The below is an excerpt from a blog from the Bill Moyers “Group Think” series, written by CMJ’s Betty Yu. The opposite of traditional “groupthink,” the billmoyers.com Group Think poses one question to a variety of smart thinkers for insightful perspectives on relevant issues.
If the FCC is sincere about its role in protecting the public’s interest in telecommunications and media markets, then they cannot further relax media ownership rules. The recent proposal on the table threatens to gut the 30-year-old broadcast/newspaper cross-ownership rule that allows one company to own a daily newspaper, two TV stations and up to eight radio stations in one town. We know that today, media ownership is already concentrated in the hands of a few corporations thanks to the loosening of ownership rules by Washington in the last several decades. These corporate media giants not only own the broadcast networks and local stations; but also own the pipeline — the cable and the Internet signals that deliver most of the media content.
Members of our Media Action Grassroots Network (MAG-Net), a national network of over 140 community and locally based organizations working to advance a people-centered media justice agenda, understand the devastating impact the recent proposed media ownership rule changes could have on communities of color and women.
