General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Why is the press rooting for a Democratic loss in Virginia? [View all]onenote
(42,581 posts)That's the claim. And its staggeringly untrue and silly.
It ignores some of the most heavily subscribed to and read newspapers and magazines. It ignores radio stations (what we "listen to" ). It ignores social media companies. It lists entities that have been de-consolidated, like Time Magazine from the other Warner entities, like Miraxmax from Disney, etc.)
It claims that the "Big Six" control 70% of "your cable" -- even though only one company that offers multichannel video programming distribution service (Comcast) is on that list -- and it represents less than 20 million of the 78 million MVPD customers (and its share is dropping as people cut the cord and rely on streaming services). And if the reference to "your cable" is supposed to be a reference to cable programming networks (like CNN, HBO, ESPN, etc), the list includes Time Warner, which doesn't own cable networks any more, and doesn't include the owners of some of the most widely distributed cable networks: ATT, Discovery, Weather Channel to name a few. It also doesn't include the 4000+ non-commercial educational FM radio stations or the 380 noncommercial educational television stations.
Other graphics are equally absurd. USA Today, not the Wall Street Journal, is the largest US paper by circulation (and leaves WSJ in the dust if you add online to print). I don't know whether Clear Channel ever owned 1200 stations, but its successor, iHeartRadio, owns 858 stations -- a fraction of the nation's 6680 FM commercial stations and 4500 commercial AM stations (to say nothing of the aforementioned 4000 noncommercial stations) and online "radio" services. And I guarantee that Clear never owned all of the radio stations in Minot ND.
Even if nothing had changed since this goofy meme was first published 11 years ago, it would be nonsensical and lacking in any reference to substantive data to back up its claims. Yet folks here have been citing it for years as if it was gospel.