"The only security of all is in a free press. The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to. It is necessary, to keep the waters pure." --Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 1823.
First, are all the media mergers that place control of the mass media in the hands of media conglomerates. Nine companies, Disney, CBS, Time Warner, News Corp, Bertelsmann AG, Viacom, General Electric, Lagardère Group and Vivendi SA own 90% of the market. There is one and only one guiding principle for these mega corporations, “make a profit”. For a good discussion of the deterioration in the mass media’s coverage of the news I would refer you to an article at Cyber College titled, The Decline of TV News Coverage. One of the most recent takeovers was yesterday’s sale of the Wall Street Journal to News Corp. Now, I’m not a great fan of many of the opinions expressed in the Wall Street Journal, but I do read it on occasion and look to it for a conservative and business point of view on the news and as a source for understanding the economic world of big business and multinational corporations. What I don’t want to read in the Wall Street Journal is what I read in all the other newspapers and see on TV.
Second is the continuing effort by multinational corporations and many of our current “corporate owned” elected officials to control the Internet and restrict the free flow of information and harness it for profit. As newspaper, television, radio, and motion picture media has increasingly come under the control of big corporations concerned only with profit, not information, factual reporting or democracy; the Internet has become the best hope for the spread of democracy throughout the world and the continuation of our own. But as Cosmic has posted on his website, the average American is too distracted by endless debates on
“As special interests jockey for control of the information highway, consumer input has become noticeably absent from the conversation. Unable to express their concerns, people are reduced to passive listeners, voiceless to interject their opinions about the most significant free speech matter to emerge in the past 75 years. Instead of focusing on a substantive policy which assures the Internet will be shared equally by everyone at an affordable price, the slugfest has degenerated into a hostile engagement about who will profit the most from its future deployment.”
It is time for freedom loving Americans to protect free speech and free press, fundamental rights guaranteed in our First Amendment. The founding fathers knew the importance of these rights to our continued survival as a free nation. Join the fight to Save the Internet for the people.
"We all take for granted the freedom that the internet gives us to access any piece of information, ranging from the smallest website to the largest. Most importantly, we take for granted the freedom it gives us to share our opinions. Imagine, if you will, an Internet where certain websites are blocked or take a prolonged amount of time to load just because the broadband provider you subscribe to doesn't agree with the opinions or content presented on them. The great innovations that come from an open, collaborative environment would be stalled, if not completely halted."
"Media conglomerates threaten Internet neutrality" Polytechnic Online
2 comments:
Welcome back from your vacation, Ceejay. Nice to have you back Blogging again.
You've made some excellent points about the threat media consolidation poses to democracy. As you state here and which I tried to do in my latest Column, our only free speech hope left is to keep them from controlling the Internet.
We cannot let it become a tool for political demagogues or private greed. I said several years ago if they succeed, the only information we will see afterwards is data which supports the ruling elites economic goals. All objectivity will be lost and the only remaining databases will be those which collect personal information about us. If libraries still exist afterwards, knowledge contrary to conservative thought will be erased.
Not a very encouraging prospect but if we don't get a President in '08 with a digital vision that gives people Constitutional protection from private and political entities wishing to exploit us, democracy will be extinguished.
Neocons have spent the past 25 portraying government as evil in the minds of citizens but the real problem is irresponsible capitalists who've run rampant over our civil liberties and bankrupted the country both morally and fiscally in the process.
When the system crashes, it will be the little people left to pick up the pieces just as they did over two hundred years ago.
The country survived the turmoil then and will this time around but not before a lot of needless suffering by the majority brings them to that conclusion.
Peace,
Cosmic
Cosmic,
Thanks for your excellent comments. My vacation was fun, but it is also good to be back. I was using the Internet at the university before the graphical interface and the ability to connect to it from the home computer. I was hooked early on by the freedom to exchange ideas and opinions through discussion groups and e-mail across international borders and to access information that wasn't readily available from the local or even college library. Access to information, the ability to share it, and free exchange of ideas is the best hope for our world.
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