Russia Threatens Foreign Media Ownership With New Rules

[karynnj]

6. The difference is immense. The problems with US news are more that they

are now treating it like the entertainment business and will cover, not what is most significant, but what will get the greater viewership. This is not a new phenomena. What is a real problem is that there is much more consolidation.

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, when I was in college, I loved the huge library at college and loved that they bought and put out a huge number of newspapers. It was always interesting to read about the same event in many places. Most of the articles were genuinely written by the papers' writers - and they were independent, even if informed by a common background.

Now, with the internet this was interesting, but is becoming less so. When even the second tier papers use the AP or USA Today article, possibly with some editing, it would be kind of boring to read 10 or so accounts of some event.

Also loss with this consolidation is that we hear a smaller number of voices.

However, this is nothing like what you see in Russia. First of all, a cursory read - even of the most elite papers - would show you that there is little deference to the President or, in most cases, the local governor or mayor. All you have to do is compare the coverage of Putin over the last 3 months in Russian media and Obama here. There is no contest -- and, if anything, Putin has done things that should have raised eye brows (ie speaking of checking out the Lithuanians who evaded the Soviet draft in the early 1990s!)