White Privilege and Racist Hate Radio

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33. US media has been dramatically altered since Reagan ignored the Fairness Doctrine,

the 1949 federal rule that radio and television stations present contrasting views on controversial subjects of public importance, like the television show conservative commenter William F. Buckley hosted, "Crossfire" (1966-1999).
When the Fairness Doctrine was disregarded in the 1980s, the rise of the RW Hate Radio industry began with Rush and other talkers.

In 1996 the broad Telecomm Act further deregulated the media and stimulated 'infotainment' in place of straight news and enabled media consolidation. With the Act previous limits on ownership were lifted; for example, rules that one company could not own and influence all the media in an area- the local newspaper, radio and television station were eliminated.

Deregulation has allowed Media concentration by corporations like Clear Channel which took over 1,200 US radio stations in 2012. Liberal media doesn't have the resources to compete and even in major urban areas like San Francisco, Portland, Albuquerque and Atlanta there are no progressive radio channels now according to what I've read, or extremely few. Venues for alternative progressive and liberal news are available however on the internet and a few radio programs.

Fox television which is free, unlike MSNBC, is everywhere. In many communities it's the only channel available. Fox is also the channel most commonly aired in convenience stores, car dealerships/auto shops, motels, banks, businesses and military bases. As well, Rush Radio has agreements to broadcast sports events with about 90 American colleges.

Changing the balance of American media ownership and content would mean taking on the FCC and restoring the Fairness Doctrine and The Sherman Anti Trust (Monopoly) Act.

In 1983 the majority, 90% of media that we read, hear and see in the US was owned by more than 50 companies.
Now 90% of all US media- newspapers, radio, television, magazines and publishers, is dominated by 5 giant corporations:

ABC (Disney); CBS (VIACOM); NBC (Comcast); CNN (Time Warner) and Fox (News Corp).

- THE ILLUSION OF CHOICE -