We discuss media monopolization: the history of corporate ownership of major media outlets including the four corporations that currently own the major TV news operations, as well as the handful of individuals that profit from corporate mergers, and how these owners and their money influence the policy and congressional legislation that supports telecommunications/media conglomerates. We talk with Mark Crispin Miller about the impact of individual corporations and monopolies on media coverage and content; the clear connection between the degeneration of media content and the poor quality of the cultural product on the one hand, and the dominance of these few commercial entities on the other. Miller argues that if this connection can be clearly demonstrated to the American people despite the self-serving restrictions imposed by the megamedia conglomerates, the anti-trust movement will gain popular support. Our conversation includes discussion of the anti-trust movement, notably the work of the Cultural Environment Movement, and the importance for all anti-trust activists to recognize the role that media monopolization plays in controlling the news, images, and information that gets to the public.
Media Options