SPOTLIGHT ON:

The Mass Media: Corporate Control Up, Quality Down

Television is the means by which most Americans get their "news." Without exception, every major network is owned by a huge conglomerate that has enormous potential conflicts of interest. Fox is owned by Rupert Murdoch, a right-wing Australian who already owns a significant portion of the world's media. He is rapidly increasing his political influence here through Fox television and his string of newspapers. In many respects, Fox is nothing more than a front for the right wing of the Republican Party. Among its many "fair and balanced" commentators is Newt Gingrich.

NBC is owned by General Electric, the largest corporation in the worldăand one with a long history of anti-union activity. GE, a major contributor to the Republican Party, also has very heavy investments in military supplies, finance, nuclear power and many other industries. Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric, was one of the leaders in shutting down American plants and moving them to low-wage countries like China and Mexico.

In ABC we have the strange situation where the world's leading creator of fantasy now creates the evening news.

The essential problem with television is not just the general right wing bent in the news and programming, or the transformation of politics and government into entertainment and sensationalism. It is not just the constant bombardment of advertising, much of it directed to children. Perhaps the greatest concern is that the most important issues facing our people are rarely discussed. To a very large degree the average American does not see his or her reality reflected on the television screen, and certainly receives little understanding of how that reality can be improved.

Is it any wonder that fewer than 20% of the young people in this country, those under 25, will vote in the next election? Or that most of them have little understanding about the relevance of government and politics for their lives? Since so many of them have received most of their information about the world in which they live from television, we shouldn't be surprised that there is such massive political apathy among the young.

The United States is the only major nation on earth that does not have a national health care program that guarantees health care to all. Yet, despite 41 million people having no health insurance and many more being under-insured, we spend far more per capita on health care than any other nation. Why? Seen any good programs on television lately, in between the prescription drug advertisements, discussing how we can provide quality health care for all at far lower per capita costs than we presently spend?

Working Longer for Less

Despite the great "economic boom" of the 1990s, the average American worker is now working longer hours for lower wages than 30 years ago, and we have lost millions of decent-paying manufacturing jobs. Have you watched any good programs on television lately addressing our $400 billion trade deficit, or what our disastrous trade policy has done to depress wages in this country? And while we're on economics, workers who are in unions earn 30% more than non-union people doing the same work. There are a lot of programs on television about how to get rich by investing in the stock market. Seen any good "specials" on how to go about forming a union?

The Pledge of Allegiance, recited in classrooms from one end of the country to the other concludes with the words "justice for all. " Yet the United States has the most unfair distribution of wealth and income in the industrialized world, and the highest rate of childhood poverty. There's a lot on television promoting greed, but how many programs speak to the "justice" of the richest one percent owning more wealth than the bottom ninety-five percent? Or of the CEOs of major corporations earning 500 times what their employees make?

If television largely ignores the reality of life for the majority of Americans, corporate radio is just plain overt in its right-wing bias. In a nation that cast a few million more votes for Al Gore and Ralph Nader than for George Bush and Pat Buchanan, there are dozens of extreme right-wing talk show programs and virtually none with progressive or even liberal hosts. Rush Limbaugh, G. Gordon Liddy, Bob Grant, Sean Hannity, Howie Carr, Oliver North, Michael Reagan, Laura Schlessingerăthese are only a few of the voices that day after day have pounded a right-wing drumbeat into the heartland of this country.

As radio becomes more and more right wing, fewer and fewer companies own the industry. Today, there are some 1,100 fewer radio station owners than there were six years ago, a 30 percent decline. Clear Channel Inc. alone owns or operates 1170 stations.

Moving from Bad to Worse, Fast

As bad as the current media situation is, it is likely to be made much worse by a recent decision in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals that responded to a suit by Fox, AOL Time Warner, NBC and Viacom. That decision struck down a federal regulation limiting companies from owning television stations and cable franchises in the same local markets. The court also ordered that the FCC either justify or rewrite the federal rule that limits any one company from owning television stations that reach more than 35 percent of American households.

Michael Powell, Bush's FCC chairman, is a strong advocate of deregulation. Few doubt that he will support-the major corporate interests in his decision. The result will likely be a huge increase in mergers between newspapers and television stations, and between some of the biggest networks and cable monopolies. We are moving rapidly in the direction of a tiny handful of giant corporations controlling virtually everything that the ordinary American sees, hears or reads.

It is imperative that increased corporate control over the mass media becomes a major political issue for Progressives. We must demand legislation to ensure that the mediaăwhere we get both news and viewsăis open, decentralized, the servant of the people and not the wealthy.