Reply #12: all the news that isn't...

[thingfisher]

What we are talking about is the consolidation of power. A free press is a prerequisite to freedom. During the past twenty years there was plenty of warning about the erosion of the news medis as laws were being rewritten regarding media ownershi, etc. Mark Crispin Miller was one person who constantly spoke on the subject here in my native Baltimore.
We no not have a free society any longer, we have a well controlled society due in large measure to the homogenization of the media. When a corporation like GE owns a large segment of the media how can we expect journalistic objectivity? What we have is creeping fascism, the wdding of corporate and government power, as once explained by Benito Mussolini. In Amerika we call it privatization and free market capitalism.
Last night on the Bill Moyers show on PBS (there are pockets of real journalism scattered about still) we were treated to an analysis of the Jack Abramoff "scandal". The important mersage of the program was that while Abramoff may be out of commission for awhile and Tom DeLay's Christian testimony besmirched nothing will change the basic structure of corruption that is today the institutional modis operandi of government. Corporate interest is the sole driving force of policy today. No one represents the broader interests of the people because the people don't have the reserves of cash necessary to influence our elected officials. Oh yeah, we the people vote these scum bags into office based on their carefully crafted public image and campaign persona, but once in office a different dynamic takes over. A big part of the problem is caused by the constant pressure on public officials to raise money for re-election. This becomes the full time job of a politician which is often interupted by his official duties.
We cannot expect for things in Amerika to change as long as the structure of our electoral system depends on the ability of govenment officials to raise millions of dollars for campaigning.
Why not pass legislation requiring the media to provide an equal amount of time and resources to cover the candidates as a public service? Persoanl appearances would continue to be an individual responsibility but the vast amounts of cash required to mount effective media coverage could be dispensed with by providing free air time for meaningful debates and discussions on radio and tv both locally and nationally.
I know it is probably unrealistic to imagine that such a sweeping reform could occur in our profit driven society, but unless something is done on a radical scale Amerika will continue to be dominated and controlled only by people capable of the completely ruthless pursuit of power at any cost. Just look who's president!