A Media Monster Is Eating the Dems
by Flavia Monteiro Colgan, AlterNet.org
The
ever-consolidating news media in this country is not only destroying
political discourse, it's favoring the right-wing over Democrats.
Recent momentous news about the continuing elimination of variety in our news sources has gotten scant coverage.
First,
it was announced that Village Voice Media intended to merge with the
New Times papers. The Voice was, for years, a dependable independent
news source available not only in New York, but in major cities
everywhere, while its sister papers independently covered local news in
four other areas….
And,
just days ago, it was reported that Knight Ridder, the publisher of 32
newspapers, including the Daily News and the Inquirer, will likely go
up for sale, and the vultures are circling. Gannett, a likely suitor,
already owns 99 daily papers.
This is
a trend not just in print, but in broadcast and even the Internet.
Today, 90 percent of the top 50 cable stations are owned by the same
conglomerates that own the top networks, where more than 80 percent of
prime-time viewing is dominated by these same five media giants. They
also own the top 20 Internet news sites! And it's only going to get
worse.
Media
consolidation eats away at the fabric of democracy, which, as Josh
Silver, executive director of Free Press, a nonpartisan media reform
group, points out, “demands an informed citizenry with access to a
variety of voices and viewpoints.”
(Click here to read the complete article.)
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