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Politics : Moderate Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Doug R who wrote (3069)	7/27/2003 7:17:26 PM
From: Ron	Respond to of 20773

On another front, Bush will likely lose the support of another key group if he proceeds to veto a congressional rollback of the FCC giveway to TV conglomerates. That would be the NRA: Speak out vs. FCC while you can By WAYNE LaPIERRE They say freedom of the press belongs to the guy who owns one. If the FCC has its way, a few guys will soon own them all. And, in turn, the minds of the next generation of Americans. That's not an overstatement. Last month, the Federal Communications Commission reversed decades of policy and voted to allow a handful of gigantic media conglomerates to own virtually every newspaper, TV and radio station and cable TV provider in America. Under the new rule, media corporations such as AOL Time Warner, Viacom/CBS, Disney/ABC and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. can effectively lock up the airwaves and newsstands with their own self-serving spin and spiel in 200 markets serving nine out of 10 Americans. Most cities have only one major newspaper to begin with. Add ownership of the dominant local TV station, the top AM and FM bands and the local cable TV provider. Then do the same thing in 20 or 50 cities, and you see how a multibillion-dollar corporation corners the market in the marketplace of ideas. Minority or unpopular causes - think of women's suffrage in 1914 or civil rights in 1954 - would be downplayed or dismissed to keep viewers watching and advertisers buying. That's no way to run a democracy. That's why groups as diverse as the National Rifle Association, the National Organization for Women and the National Council of Churches oppose the FCC's sellout to monopoly-minded media giants. Why should you care? Because when the movies you watch, the music you listen to, the products you buy and the ideas you're sold are all screened and censored and presented by the same source, you lose. Besides, do you trust them? A recent Gallup poll for CNN and USA Today found that two-thirds of the American people believe news organizations don't get their facts straight. If Americans already worry that national media are packaged, pitched, slanted and self-serving, you ain't seen nothin' yet. Why have we heard so little from Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings or Dan Rather about this? Because their big media bosses were spending more than $100 million in lobbying and political contributions in the past three years. Proponents say that with cable TV, satellite TV, the Internet and the rest, a diversity of viewpoints is ensured. What they don't tell you is that the big media already own many of those same cable and satellite providers. And they already write the content for many of the most popular sites on the Internet. The only way to stop this is to denounce it from the highest rooftop now, while you still have a voice. Tell everyone the airwaves belong to the American people, and the FCC's job is to protect the public interest - not big media barons who want a monopoly on public discourse. There's a word for that: oligarchy. We left that behind with King George and the serfs. And we won't go back. LaPierre is executive vice president of the National Rifle Association. nydailynews.com