We Can't Let Billionaires Control Major Communications Platforms

[BeckyDem]

1. Yep.

Horrendous consequences resulted:

Telecommunications deregulation is proceeding with dizzying speed, enabling a parade of media mergers that have concentrated the power of the press into fewer and fewer corporate hands. Because the FCC’s rulemaking process is obscure and poorly publicized, regulations are often rewritten or dropped with almost no public input.

The Telecommunications Act of 1996– essentially bought and paid for by corporate media lobbies– opened the floodgates on mergers. Ironically, consolidation has been most profound in radio, a medium ideally suited to local ownership and diverse content. The damage to radio diversity is staggering: Over 4,000 radio stations have been bought out since the Telecom Act, and minority ownership of TV stations has dropped to its lowest point since the federal government began tracking such data in 1990.
https://fair.org/take-action/action-alerts/speak-out-for-media-democracy/