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6 Corporations Control 90% of the Media in America

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Re: 6 Corporations Control 90% of the Media in America

#42

A big difference between the US media and the rest of the developed world seems to be a complete absence of state-owned/subsidized/run media. To me, this seems much more problematic than the limited competition between corporate media. In the US, it seems that news/stories/investigative reporting without some commercial interest to some company tends to go underreported. There is no money in being critical towards bu…

Culturally, many people would dismiss state-owned media perspective as a kind of Pravda. Because of the cultural perspective, two things would happen: firstly, politicians would think it's OK to instruct such media to follow a particular party line; and secondly, journalists and presenters that are the visible face of the media would also follow the party line, because they think that's where the money is coming from, so it would be stupid to do otherwise.

The cultural perspective is widespread and it's at the core of many Americans' cynical approach to the government. "We're from the government and we're here to help" are genuinely scary words to these people; they have not bought into the idea of government as a social contract, or the idea that a consensus of principles could lead to publicly funded media without excessive political bias. Instead, many Americans view government as a necessary evil that we only institute to restrain our worst vices, and if the government shows up, it's because something went badly wrong; that the best government is no government, which we would have if we acted morally.

Re: 6 Corporations Control 90% of the Media in America

#43

Some might ask why this matters. The problem with these six mega-corporations is that they are controlled by a handful of billionaires and a few distasteful foreign governments that do not have the best interests of Americans in mind. These corporations own the US legacy media outlets (e.g., CNN, MSNBC, FOX, etc) and most of the larger online US news sites. They have, in my opinion, been quite effective at brainwashi…

What other sources do you use, I ask as an over 30 something who wants to see how the other half lives?

Re: 6 Corporations Control 90% of the Media in America

#44

While still small, Netflix probably represents one of the bigger threats to the Big 6. Of course, this makes it a prime merger target. [0] Netflix is not mentioned in the article. [0] https://www.fool.com/investing/2016/11/15/better-buy-the-wal...

The question then becomes which is better, the current big 6 or the new big 6 headed by Netflix.

Re: 6 Corporations Control 90% of the Media in America

#45

And one head of state attacks one network. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/88150314716807168... shakes head

And Obama used to bitch about Fox News. Now granted, Trump complains a lot more, but then again, what other president has been scrutinized by a news network about how many scoops of ice cream he gets?

Re: 6 Corporations Control 90% of the Media in America

#46

Some might ask why this matters. The problem with these six mega-corporations is that they are controlled by a handful of billionaires and a few distasteful foreign governments that do not have the best interests of Americans in mind. These corporations own the US legacy media outlets (e.g., CNN, MSNBC, FOX, etc) and most of the larger online US news sites. They have, in my opinion, been quite effective at brainwashi…

> I've long ago moved on to better news sources

Any recommendations?

Re: 6 Corporations Control 90% of the Media in America

#47

This is what happens when you don't enforce anti-trust laws.

> when you don't enforce anti-trust laws

And that is what happens when you accept the legalized corruption of the political system, in the form of lobbying. The same stakeholders control the media corporations and the politician who should regulate them.

Re: 6 Corporations Control 90% of the Media in America

#48

It's worse in the UK, 3 companies own 70% of the newspaper readership. They have huge political influence, especially Rupert Murdoch, who all prime ministers would try to schmooze https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/oct/21/uk-media-plura...

Good you still have the BBC.

Re: 6 Corporations Control 90% of the Media in America

#49
post #35
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is it anything unusual for any other industry? Isn't that a big problem? Monopolies and oligopolies are crippling capitalism. The "too big to fail" conglomerates become just a part of the political system instead of the economic one. With the media industry, it gets worse, as it has an important role in keeping the democratic and economic powers in check. > No doubt the voices behind such "X mega-corps control Y" a…

>Is not that fair? Shouldn't all parts of society be represented in the industry that consolidates the cultural values of a nation? Why should only economic power have representation in the media? It is one person one vote, not one dollar one vote. Your dollar is your vote. You choose what industries you support by where you spend your dollars (or cast your eyes in this case). You have the ability to hurt these corpo…

The 'vote with your dollars' premise is flawed; the very nature of monopoly is to erode choice by consolidating market position and using influence (government, market) to maintain position which tends to mean creating barriers for more choice / new players to enter the market.

Re: 6 Corporations Control 90% of the Media in America

#50

Some might ask why this matters. The problem with these six mega-corporations is that they are controlled by a handful of billionaires and a few distasteful foreign governments that do not have the best interests of Americans in mind. These corporations own the US legacy media outlets (e.g., CNN, MSNBC, FOX, etc) and most of the larger online US news sites. They have, in my opinion, been quite effective at brainwashi…

> I've long ago moved on to better news sources Any recommendations?

Ditto
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