"Tell Us the Truth -- Who Controls What We Hear, Watch, and Read?"


FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein -- one of the two FCC Commissioners who opposed the media ownership rules changes passed by the FCC last June -- headlines a panel that will be discussing media ownership in a public forum at St. John Fisher College in Rochester March 8, 2004. Concerned citizens are urged to attend this forum. Concentrated media ownership in an era of what we now know to be non-existent "Weapons of Mass Destruction" has become a matter of life and death.

FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein -- one of the two FCC Commissioners who opposed the media ownership rules changes passed by the FCC last June -- headlines a panel that will be discussing media ownership in a public forum in Rochester March 8, 2004.

The forum will be held at St. John Fisher College's Kearney Auditorium from 7 to 9 p.m. (Map link ).

Sponsored by Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, the panel will include Mary Anna Towler, co-publisher of City Newspaper and past president of the New York Press Association; Richard C. Greene, owner and manager of WLVL-A.M., which serves Lockport and Niagara County, and is one of only three locally-owned radio stations in the Buffalo area; and Norm Silverstein, president and CEO of WXXI Public Broadcasting Corporation in Rochester. Dr. Lauren Vicker, chair of the communications department at St. John Fisher College, will serve as moderator for the evening.

Why does media ownership matter to the average citizen? Because, as the media have consolidated into an increasingly small number of gigantic global corporate conglomerates, diversity of opinion and expression suffers. And true democracy, which depends on an informed public, is threatened.

In the words of journalist and media commentator A.J. Liebling, "Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one." Liebling wrote long before the electronic media came to prominence. Now his words are truer than ever. In this age when television has become the primary means by which the average citizen obtains information about his or her world, whoever controls the content of broadcast and cablecast television also controls the way most people perceive the actions of their governments.

Alternative viewpoints have little opportunity to be heard by the vast majority of people.

There is no better example than what happened when MoveOn.org attempted to purchase time from CBS for a 30-second ad during the SuperBowl. CBS refused to air the commercial, saying it was against their policy to air political advocacy advertisements. MoveOn.org and other media critics pointed out that CBS had no qualms about airing an advertisement sponsored by the White House promoting the new Medicare "drug benefit," which is highly controversial.

In this case, even the possession of the millions of dollars required for the purchase the air time did not guarantee the right to access to the vast audience watching the SuperBowl.

Furthermore, the U.S. mass media, owned and controlled by conglomerates with easy access to the Bush Administration, virtually served as handmaiden to the Administration in the selling of the Iraq War. Experts in international security and intelligence -- including members of the Central Intelligence Agency -- raised serious doubts about the accuracy and validity of the information provided by the Administration regarding so-called "Weapons of Mass Destruction" used to convince U.S. citizens to support Bush's war. Yet even the most respected members of U.S. media (including the New York Times) failed miserably in what has been their presumed government "watch dog" role.

While the Bush Administration can be faulted for its "failure of intelligence" in leading the United States into war, the U.S. mass media also shares in the blame. It is highly unlikely that the media would have been such easy targets for public disinformation were it not for the transformation of the news media into minor elements of gigantic global corporate conglomerates whose only interest is the bottom line.

Thousands of people have died as a result, and there seems to be no end in sight.

So I urge all concerned citizens from the Rochester and surround area to attend this forum. In many ways the issue of concentrated media ownership is a "matter of life and death."

Posted: Thu - March 4, 2004 at 09:24 AM          

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