The telecommunications act of 1996 is as much of a problem as doing away with glass steagal.

Another "gift" left behind by Clinton.

You almost never hear about it, even on the interwebs.

Without a free press, there is no democracy.

Most people on the interwebs don't remember life before media consolidation.

Clinton is not SOLELY to blame for this.. it started with the end of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987 and the expansion of ownership allowed under Reagan.

Clinton put the nail in the coffin with the telecommunications act of 1996.

People do not understand the power of the media and how a single entity can effectively control the majority of the message across MANY mediums.

the majority of campaign spending goes to commercial media and the price of a seat at the table keeps going up and up.

You do realize that repeal of the first amendment is required as the first step in this process?

Tune down the hyperbole a bit.

You do realize that pretty much the invention of television we have had rules in place to control how much influence a single company could have on the media.

We had the fairness doctrine. We had restrictions on whether a newspaper company could own a television station and how many stations a particular company could own in a particular market. This was to avoid consolidation of media.

In 1987 under Reagan this began to erode. T he Fairness Doctrine was done away with and companies previously restricted from owning things like cable networks were suddenly allowed to move into this space.

1996 was the next step in this horror pretty much lifting the cap, allowing a single organization to DOMINATE multiple forms of media.

Now, your "news" is pretty much controlled by 6 corporations.

So, explain how the "repeal of the first amendment" is required to put back in place rules that we had since the 1940s?

The First Amendment prohibits abridging the freedom of the press, not the freedom of corporate monopolies that own the press.

Both industries need serious reform, Dog knows.

as the oligarchs are buying more and more of our newspapers. This will give them control of the newspapers, radio, television, and cable, leaving us only with Free Speech TV and some websites. Those are next on the list (e.g. Huffington Post to AOL, The Onion to Univision Communications). We'll be reduced to posting bulletins on telephone polls.

If you don't like the options available, start your own.

Telecommunications Act of 1996 nor for the results of that Act . Just so you know.

Go ahead and shout fire in a crowded theater.

His defense of the Constitution would be one of the more persistent decent themes of of his tenure.

But you do realize that nuanced reasoning and facts are not currently in vogue at DU?

PEACE
LOVE
BERNIE

Because maybe you didn't realize what you just said ends with citizens united!

And not allowing a single company to own multiple media outlets in a market was anti-first amendment?

Come on.. figure out your argument here.

See where it leads.

sure you can

Can you say hillary was a republican?

sure you can

They collectively are having a hard time fighting their way out of a wet paper bag.

Off topic reply I know but the subject line of the reply i'm replying to lends itself to the present state of Congress (cos it's totally the opposite of progress).

Although I agree with you. ESPECIALLY with the internet now; anyone can start anything. And be successful at it. Hell, Drudge is proof of that.
But as you reference, the constitution doesnt allow for the govt to "break up" the press

to be regulated... you suggested if I don't like it I should buy my own TV station... now that's rich

Bernie is winning here
Our liberals are hippies and young people we all smoke together thats how i know Bernie is winning here. The dem caucus anywayz, but repubs cross over too, they did to legalize weed they smoke alot. Repubs smoke alot alot alot up here.

hrc yard sign or poster.. more and more bernie signs and bumperstickers

I think it's because the ice is still out and all that nasty salt. Once we get through break up, people put up their signs.
I have family down in org, brother in law is a dj down there, forget his stage name, but he's having a baby, I might visit after the baby wants company. You know we have the best weed tho. No BC thank god. No seeds either ew, my head, im not young anymore.

Life is nothing like Weird Al's film "UHF". Plus we're gone past those days.

but they are starting to get challenged by independent media. The internet has given us access to this, the same way early radio did.

Speaking of early radio, there is a reason why the 1996 telecomununicatipns act was passed. Big media was tired of the small radio stations challenging them.

Mark your calendar, they will try to close the internet for the same reason the 1996 telecom act was passed. Oh and Third way dems will defend it, just as vigorously.

When independent media gets too big (for example, Huffington Post) it invariable ends up purchased.

The "challenge" independent media is making to traditional media is little more than a gnat.

since we started doing silly shit like covering poverty, the big boys have started.

and advocate the internet for news too much. The powers are many steps ahead on this, indy news is a yugge threat to the status quo. We'll see if limitations can be staved off somehow and many good people working on it.

