‘There’s This Notion That the “War on Terror” Was Just Something That Happened Abroad’
“When you use nebulous phrases like “War on Terror”…it opens the door for basically the US government to do whatever it wants.”
‘AT&T Only Buys Time Warner Once in a Lifetime’
“The DoJ cannot make the net neutrality argument while at the same time Trump’s FCC is tearing down net neutrality.”
Nilay Patel on AT&T/Time Warner Ruling, Sam Menefee-Libey on J20 Update
It’s true the government didn’t make much of a case, and that the judge doesn’t seem to understand how the internet works; but the deeper truth may be that we need to fundamentally rethink our antitrust approaches to a media/tech industry that is every day more influential.
The War on Terror’s Parade of Hawks Continues as Anti-Trump ‘Resistance’
When the “War on Terror” was launched in 2001, corporate media—especially cable TV news—started a narrow parade of hawkish retired military and intelligence brass, who promoted war as the response to the crime of 9/11, identified which foreign enemies to attack and confidently predicted success. We can look back at this parade and laugh at […]
Who Will Take on the 21st Century Tech and Media Monopolies?
Waves of consolidation in the technology, telecom and entertainment industries have concentrated power over media content and delivery into just a handful of companies. Today, there are only a few dominant players in each industry.
‘The Internet Should Be Treated as a Public Utility’
“We want a reliable platform for independent voices, and treating it like a utility, regulating it as such, makes it a civil right that we can access publicly.”
Ben Bagdikian Told the Truth and Stood Strong
From Day One, no journalist more influenced FAIR’s standard media critique than Ben Bagdikian. The first edition of his Media Monopoly was our bible.
‘A Broadcasting Operation Washes the Hand of the Owning Corporation’
“Increasingly we’re trapped, because those who can tell us what’s going on have a stake in not telling us what’s going on, or what its consequences may be.”
Tom Tresser and the Deficit Mirage, Ben Bagdikian and Media Monopoly
Is Chicago broke because experts say it is, or is there another way to look at it? We hear about the “mirage” of deficits. Plus a classic interview with author, journalist and media critic Ben Bagdikian, who died March 11 at age 96,
Ben Bagdikian, Visionary
From Day One, no journalist more influenced FAIR’s standard media critique than Ben Bagdikian. The first edition of his Media Monopoly was our bible.
ACTION ALERT: Stop Mega-Cable Merger to Avoid a Second Comcast
Americans who hate Comcast largely for reasons related to its very bigness are now facing the possibility of, essentially, another Comcast–as the result of a possible merger between Time Warner, Charter Communications and Bright House Networks.
‘We Need Free Speech Protections Across All of Those Networks’
“We’re talking about very powerful phone and cable companies here…. They’ve deployed their lobbyists to try and get Congress to pass new legislation that would somehow take away the FCC’s authority to protect the open internet.”
Cable Monopoly’s Gain Is Community Media’s Loss
Critics have rightly argued that if the merger is approved, customers will experience less choice and higher cable bills as a result of increasing media monopolization. What tends to fly under the radar in this debate are further dangers that disproportionately impact underserved communities.
When the World’s Richest Billionaire Owns Your Paper
Carlos Slim is the world’s richest person. His father, Julién Slim Haddad, immigrated to Mexico from Lebanon as a teenager, and by the time Carlos was born, the family was well-off, having acquired a number of businesses and real estate in Mexico City. Slim took his father’s financial lessons to heart, starting a stock brokerage […]
Bob McChesney on Internet Giants and the National Security State
Last week on CounterSpin, we spoke with scholar and media historian Bob McChesney about his new book Digital Disconnect. His closing thoughts seems especially relevant in light of the blockbuster reporting this week from the Guardian and Washington Post.
Seizing the Airwaves
Today, after years of activism, a new law on low-power FM (LPFM) radio is paving the way for the greatest expansion of FM radio in decades. This is a huge victory for media justice.
Media Monopoly Revisited
The introduction of the original 1983 edition of The Media Monopoly, Ben Bagdikian’s classic investigation of media consolidation, concluded: “When 50 men and women, chiefs of their corporations, control more than half the information and ideas that reach 220 million Americans, it is time for Americans to examine the institutions from which they receive their […]
Even Corporate News ‘Isn’t Just Another Commodity’
A Seattle Times op-ed column (7/4/09) by Free Press’ Victor Pickard and Joseph Torres discussing the fact that “the public’s changing media habits have eroded the newspaper industry’s monopoly on the local ad market” describes the corporate response thus: “The big media companies are pressuring Congress to prop up their failed business models by allowing […]
Net Neutrality and the Supermedia Monopolies
The leaders of the nation’s largest cable and telephone companies are telling lawmakers something familiar: New national policies are required to connect everyone to what they call a “superbroadband” Internet highway. If Washington supports their political agenda, the companies vow that the nation will benefit from advances in healthcare, improvements in the quality of life […]
‘Wall Street Does Not Like Newspapers’
In the latest media concentration story, the McClatchy newspaper chain, which currently owns 12 dailies, is buying out the larger Knight Ridder chain and its 32 newspapers. McClatchy has announced that it will immediately resell 12 of the Knight Ridder dailies, including such venerated newspapers as the Philadelphia Inquirer and the San Jose Mercury News. […]
