying: "This isn't over." µ

L'INQS
Yahoo Canada