New Studies Dismantle Big Media Case for Consolidation
Reverend Jesse Jackson joined an alliance of civil rights and consumer groups today in Memphis to call on the FCC to halt media concentration and promote minority media ownership.
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During an event at the National Conference for Media Reform, the alliance released a slate of new studies that pointedly refute Big Media’s arguments for further consolidation.
The studies were delivered to the FCC with a letter signed by more than a dozen civil rights, consumer and media groups. The groundbreaking research was also made available to the public on the StopBigMedia.com Coalition Web site.
The six new studies on dismantle Big Media’s case for abandoning the ownership protections that currently prevent media conglomerates from swallowing up even more local outlets.
They include an exposé of the National Association of Broadcasters’ fraudulent financial reporting on commercial broadcasters, and an analysis of news consumption online — where the top Internet news sites are owned by the same giants that control the rest of the media.
Among other demands, the coalition letter urges the FCC to stop further concentration of media ownership until it has taken the necessary steps to promote minority and female ownership of broadcast stations.
Groups signing the letter include Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Free Press, Industry Ears, Media Access Project, MALDEF, Media Alliance, NAACP California, National Association of Hispanic Journalists, National Black Programming Consortium National Council of La Raza, National Hispanic Media Coalition, National Organization for Women, Rainbow/PUSH, R.E.A.C.Hip-Hop, and United Church of Christ.
Follow the latest developments at the Memphis conference via the blog: www.freepress.net/conference
[…] On the show today I’ll have some audio from Bill Moyers’ morning keynote and from a press conference held this morning for the release of critical research reports on media ownership that pose a serious challenge to the big media lobby’s arguments for allowing further consolidation. […]
January 12th, 2007 at 4:31 pm[…] New Studies Dismantle Big Media Case for Consolidation Civil rights and consumer groups address the negative impact of corporate media with a host of recent studies that “pointedly refute” arguments for “abandoning the ownership protections that currently prevent media conglomerates from swallowing up even more local outlets.” Among the studies is an exposé of the National Association of Broadcasters’ fraudulent financial reporting on commercial broadcasters, and an analysis of news consumption online—where the top Internet news sites are owned by the same giants that control the rest of the media. […]
January 16th, 2007 at 8:09 am