Media and Democracy

[Guest guest]

from http://www.robertmcchesney.com/

 

Media & Democracy

by Paul Wellstone

 

The media is not just any ordinary industry. It is the life blood of American

democracy. We depend on the media for the free flow of information that enables

citizens to participate in the democratic process. As James Madison wrote in

1822, " A popular government without popular information, or the means of

acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or perhaps both. "

That's

why freedom of the press is enshrined in our Constitution. No other industry

enjoys that kind of protection.

 

Yet, at the dawn of the 21st Century, America is experiencing a wave of media

mergers and that is leading to an unprecedented concentration of ownership in

the

hands of a few giant communications firms. This rapid concentration of control

over the U.S., and indeed global, media raises troubling questions for our

system

of representative democracy.

 

Over the past several years, I have expressed concern over the explosion of

mergers in one industry after another, notably in agriculture and finance. But

of

all the industries where concentration of ownership is accelerating at such a

rapid pace, it is consolidation in the media and entertainment industries that

should alarm us most.

 

For our democracy to function effectively, we depend on the media to do two

things. We depend on newspapers, radio, television and now the Internet to

provide citizens with access to a wide and diverse range of opinions, analyses,

and perspectives. And we depend on the media to hold concentrated power-whether

public or private power-accountable to the people. The greater the diversity of

ownership and control, the better media will be able to perform these vital

functions.

 

But as ownership and control of the media becomes concentrated in the hands of

fewer and fewer people, it becomes less likely that we can rely upon the media

to

fulfill these basic responsibilities. Common ownership and control is not

conducive to diversity of viewpoints and perspectives. And as these far-flung

multinational corporations extend their holdings and influence into more and

more

new industries-with interests of their own, as regards regulation in

particular-how much confidence can we have that they will hold any of those

interests accountable to the people?

 

Most Americans are shocked when they learn of the degree of media concentration

that has occurred over the past 15 years. When Ben Bagdikian wrote The Media

Monopoly back in 1983, about 50 media conglomerates controlled more than half of

all broadcast media, newspapers, magazines, video, radio, music, publishing, and

film in this country. By 1986, that number had shrunk from 50 to 29. By 1993 it

had shrunk even further, to 20 firms. Today fewer than 10 multinational media

conglomerates-Time/Warner, Disney, Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp, Viacom, Sony,

Seagram, AT & T/Liberty Media, Bertelsmann, and GE-dominate most of the American

mass media landscape. The range and diversity of their holdings is astounding.

Growing consolidation of media corporations raises very urgent questions about

political power in our democracy. As Gerald Levin, the chairman of Time Warner,

said recently, global media is " fast becoming the predominant business of the

21st century, " and it is therefore " more important than government. It's more

important than educational institutions and non-profits. "

 

Global media corporations wield enormous influence over the formulation of our

public policy. Yet they often have direct economic stakes in the outcome of our

public policy debates. And the larger they get, the more influence they

exercise,

the more money they can donate to members of Congress, and the more high-paid

lobbyists they can afford to blanket the halls of Congress with their

self-serving messages.

 

Ordinary citizens don't stand a chance of having their voices heard against the

power and influence of these corporate titans. What's more, ordinary citizens

have almost no say in the way these conglomerates operate. Yet, we know that

what's good for global media corporations is not necessarily good for America.

 

So what, if anything, can we do about the crisis of concentration?

 

I believe that the media mergers that have led to this troubling degree of

concentration warrant the highest level of scrutiny by our antitrust agencies

and

by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). They may also require Congress

to

consider a new legislative framework to address the growing problem of media

concentration. If our antitrust laws can't do anything to stop eight

conglomerates from dominating this multi-trillion dollar industry, clearly we

need to start rethinking our antitrust laws. I think it's long overdue for

Congress and the White House to reassert the importance of antitrust laws in the

global economy of the 21st century-and nowhere is such a move more urgently

needed than in regard to the media industry.

 

Undoubtedly such an effort would meet considerable resistance, not least from

media corporations themselves. Progress in the area of antitrust has almost

always come in response to public pressure.

 

Yet, this is the fundamental quandary of democratic media reform: involvement of

the public in this debate depends on coverage and attention by the major media

that has traditionally been the source of information. Unfortunately, the record

to date has not been encouraging. The major media have been virtually silent on

the public policy implications of its own rapid consolidation over the past 15

years.

 

But, now, the silence is beginning to be broken. Citizens are beginning to ask

tough questions about media mergers, and Bob McChesney and John Nichols are with

showing them how to turn those questions into a powerful movement for media

reform.

 

Thanks to the courageous and groundbreaking work of tireless advocates such as

McChesney and Nichols, more and more Americans are beginning to appreciate the

enormity of the stakes involved in the debate over media concentration. And,

with

this book, citizens are being offered a sense of the power they have to force

this issue onto the agenda of our political parties and, ultimately, of local,

state and federal government.

 

It is time for such a movement. Indeed, if we truly care about the health and

future of American democracy, we must involve every citizen in this crucial work

of insuring that the life blood of that democracy -information from diverse and

distinct sources-is allowed to flow freely.

 

 

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