10 Corporations Control Nearly Everything You Buy, 6 Media Corporations Control Nearly Everything...

[Fantastic Anarchist]

... you watch.

Not sure about the source, but here are the graphs:

[LanternWaste]

1. As for the trend in media ownership, this was predicted in the mid-eighties by Ben Bagdikian

As for the trend in media ownership, this was predicted in the mid-eighties by Ben Bagdikian in his prescient book, The Media Empire. One wonders if even he thought at the time though, that the ring of owners would be so small... especially given the advent of the internet.

It was when I read that book that I concluded that media is neither left nor right, it's simply green. Sometimes demographics will compel a netwrk to lean one way or the other, but Bagdikian argues that that shift isn't ideological, but predicated solely on profit and sponsorship demands.

GE, Disney, Viacom & Time Warner were all on the original list of his Big Owners That Will Only Get Bigger. He was right.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

2. Thank you for the additional information ...

I will say this, to your point about ideology; media for profit is inherently conservative, no matter the ideological bent displayed by the talking heads.

So, for MSNBC and for FOX News, though different in their ideological analyses, are both inherently conservative by their profit motive. Also, the range of ideas are still narrow and confined to pre-approved editorializing and information.

Chomsky and Herman go into detail in the Propaganda Model.

[Blue_Tires]

4. Diversity in media ownership had been shrinking in the 80s

because of Reagan-era chiseling of ownership laws, but the Telecom Act of '96 really started the avalanche...

The scary part was when Colin Powell's son was heading the FCC and seriously thought the ownership laws weren't loose enough(!), so he was lobbying for MORE deregulation before being replaced...

[JHB]

9. If I correctly recall him from radio interviews back then...

...yes, he did, or at least saw it heading that way and was trying to spur resistance to this extreme consolidation.

[bemildred]

18. The media giants have to maintain the "buying mood" for the advertisers.

Not upset anybody or make them think. And that is why our media is a vast wasteland of sentimental slop.

[bvar22]

3. .....And then there was ONE.

....the inevitable end of the board game Monopoly.
Lots of fun and excitement when there are many players,
but ultimately, one player winds up with everything.

American Capitalism (Free Market NeoLiberalism) is a lot like that,
and we are witnessing the "game" in the final stages.
But unlike the Board Game, in America, there is no end and reset.
This "game" doesn't STOP when the ONE owns everything.

The "game" becomes hopeless for all the players, except the ONE,
but the "players" are required to keep endlessly circuiting the board and giving everything to the ONE,
over and over.
No chance for a New Player.
No chance for a reset.

Kinda sucks unless you are the ONE.



You will know them by their [font size=3]WORKS.[/font]

[Fantastic Anarchist]

7. Yep ...

... and one thing, never confuse an actual free and fair market with capitalism. The two are mutually exclusive and can never happen if there are laborers and capitalists who extract their surplus value.

I'm not favoring one tendency over another, but Mutualism (free-market socialism) is compatible with a free-market due to its reliance, on a large scale, of labor collectively controlling the means of production through cooperatives and free associations of labor - think Mondragon.

[MichaelSoE]

17. but goliath had his david ... hopefully there is a david out there

[bvar22]

20. If the rules of Monopoly allowed for the killing of The ONE....

...I would have already done it.

Perhaps that is the reason behind the building of our current Police/Surveillance/Security State...to protect The ONE (percent).

[OffWithTheirHeads]

5. But the real question is who sits on the boards of those companies.

I would bet the farm that it is predominitly a small handfull of the same people.

[The Wielding Truth]

12. Board of Directors list (GE - NEWS-CORP - DISNEY - VIACOM - TIME WARNER - CBS)

Board of Directors

GE https://www.ge.com/about-us/leadership/board-of-directors

NEWS-CORP http://newscorp.com/corporate-governance/board-of-directors/

Disney http://thewaltdisneycompany.com/about-disney/leadership/board-of-directors

VIACOM http://insiders.morningstar.com/trading/board-of-directors.action?t=VIA&region=USA&culture=en-US

TIME WARNER http://www.timewarner.com/our-company/management/board-of-directors

CBS http://www.cbscorporation.com/ourcompany-board.php?id=118&member=109

[Uncle Joe]

6. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Fantastic Anarchist.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

8. Thank you, Uncle Joe for the K&R!

[KansDem]

10. Same thing with the banks...

Source: Mother Jones

[Blue_Tires]

22. I'd forgotten about so many of those names...

[gopiscrap]

11. and that have never have been alllowed to happen

[Dustlawyer]

13. If we could build enough momentum with protests, voting etc., to get Publicly Funded Elections

passed, we could get politicians in that are responsive to the people. Then bust up the banks and the media conglomerates and clean house on the MIC. Mthe U.S. Chamber of Commerce planned this out during Reagan and it has worked like a charm. They have also stacked the courts, buy up local and state elections, and got tort reform passed. They control our government, our money, and are taking away our rights while we are distracted blaming Republicans for everything. Both sides are owned by these companies, wake up!
All that I said here is true, but I honestly think that we will not be able to do what is necessary to throw off the yoke until things get a lot worse.

[malaise]

14. Excellent post

Rec

[City Lights]

15. Bookmarking.

Thanks!

[woo me with science]

16. K&R

[bemildred]

19. And they can all be broken up by the government.

And that is why they fear and hate the government, and also fear and hate us.

[bvar22]

21. Teddy Roosevelt!....Teddy Roosevelt!.....

The Nation is calling you!