THURSDAY, JULY 30, 2009
Dan Rather Slams the Corporate Media
Dan Rather slammed the corporate media in a talk Tuesday for the erosion of quality journalism, and the corporatization, politicization, and “trivialization” of news.
He also said:
A democracy and free people cannot thrive without a fiercely independent press.
This is true, of course.
An uninformed public cannot maintain a democratic republic.
But it is also true because:
The government has allowed tremendous consolidation in ownership of the airwaves during the past decade. The large media players stand to gain billions of dollars in profits if the Obama administration continues to allow monopoly ownership of the airwaves by a handful of players. The media giants know who butters their bread. So there is a spoken or tacit agreement: if the media cover the administration in a favorable light, the MSM will continue to be the receiver of the government's goodies.
Rather pointed out that “roughly 80 percent” of the media is controlled by no more than six, and possibly as few as four, corporations.
This is only newsworthy because Rather said it. This fact has been documented for years, as shown by the following must-see charts prepared by:
And check out this list of interlocking directorates of big media companies from Fairness and Accuracy in Media, and this resource from the Columbia Journalism Review to research a particular company.
This image gives a sense of the decline in diversity in media ownership over the last couple of decades:
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