I can see the closing of the web within two years, sadly. If Sanders win, we will limp along for a little longer, We cannot have an American spring.

If that happens, I'll guarantee that the internet as we know it will be closed to activists for all practical purposes by the 2020 election.The reason I'm saying this is the financialization of everything that is already close to a fait accompli. Profit has become the ultimate value of TPTB (ie., mega millionaires, billionaires, and the movers and shakers that own or run gigantic global corporations -- and the politicians who they own.

Of course if the world economy collapses, everything is up for grabs and the biggest authoritarians still win.

That's why they've been in Turbo shill mode for Clinton and Trump for the last 9 months...24/7.

PEACE
LOVE
BERNIE

What's taking you so long???

Bernie on media: "If anyone simply turns on the television and says, 'Oh, there is the truth. That's all that I have to know. I can formulate an opinion from that.' They are dead wrong. The media is as much part of the problem as anything else in this country."

Love your high cable rates? The Act deregulated cable rates. Miss diversity in radio and television? The Act lead to a major drop in minority station ownership. Like money? Too bad, the Act gave away digital licenses to media companies that could have gone for about 70 Billion Dollars.

24 pages of detailed information here:
The Fallout From the Telecommunications Act of 1996
http://www.commoncause.org/research-reports/National_050905_Fallout_From_The_Telecommunications_Act_2.pdf

But let us not forget that some individuals, many actually, are cogs in the MSM machine. They didn't create this mess and are stuck in a difficult situation, lives are literally dependent on 'going along to get along' for the vast majority of people. A child going hungry due to a parent's job loss is not a reasonable price to pay, for example.

Yes, break it up but let's remember we have allies there as well. Keep perspective, is all I am saying.

Antitrust enforcement needs to make a yuuge comeback.

to decide who the "stars" and "leaders" shall be and then hype them into positions of fame, fortune, and power.

Silly.

by any corp doing business with the government

before they tore him apart with the scream.

the Republicans squirm as it occurs to them that they REALLY ARE fascists.

start their own television station.

Typical silly arguments that don't make sense.

Break them up!! No radio or television station should have the same programming as the station across the street.

That includes Time-Warner, and Ruperts silly little monopoly.

I'm curious. Do HRC supporters listen to Rush-Limpbutt?

Just wondering.

One very instructive recent example was that of Argentina, where the former President Cristina Kirchner attempted to limit media monopolies by way of the 2009 Audiovisual Services Law.

This anti-trust law, which replaced dictatorship-era media regulations designed to promote monopolization (similar to Reagan's FCC and the '96 Telecommunications Act in the U.S.), limited the number of licences any one company could have, as well as the market share in each metro area (35%). It was supported by among others the UN, the International Federation of Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, and the Carter Center - even cited as an example for other countries with excessive media ownership concentration.

But the largest media group in Argentina, the Clarín Group, had other ideas. They began by using the courts to file injunction after injunction - and even blackmailed a number of judges to make sure these injunctions were upheld. These injunctions continued even after the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the law itself.

They also, of course, used their own media outlets (numerous newspapers, websites, and the cable news channel TN) to launch a no-holds-barred smear campaign against Cristina Kirchner and anyone who supported the media anti-trust law. The foreign media - particularly right-wing outliets - joined in by often basically translating the smears verbatim (which Clarín took care to publish using the conditional tense, since for the most part they were unsubstantiated).

The result? The anti-trust provisions of the law was never really implemented due to the barrage of injunctions, and the media smear campaign led to a narrow right-wing victory in last year's election. The new president, who's been ruling by decree since he took office two months ago, scrapped the law (which was passed by Congress) by decree.

This, unfortunately, is what we might expect if anyone ever seriously tried to break up - or even limit - the big media monopolies. And don't forget that, just as the Clarín Group had the Argentine far right on its side (in what was mostly a marriage of convenience), so too will the big media groups reach out to the GOP and its surrogates to destroy any president who tried to limit media monopolies.

Love it and had never thought of it.

Because they can see the dominoes dropping if he manages to start breaking up the banks.

IF Bernie gets in WH, he will go to us for help. He has to know we have his back. That means showing up at the Capitol and letting them know we are not f'ing around. When Bernie wants to pass legislation to break up corporate media, we have to be there for him. You can count me in on that.