Editorials & Other Articles

Bill USA

(6,436 posts) Wed Sep 14, 2016, 08:06 PM Sep 2016

Who Owns The Media? 6 Monolithic Corporations That Control Almost Everything We Watch, Hear & Read

http://beforeitsnews.com/new-world-order/2015/01/who-owns-the-media-the-6-monolithic-corporations-that-control-almost-everything-we-watch-hear-and-read-3524.html

Back in 1983, approximately 50 corporations controlled the vast majority of all news media in the United States. Today, ownership of the news media has been concentrated in the hands of just six incredibly powerful media corporations. These corporate behemoths control most of what we watch, hear and read every single day. They own television networks, cable channels, movie studios, newspapers, magazines, publishing houses, music labels and even many of our favorite websites. Sadly, most Americans don’t even stop to think about who is feeding them the endless hours of news and entertainment that they constantly ingest. Most Americans don’t really seem to care about who owns the media. But they should. The truth is that each of us is deeply influenced by the messages that are constantly being pounded into our heads by the mainstream media. The average American watches 153 hours of television a month. In fact, most Americans begin to feel physically uncomfortable if they go too long without watching or listening to something. Sadly, most Americans have become absolutely addicted to news and entertainment and the ownership of all that news and entertainment that we crave is being concentrated in fewer and fewer hands each year.

The six corporations that collectively control U.S. media today are Time Warner, Walt Disney, Viacom, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., CBS Corporation and NBC Universal. Together, the “big six” absolutely dominate news and entertainment in the United States. But even those areas of the media that the “big six” do not completely control are becoming increasingly concentrated. For example, Clear Channel now owns over 1000 radio stations across the United States. Companies like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are increasingly dominating the Internet.

But it is the “big six” that are the biggest concerns. When you control what Americans watch, hear and read you gain a great deal of control over what they think. They don’t call it “programming” for nothing.

Back in 1983 it was bad enough that about 50 corporations dominated U.S. media. But since that time, power over the media has rapidly become concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer people…

11 replies

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Who Owns The Media? 6 Monolithic Corporations That Control Almost Everything We Watch, Hear & Read (Original Post) Bill USA Sep 2016 OP

K & R Coyotl Sep 2016 #1

As I said Oldem Sep 2016 #2

I guess you are aware of the Princeton study showing average Americans have little impact on public Bill USA Sep 2016 #5

The specifics Oldem Sep 2016 #7

if you're interested in pounding on Right Wing idiots, it's good to have empirical evidence to refer Bill USA Sep 2016 #8

Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer--& Turned Its Back on the Middle Class Bill USA Sep 2016 #6

Media concentration and net neutrality is the most important unreported issue this election to me. rurallib Sep 2016 #3

what's really hillarious - or infuriating - is to hear GOP toadies of M$M say people are going more Bill USA Sep 2016 #9

Thank you. n/t Judi Lynn Sep 2016 #4

K&R! Media culpability in the rise of Trump is undeniable. riderinthestorm Sep 2016 #10

k and r for exposure Stuart G Sep 2016 #11

Coyotl

(15,262 posts)

1. K & R

Reply to Bill USA (Original post)

Wed Sep 14, 2016, 08:35 PM

Sep 2016

Oldem

(833 posts)

2. As I said

Reply to Bill USA (Original post)

Wed Sep 14, 2016, 08:36 PM

Sep 2016

in another recent post, this is a step toward oligarchy, which is a system controlled by any powerful group. For me, the movement in that direction is the scariest thing about T-rumpism. Our most beloved institutions--beloved because they insure our freedom--are being eroded by the influence of big money. That will get much worse if the electorate wakes up stupid on 11/8. If the Roberts court can declare corporations to be people, imagine what a T-rump stacked court might do. Will it be back to an Afro-American being 3/5ths of a person? As absurd as that is, it was part of US law at one time. Many Americans have fought hard to gain equality of opportunity for Afro-Americans, women, people of non-conformist sexual orientation, and others. But there have also been many Americans fighting to prevent or reverse these advances. Will we all be equal under the law if only the wealthy and powerful have a voice in government?

Bill USA

(6,436 posts)

5. I guess you are aware of the Princeton study showing average Americans have little impact on public

Reply to Oldem (Reply #2)

Thu Sep 15, 2016, 06:04 PM

Sep 2016

... policy. But the most wealthy have an inordinate influence on same:

Princeton Study: U.S. No Longer An Actual Democracy

A new study from Princeton spells bad news for American democracy—namely, that it no longer exists.

