30 seconds:

When you wake up Monday morning the long time locally ownder Cedar Rapids Gazette will be under a new ownership – Adams Multi-Media from Minneapolis will be taking over one Iowa’s most iconic news sources. Like many media companies, the CRG is another victim of the consolidation epidemic in journalism.

Does that leave any media actually owned by Iowans in the state? I do not know and if we out them, they may not be locally owned for long. Thus is the world of media these days. While the loss of an independent medium sized local media voice won’t kill the American democracy, when these consolidations happen multiple times a year and the independent voices slowly turn to one corporate voice that hands down the corporate line we do indeed have our democracy damaged.

I read in an email from the Iowa Writer’s Collaborative that a couple of the CRG’ favorite local writers had been dispatched from the CRG and will now be working with the Iowa Writer’s Collaborative. So much for Adam’s claim of “local.” No doubt “local” is lower on the totem pole than “corporate line.”

This brought back memories of a returning flight I had from a business trip back in the early ‘90s. My seat mate for Two and a half hours was a former VP of Gannet. He had been a VP earlier that day, but had quit in protest of the direction that Gannet was heading. I got to listen and discuss the direction of American media from this very insightful man until we landed.

His assessment was almost square on the head. Corporations heading only a few voices in a media that once had thousands. Gannet was only among the first. Soon we would have conglomerates where money was much more important than truth. Boy I wish I had a recording of that day.

Obviously I do not, but every time there is another consolidation – even a small one like Adams taking over the Gazette – I think of that guy. He tried. Surely he went off on a crusade and probably got crushed by some corporate machine, but at least he tried.

While the CRG takeover may be considered small potatoes, the media in Iowa is becoming more and more consolidated. Sinclair TV which has outlets in Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, Omaha and Sioux City is currently in the process of taking over Scripps TV. Scripps in its turn owns TV stations in Cedar Rapids and Omaha. As these companies consolidate fewer voices are heard. Those were once voices of dissent.

The more consolidated the more that politicians can exert “leverage” over these stations, newspapers and other outlets. For instance as we see hundreds of TV and cable stations and terrestrial and satellite radio, in reality there are somewhere in the single digits of definitive voices. One of those is public radio and TV which now shine like a lone beacon in the darkness.

The Sinclair-Scripps takeover is huge but not as big as the one in the works between Nexstar and Tegna. Nexstar owns 200 station in 116 markets and Tegna owns 64 stations in 51 markets. Nexstar owns outlets in Davenport (3), Des Moines and Sioux City. Tegna owns two stations in Des Moines-Ames, Moline, Ill. Hopefully you see the pattern here.

Iowa is hardly a major stake for the media giants, yet as they play empire our voices of democracy will be snuffed out. Robert Reich, a true champion of democracy, spelled out some of the consequences in his subtack post for Tuesday:

Friends,

The richest man on earth owns X.

The family of the second-richest man owns Paramount, which owns CBS — and could soon own Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns CNN.

The third-richest man owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

The fourth-richest man owns The Washington Post and Amazon MGM Studios.

Another billionaire owns Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post.

Why are the ultra-rich buying up so much of the media? Vanity may play a part, but there’s a more pragmatic — some might say sinister — reason.

As vast wealth concentrates in the hands of a few, this small group of the ultra-wealthy may rationally fear that a majority of voters could try to confiscate their wealth — through, for example, a wealth tax.

If you’re a multibillionaire, in other words, you might view democracy as a potential threat to your net worth. New York City real estate and oil tycoon John Catsimatidis, whose net worth is estimated at $4.5 billion, donated $2.4 million to support Trump and congressional Republicans in 2024 — nearly twice as much as he gave in 2016. Why? “If you’re a billionaire, you want to stay a billionaire,” Catsimatidis told The Washington Post.

But rather than rely on Republicans, a more reliable means of stopping majorities from targeting your riches might be to control a significant share of the dwindling number of media outlets.

As a media mogul, you can effectively hedge against democracy by suppressing criticism of yourself and other plutocrats and discouraging any attempt to tax away your wealth.

And Trump has been ready to help you. In his second term of office, Trump has brazenly and illegally used the power of the presidency to punish his enemies and reward those who lavish him with praise and profits.

So it wasn’t surprising that the owner of  The Washington Post, Jeff Bezos — the fourth-richest person — stopped the paper from endorsing Kamala Harris last year, as Trump rose in the polls. Or that, once Trump was elected, Bezos decreed that the Post’s opinion section must support “personal liberties and free markets.” And that he bought a proposed documentary about Melania Trump — for which she is the executive producer — for a whopping $40 million.

And while Trump and democracy killing minions may be voted out of office, we may never be able to repair the damage they have done to the watchdogs of democracy and to the first amendment.