P2P-Zone - Ted Turner on media consolidation

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Ted Turner on media consolidation

Here is an interesting essay from Ted Turner, the founder of CNN, on media consolidation and its effects on diversity, quality and localism of news production and democratic debate. Being an active player in the media business all the way from 1960s he knows what he is talking about. Definitely worth reading.

Quote:

Today, the only way for media companies to survive is to own everything up and down the media chain--from broadcast and cable networks to the sitcoms, movies, and news broadcasts you see on those stations; to the production studios that make them; to the cable, satellite, and broadcast systems that bring the programs to your television set; to the Web sites you visit to read about those programs; to the way you log on to the Internet to view those pages. Big media today wants to own the faucet, pipeline, water, and the reservoir. The rain clouds come next.

Quote:

At this late stage, media companies have grown so large and powerful, and their dominance has become so detrimental to the survival of small, emerging companies, that there remains only one alternative: bust up the big conglomerates. We've done this before: to the railroad trusts in the first part of the 20th century, to Ma Bell more recently. Indeed, big media itself was cut down to size in the 1970s, and a period of staggering innovation and growth followed. Breaking up the reconstituted media conglomerates may seem like an impossible task when their grip on the policy-making process in Washington seems so sure. But the public's broad and bipartisan rebellion against the FCC's pro-consolidation decisions suggests something different. Politically, big media may again be on the wrong side of history--and up against a country unwilling to lose its independents.

- tg :WA:

i liked this bit

Quote:

The moguls behind the mergers are acting in their corporate interests and playing by the rules. We just shouldn't have those rules. They make sense for a corporation. But for a society, it's like over-fishing the oceans. When the independent businesses are gone, where will the new ideas come from? We have to do more than keep media giants from growing larger; they're already too big. We need a new set of rules that will break these huge companies to pieces.

they didnt have much luck with microsoft..i doubt they could do alot to media companies either..but oneday they will probably have to..

there's a special place in hell for those freaks who allow and encourage this type of brutal consolidation. corporate enablers like fcc commissioner michael powell and utah senator orrin hatch come grimly to mind. if the people cannot make their own elected officials stop the rape of their culture (and it doesn’t look like we’re having much success in that dept) then we’ll just have to do it the old fashioned way, by revolt. that’s essentially the p2p movement. it may not be obvious but every time a 9 year girl uploads some barbie stuff she’s inching her granddaughters closer to their own emancipation.

- js.

I think that there is a special place for those who believe in either of those propaganda mills. CNN has been getting away with it forever. FOX is rather refreshing with their rant.

As much as everybody loves to say how much they hate Bill Gates, MSNBC is the straightest shooter when it comes to reporting news lately.