MORE Media Consolidation On-the-Table before Christmas?

[bvar22]

I heard about this on the Ed Schultz Show today.
I thought, "No. This CAN'T be True.
We would ALL already know about this."
Look like it is for real.

" The new rules would lift the 70s-era ban on newspaper-radio broadcast cross ownership, codify newspaper-TV-radio combinations in the top 20 markets and maintain local market caps on radio and TV ownership."

http://www.adweek.com/news/television/fccs-genachowski-circulates-media-ownership-order-145194

There IS a petition here,
for all the good THAT will do.

Rupert Murdoch — the guy who’s under investigation in England for phone hacking, influence peddling and bribery — wants to get his mitts on the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune. These are the major papers in the nation's second- and third-largest cities (where, incidentally, Murdoch already owns TV stations).

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski is trying to change the agency’s ownership rules to pave the way for Murdoch to get exactly what he wants. Worse, Genachowski and Murdoch are keeping this all very hush-hush, hoping you won't notice.

These changes wouldn’t just benefit Murdoch. If the FCC proposal passes, one company could own the major daily newspaper, two TV stations and up to eight radio stations in your town. And that one company could be your Internet provider, too. What is the FCC thinking?!?

http://act.freepress.net/sign/murdoch_powergrab/?source=website_node_feature

more here:

"Word is that Murdoch now covets the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune — the bankrupt-but-still-dominant newspapers (and websites) in the second- and third-largest media markets, where Murdoch already owns TV stations.

Under current media ownership limits, he can't buy them. It's illegal ... unless the Federal Communications Commission changes the rules.

But according to numerous reports, that's exactly what FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski plans to do. He's circulating an order at the FCC to lift the longstanding ban on one company owning both daily newspapers and TV stations in any of the 20 largest media markets.

And he wants to wrap up this massive giveaway just in time for the holidays.

http://www.freepress.net/blog/2012/11/19/why-obama-fcc-plotting-massive-giveaway-rupert-murdoch

For everyone here who has ever complained about "The Media",
[font size=9]BOHICA![/font]
It just keeps getting WORSE.

[bvar22]

1. Kicking & Reccing my own thread because...

[font size=6]This IS Important![/font]

Do you want THIS guy to control even MORE of our Media?

[woo me with science]

2. Well, isn't that interesting.

What did we vote for, exactly?

[ms liberty]

3. k&r for later.

[Sekhmets Daughter]

4. It's things like this that make me wonder

whether all those CT crazed people know exactly what they are talking about when they rave on about the Bilderberg group and global domination....sigh....

[DearHeart]

13. A lot of times, those crazy CT people turn out to be correct!

After what I've seen take place over the past 12 years, I'm not going to rule anything out

[ibegurpard]

5. i'll kick this one

fuckers!

[Dustlawyer]

6. Kick it! It is this shite that needs to be challenged!

[woo me with science]

7. More Murdoch, more FOX, more ONE PERCENT PROPAGANDA.

Have we had enough yet, America?

[Egalitarian Thug]

8. K&R For inconvenient facts. n/t

[DirkGently]

9. KNR

[joeunderdog]

10. If they can't win on policy, they will distort the message even more

thru more consolidation. Then they will go after the net. They know that if they can control the spread of truth, they have a chance.

They are coming after the messengers. Net neutrality will be next. And you won't hear anything about it because they bought the media.

[FailureToCommunicate]

11. Rec'n this...and signed the petition, but this is pretty discouraging. Citizens

deserve better from "our" FCC.

The world would be better off if Rupert hadn't come into it:

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[Dark n Stormy Knight]

12. That was freaking awesome! But, or course, Rupert doesn't have conscience enough to

feel guilty about his negative effect on the world.

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. Rupert Murdoch's Whopping Christmas Present

A mention of Murdoch in the thread title might attract some attention, too; here's Charles Pierce's tak on this:

Rupert Murdoch's Whopping Christmas Present

It should be remembered that I speak now as someone who gladly took, and cashed, a paycheck from Rupert Murdoch for six years, from 1983 until 1989. It is in that spirit that I now argue that, if the Federal Communications Commission presents that old pirate with the whopping Christmas gift it is apparently preparing to give him, then the president either has lost control of his administration, or he personally has taken leave of his senses. There is no third alternative.
...
Shouldn't we be aware by now that, when federal bureaucrats start talking about "streamlining" things, and doing away with "outdated prohibitions," sheer unadulterated brigandage is sure to follow? Remember, for example, the elimination of the Glass-Steagall Act was sold as the elimination of outdated regulations that were keeping the financial-services industry from modernizing itself in preparation for a golden new age of wealth creation. All that got modernized as a result were exotic techniques to steal the country's money.

Therefore, I am not comforted by the outburst of genuine Third Wave banality slung around there by chairman Genachowski, especially when I realized that Murdoch is just a short step off stage, salivating at the prospect of gnawing what meat is left off the bones of the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, two once-great newspapers currently dead in the fields because that same golden new age of wealth creation resulted in almost three decades in which American newspapers came to be owned by avaricious, bean-counting morons. Murdoch wants both papers, and the only thing keeping this horror at bay are those "outdated prohibitions" that prevent him from owning newspapers and radio and television stations in the same market. Media writer Craig Aaron has been all over this.

There is simply no reason for any country anywhere in the world ever to do favors for Rupert Murdoch ever again. His British operation has been exposed engaging in outright criminality. (And anyone who thinks that criminality stopped in the UK is fooling themselves.) His television network in the United States has turned to outright buffoonery and is starting to stagger in the ratings. He is the Bhopal in any media ecosystem in which he is allowed to flourish. There never has been a better time to break what power he has left.

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/fec-rupert-murdoch-newspapers-112812?src=rss

[Octafish]

15. Media Monopoly makes mind molding much easier.

Good luck, America!

Three things every American should know about Corporate McPravda

[bvar22]

16. The Head of the FCC is appointed by the President,

and serves at the pleasure of the President.
President Obama appointed Julius Genachowski Chairman of the FCC in 2009.
It turns out that Julius Genachowski was a top "bundler" for Obama's campaign in 2008, and is a close personal friend.
It is reported that they play basketball together.

President Obama obviously has no idea what his appointee is up to
because during Campaign 2008, Candidate Obama was emphatic about how important a diverse Media was to our democracy.

Maybe if we all write the White House and give the President a "Heads Up", he can intervene on his friend before it is too late!

[spanone]

19. edit: fcc jurisdiction

About the FCC
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent United States government agency. The FCC was established by the Communications Act of 1934 and is charged with regulating interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable. The FCC's jurisdiction covers the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. possessions.

http://transition.fcc.gov/aboutus.html

[dmr]

17. This is not good news.

It's actually scary.
K&R

[spanone]

18. i see a day where murdoch or someone equally as evil, owns 99% of all media worldwide.

then democracies will disappear.

idiocracy will be the rule of the land.

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. What we need is the Sherman anti trust

Not this shit

[woo me with science]

21. Kick

[OneGrassRoot]

22. K&R :( n/t

[defacto7]

23. yep... K&R