If media ownership concentration was a crime, then News Corporation president Rupert Murdoch and other media moguls should be arrested and punished by the full extent of the law. Is it unbelievable and utterly disgusting to see the lack of action by governments in North America through their agency (FCC and CRTC) on the issue that is undermining democracy.
As you may know by now, Rupert Murdoch had bought the Dow Jones & CO, the company formerly owned by the Bancroft Family, for $ 5 Billion, last Wednesday. With this sale, News Corp. become the new owner of one of the most influential corporate newspaper in the world in the Wall Street Journal. News Corp. is already the owner of more than 100 newspapers worldwide like the Times of London, Chicago Sun-Times and the New York Post. It is also the owner of Fox Television in the U.S. and Sky News in the U.K. along with dozen of media companies from publishing to film and home entertainment, satellite broadcasting and the internet with the social networking website MySpace.com. Under new ownership, the Wall Street Journal will likely have less power on its editorial, thus losing its journalistic integrity. The sale confirms that the media, corporate media to be honest, had become a lapdog for business and political interests of their owners.
This is really bad for journalism and journalistic independence. With corporate control, the news reporting became infotainment where the lifestyles of celebrities are more important than investigative journalism. Also, corporate owners dictate the contents on the news which violate the integrity and independance of the journalist. No wonder why they don't show or hear the real side of the war in Iraq or crimes committed MINUSTAH officials in Haiti.
Robert McChesney from Free Press give a good indication of the situation by saying that media ownership concentration is unconscionable. http://www.freepress.net/press/release.php?id=260
It is clear that media consolidation kills the competiton and this sale is truly a dark day for democracy
For more infos on the Murdoch deal check these websites:
Free Press -http://www.freepress.net/
Stop Big Media- http://www.stopbigmedia.com/
AlterNet: www.alternet.org
FAIR: www.fair.org
MediaChannel.org : www.mediachannel.org
Democracy Now: www.democracynow.org
Media Matters: www.mediamatters.org
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