Re: Former FCC Commissioner warns about media consolidation

From	Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net>
Newsgroups	comp.misc
Subject	Re: Former FCC Commissioner warns about media consolidation
Date	2014-02-18 19:51 +0200
Organization	A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID	<87ha7wfgwf.fsf@elektro.pacujo.net> (permalink)
References	<ldu4co$2mh$2@dont-email.me> <87fvnh5mn6.fsf@elektro.pacujo.net> <5ms6g9t2g3ndfmmb1nq829t3c2e7tlgu06@4ax.com>

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Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com>:

> Americans have a not-unjustified fear that state-sponsored media could
> be use as a propoganda arm of the government.

Not unjustified, but also not inevitable. Finland has a pretty good
journalistic reputation:

   <URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Press_Freedom_Index#Rankings_and_scores_by_country>

> But the problem in this country is not that our media is sponsored
> only by the public; it is that it is increasingly controlled only by a
> small percentage of its citizens. When all television, radio and
> newspapers are controlled by a tiny handful, there is much less
> variation in discourse; rather than a babble of voices, representing
> the will and mood of the people, there are just a few loud voices that
> speak only a few opinions. Entire areas of discourse can go
> unrepresented.

The government is (supposedly) controlled by a large percentage of the
citizens. Unfortunately, Americans are more afraid of themselves ("we
the people") than the Rich Guy.

> When the FCC was doing its job - back before they started to gut it in
> the 80s - it prevented exactly this sort of thing. Media cartels were
> limited by law in how many outlets they could control, and laws
> enforced a certain balance in entertainment, news, education and
> advertising.

Regulation can be good, but sometimes other means are more effective.
For example, instead of fighting campaign contributions, you could use
taxes to sponsor candidates in a fair manner (as is done in Finland,
BTW) so that private campaign sponsors become less of an issue.

Similarly, you could keep private media honest by providing a reasonably
competitive state media.

Case in point, Manchester City - Barcelona Champions' League game will
be broadcast tonight by YLE, while the pay-TV channel is broadcasting
Leverkusen - PSG. And tomorrow, Russia - Finland ice-hockey in the
Olympics (on YLE). Good times, good times.


Marko

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Former FCC Commissioner warns about media consolidation 2phar <none@example.com> - 2014-02-17 23:01 +0000
  Re: Former FCC Commissioner warns about media consolidation Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> - 2014-02-18 01:45 +0200
    Re: Former FCC Commissioner warns about media consolidation Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> - 2014-02-18 10:01 -0500
      Re: Former FCC Commissioner warns about media consolidation Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> - 2014-02-18 19:51 +0200

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