Media Conglomeration Spells Doomocracy

By Blondesense

I'll be over here guestblogging from Blondesense while Billydoom is away on family business. I've crawled into the Doomocracy bunker and will try to keep his readers abreast of failures in democracy and other news. Of course I don't hail from a former commie country and don't have the insight that Mr Doom has when he sees what is happening in America as he has seen in Eastern Europe, but I'll do my best since that NY is turning into a police state and I get the picture! I'll try to write really really long sentences too, like Billydoom does. (see previous sentence)

And now on to my post.

Democracy depends on a balanced media.It's no secret that we have lost the most important part of democracy which is to keep our citizens informed. We are dis-informed if we take the mass media at face value. Our so called journalists have turned into stenographers for the White House reporting only what is told to them, never questioning contradictions and never connecting dots. Cable television news repeats the same stories all day only changing the talking heads who give opinions rather than facts. All of this is described by Fox as 'fair and balanced' and CNN as "the most trustest name". It's all fabrication but it's been repeated so many times that most citizens believe it.

In the 14 Characteristics of Fascism by Dr Lawrence Britt, we are experiencing 2 characteristics when it comes to our media.

6. Controlled Mass Media -- Sometimes the media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or through sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in wartime, is very common.

and

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism -- Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

In our case now, the news media is overrun with patriotic themes and slogans. The mass media rarely questions the faux authority of the executive branch of government. The media was complicit in the war on Iraq even though the president went ahead with it without consulting congress. The media is also owned by just a few mega-corporations due to the deregulation of media controls. Now independents can barely be noticed in media and music. It's all corporate owned. Mass media only reports what benefits the corporation or its sponsors. The public airwaves are supposed to report relevent news to american citizens and it has failed miserably.

A democracy demands regulations. A democracy doesn't mean that it's a free for all. What has happened with media deregulation is that we are losing a variety of opinions. Not too swift citizens think that america is still a powerful and beloved nation worldwide while foreigners think we've gone bonkers. Americans think that the liberals are out to destroy them. The media has convinced the not too swift that even moderates are lefties. The majority of our country are moderates. We are not lefties.

Ted Turner has written a marvelous piece (My Beef With Big Media
How government protects big media--and shuts out upstarts like me.)for the Washington Monthly which explains much about what has happened in the past couple of decades.

Ted spells out what has happened over time in media and how it's declined due to media deregulation. He talks about the loss of quality, the loss of localism and the loss of democratic debate.

I freely admit: When I was in the media business, especially after the federal government changed the rules to favor large companies, I tried to sweep the board, and I came within one move of owning every link up and down the media chain. Yet I felt then, as I do now, that the government was not doing its job. The role of the government ought to be like the role of a referee in boxing, keeping the big guys from killing the little guys. If the little guy gets knocked down, the referee should send the big guy to his corner, count the little guy out, and then help him back up. But today the government has cast down its duty, and media competition is less like boxing and more like professional wrestling: The wrestler and the referee are both kicking the guy on the canvas. -Ted Turner

UPDATE: The right wing still thinks that big media is liberal as per Pat Buchanan on MSNBC. He has completely flipped his lid. Read this article at Gadflyer.