I Believe This Will Change Western Democracy in Profound Ways
abirdson
Digging Deeply at the Roots of Problems:
EVERYONE WHO LOVES THEIR
COUNTRY SHOULD READ THE MEDIA MONOPOLY by BEN H. BAGDIKIAN
Ralf Nader, who is running for president in the USA, said the book
The Media Monopoly by Ben H. Bagdikian, is "the most penetrating,
specific and reflective book on both the electronic and print media in
many a year."
The book is a classic critique of the media used by many schools
of journalism in the USA (which makes me realize there is a lot of
excellent teaching going on in USA colleges, in spite of those teachers
who are choosing to bend the knee to narrow corporate interests by
censoring political content of courses.)
Here are a few quotes from the book:
"When radio became a nationwide medium in the 1020's it was the
fastest-growing industry in national history. It was not interested in
commercials. The most popular stations were noncommercial, operated by
universities, states, municipalities and school districts. Milllions of
Americans were tuning in to university lectures, taking corrrespondence
courses by radio and listening to drama, music and debates in their
communities...
"...Commerical stations and their RCA-related corporations used
their influence in government to force educational stations to give up
popular frequencies and broadcast times, to shift to lower power and even
to move to other communities. .
"In countries where commercial broadcasters are expanding, their
influence is weakening the best public systems. Conservative governments,
responding to banking and private media pressures, and in pursuit of their
free market and privatization policies, have instituted plans to increase
commercial channels and simultaneously reduce the funding and independence
of the existing, better, noncommercial systems, such as the BBC in
England, the provincial public systems in West Germany, the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in
the United States."
"If small media firms should grow large enough to be a threat, it
is the easy and common practice of the giants to use their economic power
to buy up the new voices or undercut them economically."
"The Federal Coimmunications Commission has the power to assist
electoral democracy. It should do what some other democracies do: forbid
paid political campaign commercials, and mandate substantial free
prime-time for representatives of all parties that have polled 5 percent
or more in the previous election. The time should be in multiples of
fifteeen minutes, not chopped up in seconds."
"Lowered postal rates for publications with little or no
advertising have been a part of postal philosophy in the past.
Historically this was crucial in stimulating new newspapers and magazines
and permitting the wide distribution of all printed matter. ...The most
formidable barrier to new printed media is the crushing cost of
distribution. "
"Ownership (of broadcast stations) should be limited to one AM,
one FM, one television station per owner, not one of each."
"Cable would become a comon carrier, like the electric and phone
company, guaranteed a reasonable profit in return for an agreed-upon level
of public service. The cable operator would be in the business of renting
cable time with an almost unlimited supply of channels available.....Just
as the electric and phone companies do not control how its customers use
the service, the cable operator would not control what buyers of channel
time did on their programs."
The book is published by :
Beacon Press
25 Beacon Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02108-2892
Telephone number (617)742-2110
You can have your local bookstore order it for you.
MORE ABOUT RALF NADER
I mentioned earlier that Ralf Nader is running for president as
the representative of the Green Party. You can get their 70 page platform
by sending $5 to the following address:
The Green Party
P.O. 5631
Santa Monica, California 90409
Phone number - (916) 448-3437
There is no charge for a smaller packet of information.
Request this from the same address.
You can also learn more about Ralf Nader by reading his Public
Citizen Magazine. Call (202) 387-8030. You might also get information
about the Center for Responsive Law (in Washington D.C.) that he founded
or else helped found.
Signatures for Mr. Nader to run for president are still being
collected in 35 states. Your help is desperately needed. He does not
have money from narrow special interests so it will be very difficult to
get him on the ballots unless we all work together.
In the D.C. area, volunteers meet on Thursdays at 1616 P. St. N.W.
I think at 11:00. Call (202) 466-2337
If you are a journalist who wants to interview Ralf Nader call him
at (202) 387-8030.
What else can you do? Ask you newspaper and local broadcasting
station why they are covering Bill Clinton and Bob Dole almost daily and
never Ralf Nader. Tell the Federal Communications Commission that you
want Ralf Nader to be in the televised presidential debates. Last time
there were 12 candidates running for office but only 3 were allowed to be
in the debates, which is a violation of the Communications Act of 1934.