The Women’s Institute for Freedom of the PressMedia Ownership and Democracy
Six media conglomerates control 90% of what we read, watch, or listen to. These corporate media all have the same interests as the 1% and it is reflected in their news coverage.
Much of the other 10% of media control includes right-wing, 1% ownership. Media is a lucrative business (print, television, film, video, music, internet businesses, etc.). The total 2010 revenue for the six was $275 billion. The ownerships of the conglomerates change because they keep buying each other up and consolidating. Less than fifty years ago there were 50 companies controlling our information, though the owners all had the same economic interests so it did not make them much more democratic. One effect of consolidation was the loss of local programming and local news.
It is not the wealth they gain that is the most damaging to democracy. Plenty of other corporations rake in wealth and lobby Congress. But the control of the information by the few is serious. They determine what is news, how it is covered, and what to exclude. They portray themselves as objective. Because they are not closed down by the government or interfered with, they imply the U.S. has a free press. These conglomerates have a free press but the people do not.
When journalists and people not employed by these conglomerates try to expose injustices or cover news excluded by mass media, it becomes more evident that the “right” to a free press does not belong to all of us. Julian Assange exposed war crimes and the U.S. government is going after him as if he was the criminal. Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, and other whistleblowers have been attacked by the government too with little concern by the media conglomerates. Rather they distort and confuse the issues and join in on the smearing — particularly in the case of Julian Assange.
Media conglomerates have supported wars, foreign interventions, militarism, and given distorted coverage of people’s movements against injustices.
Bernie Sanders on media ownership:
“These 15 billionaires essentially own the media: Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg, Rupert Murdoch, Donald & Samuel Newhouse, Cox Family, John Henry, Sheldon Adelson, Joe Mansueto, Mortimer Zuckerman, Barbey Family, Stanley Hubbard,Patrick Soon-Shiong, Carlos Slim Helu, Warren Buffett, Viktor Vekselberg. Behind the scenes, the billionaires control the
news.”
Having media democracy and freedom of the press is crucial to correcting all injustices and taking care of the needs of all people, not just the rich.
What we need is more equality in outreach.
We need to support and defend independent news sources and information.
We need Internet access and net neutrality.
We need discussions and critiques of what must be done to have media democracy, to have freedom of the press for all, not just the few wealthy conglomerates.
We need media literacy so that people realize that it matters where they get their information.
We need to expose the myth that these media conglomerates are objective while others who disagree are portrayed as biased.
What we need is media democracy if there is to be real democracy.
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A few media ownership links:
https://www.freepress.net/issues/media-control/media-consolidation
https://www.pbs.org/moyers/moyersonamerica/net/timeline.html
https://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/why-does-the-us-media-lie-so-much/
https://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/media-concentration-its-kind-of-a-bad-thing/
