The Media Ownership Reform Act
Rusty
As our colleague Unspun wrote on ConyersBlog, it is very important to, “support Rep. Watson’s efforts to restore the Media Ownership Reform Act MORA. I strongly believe that as long as the media are dominated by bigoted, hate-filled, lying, agitators—the toxic atmosphere of hate and mistrust that they create and nurture will continue to flourish. The venomous speech by these bigots and their day in and day out vilification of minorities--encourages people who listen to or read their hate speech to feel justified in their distrust and even hate of people who are different from themselves.”
Unspun emphasizes “that their messages be countered by more moderate and even liberal voices, which at this point are excluded from a national platform because of the predominance of right-wing owned media. Without a rebalancing of the media to the center, the hate-filled rhetoric that predominates the media will continue, and the emphasis will sadly be on the punishing of hate crimes rather than on the prevention of such heinous acts.”
As Unspun notes, passing the Media Ownership Reform Act must be a very high priority for Democrats in Congress. Powerful media conglomerates like Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp provide biased news coverage and political commentary favorable to conservatives and to the current administration. The rise of News Corp and the undermining of journalistic objectivity at CNN, Disney/ABC, and other media conglomerates has been planned, directed, and financed by ambitious American corporate executives and conservative ideologues determined to establish American political, economic, and cultural hegemony over the entire world.
They have cooperated with neo-conservatives in the current administration to promote and support this extreme conservative agenda, and have spared no effort to portray the occupation of Iraq as an absolute necessity in the name of “national security.” News Corp’s Rupert Murdoch wields considerable power with his global media companies, for he has created a conservative news empire that controls thousands of television, radio, and print media outlets in every important country.
Through ownership and editorial control of FOX News in the United States, Sky News in Great Britain, and Star News in Asia, News Corp has established a conservative global media empire which broadcasts biased news coverage and commentary. The ideological content of News Corp programming, the dominant presence of ideologically conservative news anchors, the numerous favorable and supportive interviews of conservative politicians, and aggressive interviews of progressive politicians, especially at FOX News, is disturbing confirmation that News Corp is pursuing a partisan political agenda.
Time Warner is another powerful media conglomerate which has undermined journalism in the United States. Its expansionist agenda was manifested first through the cable news network, CNN, which attracted and cultivated a global audience by being the first television network to provide 24/7 news coverage. But since the departure of CNN founder Ted Turner, the quality of CNN’s news coverage has declined and degenerated into right wing bias and superficial info-news.
Tabloid journalism has become an epidemic in the United States, and serves to distract the public from important political issues. Time Warner’s and News Corp’s media arsenals of television networks, magazines, and newspapers have made these global media conglomerates pervasive controllers of information and relentless manipulators of public opinion.
Time Warner, News Corp, and Disney/ABC justify their control of media information by citing Constitutional free speech protections and democratic principles, at the very time they are effectively undermining free speech and democracy by exerting a monopoly over the media in order to control news coverage. Since a free and independent media is of vital importance to the effective functioning and preservation of democracy, it is very disturbing that very few media outlets are independent, and thus free to provide objective coverage of news and politics.
Since September 11, 2001, it has been painfully evident that powerful global media conglomerates such as Time Warner and News Corp have been much more interested in promoting the Bush Administration and conservative political, economic, and social policies than in being objective reporters of the news. There have never been so many media outlets controlled by so few owners. Every one of these owners is an arch-conservative businessman, and the inevitable result is pervasive conservative propaganda throughout the media instead of objective news coverage.
Congressman Maurice Hinchey, who will soon introduce an updated version of MORA in Congress, warns that, “a mere five companies own the broadcast networks, 90 percent of the top 50 cable networks, produce three-quarters of all prime time programming, and control 70 percent of the prime time television market share.” The Media Ownership Reform Act would break up these Orwellian media conglomerates and restore objective journalism to our media through the reestablishment of the Fairness Doctrine.
Please contact your member of Congress and urge them to support the Media Ownership Reform Act.
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