Asking "[w]ho really rules?" researchers Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page argues that over the past few decades America's political system has slowly transformed from a democracy into an oligarchy, where wealthy elites wield most power.

Using data drawn from over 1,800 different policy initiatives from 1981 to 2002, the two conclude that rich, well-connected individuals on the political scene now steer the direction of the country, regardless of or even against the will of the majority of voters.

TPM Interview: Scholar Behind Viral 'Oligarchy' Study Tells You What It Means

"The central point that emerges from our research is that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy," they write, "while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence."
(more)

It’s Official: America is an Oligarchy and NOT a Democracy or a Republic

(more)

Oldem

(833 posts)

7. The specifics

Reply to Bill USA (Reply #5)

Thu Sep 15, 2016, 06:52 PM

Sep 2016

are helpful. I had not known of this. Not to disparage your contribution in any way, but this seems self-evident to me. You, and Princeton, lend proof, which is always preferable to opinion.

The biggest lie, I think, that repugs have sold Americans is "supply-side" or "trickle-down" economics. (Closely followed by the idea that they are Christian.) It's so blatantly designed to benefit the rich, there is no empirical evidence to support it, and there is abundant evidence--emperical and experiential--to disprove it. I will never forget Sen. Tom Harkin's definition of it. In the 1992 Presidential primary he said that trickle-down economics is the notion that the best way to feed the birds is to give more oats to the horse. Pithy, earthy, accurate, and memorable.

Bill USA

(6,436 posts)

8. if you're interested in pounding on Right Wing idiots, it's good to have empirical evidence to refer

Reply to Oldem (Reply #7)

Thu Sep 15, 2016, 07:40 PM

Sep 2016

to - to back up your arguments.

You can't count on winning an argument saying something is "self evident" to you. On the other hand, if you don't care if you have an impact on how people think - or DON'T think - then this realization is of little value to you.

Bill USA

(6,436 posts)

6. Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer--& Turned Its Back on the Middle Class

Reply to Oldem (Reply #2)

Thu Sep 15, 2016, 06:11 PM

Sep 2016

Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer--and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class

This acclaimed paradigm-shifting work identifies the real culprit behind one of the great economic crises of our time—the growing inequality of incomes between the vast majority of Americans and the richest of the rich.

A groundbreaking work that identifies the real culprit behind one of the great economic crimes of our time— the growing inequality of incomes between the vast majority of Americans and the richest of the rich.

We all know that the very rich have gotten a lot richer these past few decades while most Americans haven’t. In fact, the exorbitantly paid have continued to thrive during the current economic crisis, even as the rest of Americans have continued to fall behind. Why do the “haveit- alls” have so much more? And how have they managed to restructure the economy to reap the lion’s share of the gains and shift the costs of their new economic playground downward, tearing new holes in the safety net and saddling all of us with increased debt and risk? Lots of so-called experts claim to have solved this great mystery, but no one has really gotten to the bottom of it—until now.

In their lively and provocative Winner-Take-All Politics, renowned political scientists Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson demonstrate convincingly that the usual suspects—foreign trade and financial globalization, technological changes in the workplace, increased education at the top—are largely innocent of the charges against them. Instead, they indict an unlikely suspect and take us on an entertaining tour of the mountain of evidence against the culprit. The guilty party is American politics. Runaway inequality and the present economic crisis reflect what government has done to aid the rich and what it has not done to safeguard the interests of the middle class. The winner-take-all economy is primarily a result of winner-take-all politics.
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rurallib

(62,444 posts)

3. Media concentration and net neutrality is the most important unreported issue this election to me.

Reply to Bill USA (Original post)

Wed Sep 14, 2016, 08:52 PM

Sep 2016

Trump wins and net neutrality is gone week one. We will have an internet that looks like cable TV - we can by levels of predetermined websites.

Thus it will slowly choke any alternative we have in this country

Bill USA

(6,436 posts)

9. what's really hillarious - or infuriating - is to hear GOP toadies of M$M say people are going more

Reply to rurallib (Reply #3)

Thu Sep 15, 2016, 07:43 PM

Sep 2016

and more to the web because they are only interested in hearing/reading what people who agree with them have to say.

[font size="+1"]AS if the M$M was delivering unbiased account of the news!!!![/font]