In the early nineties I was spending a great deal of time traveling for the company. And I shared time and stories within the pressurized cabin with quite a cross section of America. The one that has stuck in my mind and continues to be replayed over and over was a Saturday morning I spent with a gentleman who had just quit a seemingly great job over a principle.

He was very quiet to begin with. But slowly he let his story out. He worked for Gannett Corporation. Gannett was still in the midst of an acquisition and expansion program in the newspaper and television market. Gannett already owned newpapers such as USA Today, the Des Moines Register and many other major dailies throughout the country. They were set for more expansion and my seatmate opposed the expansion. He opposed it on the principle that Gannett and other companies had so consolidated the media that it was now past the point of choking the news that America got.

This guy was a vice-president. He was right in on the decision. And he opposed it vociferously. When push came to shove, as he told me, “I probably did the worst thing I could possibly do for myself. I quit. I could no longer sit by and watch the media in this country go to hell. What the government is letting Gannett do, they are going to let others do and in a few years America is only going to have a couple of sources for news. And the country will be much the worse for it. This will end democracy.”

The former Gannett VP was around 50. His kids were grown. He was going to buy a small newspaper in North Carolina and try to save at least one corner of the world. BTW, go here for a listing of Gannett’s holdings  (note: this is an incomplete list).

Even with all these holdings Gannett is not one of the really BIG media companies.

As for me, I was greatly affected by our conversation. I became, if not an activist at that time, at least keenly aware of how America’s great diversity of opinion was slowly becoming the toy of the corporations.  And while my acquaintance could not be specific about the how of consolidation, he was certainly right about the what. Shortly after our plane ride the so-called Republican Revolution took place in 1994. And one of the major targets for Republicans was to greatly diminish ownership rules so that only a few super big media conglomerates were left standing.

And so the stage was set for The Telecommunications Act of 1996. If you are not familiar with this travesty, click here for an interesting analysis I ran across.

After a short discussion of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, we shall look at where we are now. Then I will offer and seek some ideas for the future.