Media Concentration

[PatM]

One thing I have become ever more aware of is the dearth of actual "news" in the media.

When the proof that Blair and Bush lied through their teeth to justify the attack on Iraq was released in Britan, NOTHING was mentioned in the majority of Canada's media. The Downing Street Memo was printed by the Times of London on March 1st - contributing significantly to Labour losing 100 seats in Parliament. This memo was headling news across most of the world for WEEKS - In Canada? Almost nothing. What was reported barely dipped into the actual contents of the minutes of that meeting.

In Canada, the Senate Transport and Communications Committee has been investigating media concentration in Canada for years. They are examing the impact of an ever-shrinking list of media sources on the public interest - and finding some scary things. Their Fourth Report was released last year.

Ever heard of this committee? If so, It was probably something like CanWest Global's coverage "Despite increasing budgets, the CBC is losing viewers". This committe, which is looking at the very basis of any democracy - the ability for citizens to stay informed, is virtually ignored by our media. All they report is tiny little bits that they can twist to their own advantage (Taxpayer money wasted on CBC, eliminate it and let US make the money instead). No mention of the purpose or general findings are reported. This fact alone is a clear indication that our media has dropped the "public interest" as part of its business plan. Self-Interest is the ONLY thing modern media conglomerates pay attention to now.

In the United States, the FCC recently tried to sneak through new laws that allow even greater concentration of media. Already the US media is mostly owned by only five conglomerates (Canada is worse!) and now they want to cut that down even more.

The FCC wasn't entirely successful. Independant journalists caught wind of this and screamed it from the battlements - spawning a grassroots campaign against the rules changes. Although the mainstream media (MSM) have completely ignored it, politicians are being inundated with protests.

Thanks to those independants, a conference on media concentration was held last week. Members of the media from all walks of life got together and discussed the problems. Canadians should pay attention to this conference and to the US Senate hearings on the topic scheduled to start soon.

Bill Moyers gave a GREAT presentation. I highly recommend people read this - then go looking for more about the conference, there are amazing things going on there!

[wodderwing]

I apologize if this message is off topic - I am trying to give a broad group

of people a chance to participate.

I'm a student doing a short internet survey (5 minutes) and I would

appreciate if you could help me by filling it out. The survey is about

foreign policy issues - how people form opinions about foreign policy

crises. It is only a few questions and will take about 5 minutes to

complete. Participation is completely voluntary and you can stop at any

time. As well, your participation is anonymous and you will never be asked

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this survey.

If you would like to participate, please go to the following link:

http://www.sitemaker.umich.edu/socpolsurveys

Thank you for your help,

Chris Ebert

University of Michigan

Ann Arbor, MI