Posted on 12/02/2003 10:06:24 AM PST by kattracks
Democratic presidential front-runner Howard Dean pledged Monday night to "break up" the Fox News Channel along with other conservative news outlets owned by media baron Rupert Murdoch."Eleven companies in this country control 90 percent of what ordinary people are able to read and watch on their television," the ex-Vermont governor complained to MSNBC's Chris Matthews, who then asked the candidate point-blank:
"Would you break up Fox? ... Rupert Murdoch has 'The Weekly Standard.' It has got a lot of other interests. It has got the New York Post. Would you break it up?"
Dean shot back, "On ideological grounds, absolutely yes."
A moment later the "Hardball" host pressed: "Seriously. As a public policy, would you bring industrial policy to bear and break up these conglomerations of power?"
At that point Dean seemed to sense that he had gone too far and began to equivocate, saying, "I don't want to answer whether I would break up Fox or not."
The leading Democrat then explained, "What I'm going to do is appoint people to the FCC that believe democracy depends on getting information from all portions of the political spectrum, not just one."
Their agenda is obviously different than mine, but that doesn't make them wrong on the issue. When I was telling people that Clinton should be thrown out of office for his crimes, I had a few people tell me that Clinton should be thrown out of office for betraying the Marxist wing of the liberal establishment in this country after 1994. We had different reasons, but on that issue we agreed that the bastard should have been thrown out of office.
SeeBS-Viacom-Simon&Schuester-Viacom Radio-Mtv-Vh1-Nick-TvLand-Spike-Showtime...
AOL-Time-Life-Warner-Turner-CNN (Warner, that friendly little cable company that wouldn't let Fox News on their cable boxes despite customer requests)
MS-NBC...
ABCDisney...
What major radio stations Clear Channel doesn't own, Viacom does. CC gets a bum rap because they own concert hall contracts, concert promotion, and most importantly Rush Limbaugh's contract. When Clear Channel got Rush and purchased the locally owned Houston radio station 950 KPRC, they canned all of the local staff and prohibited "God talk" and discussion of bills before the state legislature. Clear Channel a conservative mouthpiece? Not hardly.
You'll need to outline all of these alleged ties. While payola was not illegal in the old days, it is only legal for a station to play recordings which they have a financial stake in if they disclose such ties.
This is why some labels have considered buying radio time to "host"/sponsor something like the MCA Country Hour.
Even artists like Chris Isaak think that they would be more likely to get commercial radio airplay if WB had a radio network like they have tv affiliates. Such disclosure would be well known (although I think that they would still be required to tell audiences that they are listening to a label owned station).
Funny thing is that ABC News can plug Disney films all day long on Good Morning America without disclosing their financial interest. Even the corner grocer can be bribed legally by Coke and Pepsi to get better shelf space.
The time to argue over corporate mergers (especially in media monopolies) was 10-20 years ago. The cat is out of the bag unless we want the government to smash up the monopolies (ALL of them) the way Ma Bell was broken up into the baby bells.
In the Washington, DC, market, an all-news radio station has been swapping ads with a classical music station. As far as I know, they have different owners, but then again they aren't exactly competing for the same listeners at the same times. The ads recommend listening to the news station while commuting, and the music station in the office or house.
And CNN and Time Magazine would be there calling him a senile old relic who probably said something politically incorrect 80 years ago...
But the Baby Bells are regrouping, whether on a merger (SBC: Southwestern Bell, Pacific Bell, Ameritech...; Verizon: Bell Atlantic-Nynex which joined with non-Bell GTE) or a joint venture (Cingular, trademark for mobile services by SBC and Bellsouth)
Very likely media conglomeration will be a reality in the future.
Good Lord in Heaven.........................
In that case, Dean, guess it's ok for Bush to break up ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, PBS, New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times..................................................................
Dean shot back, "On ideological grounds, absolutely yes."
Well lookee hear. A true fascist. How ironic is this. The First Amendment was designed to protect "political speech" above all, and this self-proclaimed defender of the first amendment seeks to limit political speech. OTOH, I'm sure he has no plans to limit obscenity, which the First Amendment was not meant to protect.
Their failure is their own arrogance and intolerance.
Arrogance:
>>If the Dems want to "counter" talk radio they are about ten years behind the eight ball. The talk radio industry is still growing but largely matured. They are arrogant to think that they will just jump in and start dominating the airwaves.
>>The Dems have had air superiority for so long, they were fat, dumb, lazy and arrogant to the growing tide of disgruntled conservatives who wanted a venue. They thought talk radio would be a shooting star and brushed it aside.
>>Their arrogance is such that they think it is the number of talk radio shows/stations that has caused them pain-when, in fact, it is the message that is resonating with the listeners and voters that is the sore in their side, which leads to the final point.
Intolerance
They can not have talk radio like Rush or Sean Hannity. The call screeners will filter out most conservative callers if not all. When one gets through, he will be shouted down by the liberal host, more than likely. Liberal talk radio will fail because liberalism does not tolerate dissenting views, no matter how founded the arguement is.
Is this the guy that claims to be a "doctor"? I know doctors don't know everything, (even though they think they do) but this statement is bizarre.
If he is a doctor, someone better check to see where he may have obtained his degree and question their progam.....
But he'd leave alone his liberal buddies that have 'empires' just as large.
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