This happened over a week ago, but the US House of Representatives (I love that name, if only the Senate felt the same way) has passed a bill that essentially overrides the recent changes proposed by the FCC that would allow media companies to control up to 45% of a single TV market. There is a CNET story here.
From what I gather, this new bill doesn't address the relaxation of limits on cross-ownership which will allow a single media organization to control multiple media outlets such as TV, radio, and newspaper. I also seem to remember reading somewhere else that this was actually a rider on a larger bill, so the 400-12 vote count may not be reliable with regard to the opinions of the HoR voters. Furthermore, this bill needs to pass Senate and Oval Office muster and there are legitimate voices (legitimate in the eye's of the President, that is) advising him to veto it. We'll see what happens.
People really need to be more aware of how their attitudes and opinions are influenced by the media. The 4 people who read this blog are probably pretty well aware and the changes to the media landscape that big business is trying to bring about won't affect us that much. But geeks are a small, small percentage of the nation (at least small % of TV viewers, notice how the geek-loved shows like Futurama and Farscape didn't last) and we need to be worried about the greater percentages who just live their lives in consumer ignorance, blind to the subtle pressures that the media puts on them. Remember that 50% of the US population (assuming we can trust polls, something I'm beginning to question) thought that Iraq was involved in 9/11. Pure media manipulation, that, and it woulkdn't have happened if we had a free press in our country.
Posted by Nutrimentia at August 1, 2003 10:03 AM | TrackBack