BernieHund: The Political Watchdog

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is present, does it make a sound?

If you have something to say and there is no forum, will your voice be heard?  The answer is overwhelmingly “NO”.

The FCC and Kevin Martin essentially removed many of our forums yesterday.  Of course, we won’t realize the ramifications of the FCC ruling overnight.  It may take a month or two, although I suspect that Mr. Martin and his corporate cronies have the dominoes positioned for a quick fall of the unfettered free press. 

What did we lose with yesterday’s FCC ruling?  “We, the people”…. sound familiar to anyone?… lost one of our primary and oldest forums.  We lost our voice in our newspapers.  “The pen is mightier than the sword.”  Have we forgotten that?  Now is the time to take a deep breath, because the air we breathe will soon be owned by the same corporations that bought up all the papers.

The newspapers are losing readers.  They need a larger forum.  So, instead of just giving them paper, let’s give them airwaves.  Has it occurred to anyone that one of the main reasons the paper press has lost so many readers is that they have gotten lazy?  If you read one paper, you have in essence read them all.  The articles are fed by AP, UPI, Reuters, CNN, and a few others.  The newspaper owners have decided that these are the only voices we need to hear.  And, now with the new FCC ruling, the same feeds and stories will be heard and/or seen on the airwaves.

The argument, if you can all it that, was that the newspaper owners are losing money and need an additional forum to continue to exist.  Please…. look at the owners.  None are living in poverty.  The benefit of the new regulation once again goes to the wealthy and to the corporations.

If one looks at the evening news programs on the big three broadcast networks, it is easy enough to see what has happened to our media.  The news is exactly the same.  The stories are exactly the same.  One now makes a decision to watch one or the other based on the packaging, not the content.  Our major newspapers all publish the same news stories.  Just watch Regis and Kelly one morning.  They pick a story and show a variation on a theme from the headlines.  The front page stories are all the same.

I’m not bashing the press for covering the major stories.  Everyone wants to know what is going on in our global economy.  And, if you live in New York or Los Angeles, those stories are your stories.  But, what about the rest of us…. those who love to read the headlines, but also are interested in our local politics, sports, events, and opinions?  Now, our local television and radio broadcasting will reflect the same large stories and the rest of us will fall through the cracks.

My fear is that our national media will become a WalMart for news (or spin).  It will be cheaper and mass produced, we will all get to listen to Michael Savage and Rush Limbaugh.  (I write that with sarcasm in mind.)  No matter where you go across our country, you will see and hear the exact same stories.  We will lose our diversity of coverage and opinion.  Presently, we still have a few hours a day for local news talk shows or sports or presentations of local opinions and a discussion on the effect of national news locally.  With big media conglomerates controlling the paper and the air, we will lose our choices. 

Again, think of WalMart.  I appreciate their low prices.  But, at what cost do we get those prices?  They bombard the end consumer with the items “they” think we need.  But, what happens when your toilet won’t stop running?  Where is the hardware store that carried the part you need?  You won’t find it at WalMart.  You will only find the products “they” have decided we need.  And, so it will be with the media.  They will give us what “they” want us to have. 

More importantly, if we listen to the media today, we are led to believe that the Democratic primary is a battle between two candidates — Obama and Clinton.  And, occasionally, there is the “also in the race” John Edwards.  As we can see, the media has all but taken the other well qualified candidates out of the race.  It is even evidenced in the debates.  See how many questions the candidates have been asked individually.  Notice the quality of those questions.  And, notice the time allotments for air time during the debates.  This is the most offensive abuse of control of the press.

Folks, the cowboys are rounding up the herd.  But, I maintain that you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.  Don’t swallow this FCC ruling without a fight.  It can be reversed.  I don’t know how, but I know nothing is impossible when we stand together and refuse to allow ourselves to be silenced.  Sit silent on this issue, friends, and we will sit in silence forever.  We will have lost our voices.  We will have lost our freedom to choose what we read and hear, unless we continue to communicate and share online by blogs like this one…. and, oh, by the way…. we are next on the list.  They are looking for a way to control this medium, too.

I wasn’t going to bring John Edwards’s name up, but for those who are intereseted, he has a position.  In all fairness, I checked the other candidates’ websites earlier and didn’t find a definitive position.  This is not to say they haven’t taken a stand.  I will continue to check, but for now, it appears Edwards is hitting hard and head-on.