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Fight Back Against Media Consolidation
Author: livingonli    Date: 12/15/2007 09:33:45

Greetings fellow bloggerinos. I’m filling in for Tri who’s off on a little expedition. A little weekend with the scouts in the cold while another nor-easter bears down upon us. I guess I prefer my creature comforts.

One thing about me is that I have been following the media for many years, and not just because I work in the industry. And the one thing that has been a very disturbing trend has been the concentration of ownership in fewer hands. It seems like as the number of options has increased between cable/satellite TV, satellite radio, digital TV and HD radio, the number of companies providing content has decreased considerably from the 30 companies that controlled most media when Ben Bagdikian first wrote The Media Monopoly in 1980 to about 5 or 6 today. How well are you informed about what’s going on in the world if all the information is being filtered through Disney, News Corp., GE, Viacom, Time Warner, and Clear Channel. To look at one example, here are the US Holdings of News Corp. (better known as 20th-Century Fox, whose news coverage serves as part of Rupert Murdoch’s propaganda mill). Here are their US holdings via the Wiki;


Books
• HarperCollins book publishing company
• Zondervan Christian book publisher
o Youth Specialties - organisation helping youth workers worldwide through training seminars and conventions, resources and the internet.
o Inspirio - religious gift production.

Newspapers

• The New York Post
• Dow Jones & Company
- Consumer Media Group
- The Wall Street Journal - the leading US financial newspaper.
- Wall Street Journal Europe
- Wall Street Journal Asia
- Barron's - weekly financial markets magazine.
- Marketwatch - Financial news and information website.
- Far Eastern Economic Review
- Enterprise Media Group
- Dow Jones Newswires - world's leading real-time news and information provider.
- Factiva - provides business news and information together with content delivery tools and services.
- Dow Jones Indexes - stock market indexes and indicators.
- Dow Jones Financial Information Services - produces databases, electronic media, newsletters, conferences, directories, and other information services on specialized markets and industry sectors.
- The Timesledger Newspapers in Queens, New York: Bayside Times, Whitestone Times, Flushing Times, Fresh Meadows Times, Little Neck Ledger, Jackson Heights Times, Richmond Hill Times, Jamaica Times, Laurelton Times, Queens Village Times, Astoria Times, Forest Hills Ledger, Ridgewood Ledger, Howard Beach Times
- The Courier-Life Newspapers in Brooklyn
- Caribbean Life

Magazines
• SmartSource
• TV Guide, via partial ownership of Gemstar-TV Guide
• The Weekly Standard (Washington, D.C.)

Studios
• Fox Filmed Entertainment: 20th Century Fox's parent company
• 20th Century Fox: a film production company
• 20th Century Fox Television - primetime television programming.
• 20th Television - primetime television distribution.
• Fox Searchlight Pictures - specialized films.
• Fox 2000 Pictures - general audience feature films.
• Fox Television Studios(productions)- market specific programming eg. COPS.
• Fox Television Studios International
o Fox World Productions
o Fox World Australia
o Fox TV Studios France
o Fox TV Studios India
o Natural History New Zealand - natural world documentaries, non-fiction programming.
• Fox Atomic - produces theatrical films, comics, and digital content targeting the 17-24 year olds. Aiming to produce/acquire eight films per year over a range of genres, specifically action and horror
• Fox Faith - Promotion and distribution of Christian and related "family friendly" movies on DVD and some theatrical release.
• Fox Studios Australia, Sydney, New South Wales
• Blue Sky Studios - production of CGI films eg. Ice Age.
• Fox Entertainment Group
• New Regency Productions (20%) - general audience feature films.
• Regency Television (50%) - mainstream television shows.
• Regency Enterprises (20%) - parent company of New Regency Productions (50%), and Regency Television (50%).
TV
Broadcast
• Fox Broadcasting Company (FOX), a US broadcast television network
• My Network TV, a US broadcast television network
• Fox Television Stations Group, a group of owned and operated FOX television stations

Cable
CHANNELS
• Fox Business Network, a business news channel.
• Fox Classics, a channel airing solely classic movies
• Fox Movie Channel, an all-movie channel that airs commercial-free movies from 20th Century Fox film library
• Fox News Channel, a 24-hour news channel
• Fox Reality, a 'Reality TV'-themed channel
• Fox Sports Net, a chain of US regional cable television networks broadcasting local sporting events linked together by national sports news programming. Local channels include "Fox Sports Southwest", "Fox Sports Bay Area", etc. (some affiliates are owned by Cablevision).
• Fox College Sports, a college sports network consisting of three regionally-aligned channels
• SportSouth, a regional sports network in the United States, with its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.
o Fox Soccer Channel, a United States digital cable network specializing mainly in soccer.
• FX Networks, a cable network broadcasting reruns of programming previously shown on other channels, but recently creating its own programming, including the Emmy Award-winning program The Shield.
• SPEED Channel
• FUEL TV
• Big Ten Network, college football & basketball cable channel being launched Aug 2007 (49%)
• National Geographic Channel (joint venture with National Geographic Magazine) 67%
• National Geographic Channel International 75%


Just think all those outlets being used for right-wing propaganda and endless hours of coverage on Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. And it seems as a result that there is a lot of poorer quality fare being used to fill up all the air time on all these channels. It makes me feel like there was more to watch on TV when I was a little kid and I could only receive 7 TV stations and the big highlight was visiting the relatives in more remote areas who only got between 12 and 20 channels on their cable TV service.

If you want to make sure that this is not allowed to happen further especially with proposed new FCC Guidelines which would even further loosen what’s left of the ownership rules, go to Stop Big Media and see what you can do.

In the future, I will probably be back to write more on this matter so that we have the media that gives us the proper information to make informed decisions within a free society. And maybe with some changes in the laws under the next administration, maybe I can find good paying work again.

Well, I brought in the New York Bagels, along with ample and :coffee:, so pull up a chair, have a sip. and stay warm and dry if you can this weekend. The weather in the northeast will give you a good reason to stay inside. and and

Livin'

 

25 comments (Latest Comment: 12/23/2007 13:48:15 by maggiesboy)
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