Consolidation of mass-media
The most revered and respected of all rights we Americans share is the freedom of speech; moreover, the freedoms of a free press. These freedoms are basic necessities of a free and fare society. Walter Lippmann said that a free press "should consist of many newspapers decentralized in their ownership and their management, and dependent for their support... upon the communities where they are written, where they are edited and where they are read"(Blethen B07). Consolidation of our nation's mass-media outlets threatens the essence of integrity in our nation's free speech, and freedoms of a free press. Many would wonder why such a thing would be permitted, if the repercussions of such actions would be so damaging. In fact if you look back in time there was a concern to such a problem. Thus many laws were drafted to prevent such occurrences. For instance the Local Radio Ownership Cap of 1947 limited number of stations on company can own in a single market (The). The National TV Ownership law of 1941 stated that a company may not own stations that reach more than 35 percent of the national audience (The). The Dual Television Network rule of 1946 prevents one company from owning two of the top four
Some would say that "Democracy is in crisis" (Blethen B07). Whereas a larger conglomerate can afford to fight the court cases, and go through the litigation. In many peoples eye's a big turning point of change was the Telecommunications Act of 1996, bringing about change in how we regulate monopolization of the mass media. This was a statement made after he saw the "greatest outpouring of citizen reaction he had seen", when 2. This places the public in a weak and ill-informed position. Although these regulations and rules were accepted, they were also a hot point for debate; furthermore, for change. The FCC raised the percentage cap on a single company's reach within the national broadcast TV audience from 35 percent to 45 percent (Media). However, those opposed have very different problems with the new regulations allowing more mergers. 5It is obvious to see that this is an issue that will be around for a long time, it already has, and it is an issue at the heart of American culture. The "Duopoly rule" of 1964 that a single company may own two television stations in a single market only if one or both of them is not rated among the top 4; moreover, that there will be at least eight remaining 2Independent stations after the acquisition (The). These less restrictive rules were designed to help the media conglomerates be more successful. The bigger companies will still pursue, intern giving you more informative news, and bigger stories.
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