Media Monopolies

3 Pages 732 Words

In this article “Unshackling Big Media” we see a man by the name of Micheal Powell, son of Colin Powell and more importantly chairman of the FCC is battling against huge media enterprise monopolies. Powell was elected back in January and at this point has a powerful republican behind him, George W. Bush. Being the head of the FCC holds many responsibilities including stopping these huge enterprises from all taking over television and having these corporations constantly at your throat. Currently the FCC has these companies at a halt with its rules and regulations and these companies don’t want to give up until they have it all or at least nearly it all.

These companies are trying to find ways around current rules such as “Thou shalt not own a newspaper and a broadcast station in the same market” and “Thou shalt not own a television station that, collectively reaches more than 35% of the nation’s households.” The FCC also states that none of the four major networks Fox, NBC, ABC or CBS can buy each other out. The FCC believes if one company is controlling the media then the public will only see one side of a view and the American public will become very narrow minded. With these rules and regulations we stop a single company from holding power. However some believe that “whether people like it or not, the industry is getting bigger and needs more significant resources to compete in a global media marketplace.” This idea shows the flip side of the coin, that maybe if these companies were larger they would. A legal adviser to Micheal Powell, Susan Eid believes that owning a television station as well as a newspaper would create a much higher quality of journalism. Adam Thierer the director of telecommunication studies at the liberation Cato Institute, thinks “whether people like it or not, the industry is getting bigger and needs more significant resources to compete in a global marketplace.” Gene Killman of Con...