We all
know that the media makes tons of money on political advertising during
campaigns which seem to run almost year round anymore. But do we know how much
money they make? No. Do we want transparency in government? Yes. Do we want
transparency in who spends how much in the media? I think so, but they sure don’t
want us to know.
Currently
a lot of the media is lobbying against disclosure of how much they are making
and how they are making it from. Following is a list of those involved in these
lobbying efforts:
§ News Corporation, which owns the Wall
Street Journal and Fox News
§ Walt Disney,
which owns ABC News and ESPN
§ NBCUniversal, which is
owned by Comcast and includes NBC News
§ Allbritton,
which owns several TV stations and Politico
§ Gannett
Broadcasting, a division of Gannett, which owns USA Today
§ Post-Newsweek
Stations, the broadcast division of the Washington Post Company
§ Belo Corp, which owns 20
TV stations
§ Cox Media Group, which
owns the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Austin American-Statesman, and other
newspapers and TV stations
§ Dispatch Broadcast Group,
which owns Ohio and Indiana TV stations
§ Barrington Broadcasting Co.,
which owns several television stations around the country
§ The E.W. Scripps Company,
which owns TV stations and newspapers including the Commercial Appeal in
Memphis
§ Hearst
Television Inc., which owns 29 TV stations
§ Raycom Media, which owns TV stations
§ Schurz
Communications, which owns TV Stations and newspapers around the
country
Wow! The
news agencies which ask for transparency about the things they want to report
on are resistant to transparency in their own operations. That appears to me to
be a bit hypocritical.
The
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is the agency that must make the ruling
on this and they are scheduled to vote this April 27th. The list
above are doing all they can at this point to get any regulations at all
watered down to meaninglessness.
A group
called ProPublica is working against these lobbyists. You can go to http://www.propublica.org/article/meet-the-media-companies-lobbying-against-transparency/single#republish
For their original article.
I don’t
know about you but I would sure like to see that information listed on the
internet.
No big deal for me. If I don't like the programs, or the advertisers, I just turn the channel. I don't get all bent out of shape and make demands for the government to micro-manage the content or force people to air anything.
ReplyDeleteI donate $50-100 a year to my candidates, counter-balancing the $250 million a year the US Chamber of Commerce spends (buys corporate welfare). In my state the Chamber lobbied
ReplyDeletehard to reduce corporate taxes AND RAISE homeowner taxes
to make up the difference: they of course won. Since I cannot match their $250 million a year, I ask stores I enter if they are members of the Chamber, and leave. The
American Way, right? Good luck! Of course the geniuses at
Big Biz are not swarming to my state..why should they? Our
education is underfunded, our highways are cowpaths and our
workers are those that didn't move out of state for tech jobs. Some fear gov't..me too, when it is just an arm of
business. In the final analysis though, I guess the Chamber
and I are single people with equal rights according to the
befuddled SCOTUS. Yeah, right.
bb; Do you have an example of the Chamber lobbying for corporate welfare? The instance you listed was not corporate welfare. But on the surface of it, it looks like something I'd disagree with: I'd want taxes reduced on employers AND home owners both.
Delete"Our education is underfunded"
I wonder if that is the case? Some claim that about Michigan, but the truth is our teachers are paid princely sums (whether they do a good job and deserve it, or a terribla one) and the school districts suffer from the money being drained out in this fashion.
"I guess the Chamber and I are single people with equal rights according to the befuddled SCOTUS. Yeah, right."
Nothing befuddled or confused about this. It's just an accurate reading of the Bill of Rights. The invividuals in the Chamber have free speech rights, just as you do.
However, this is in regards to free speech (which includes advertising). Protected in the Constitution. Cmapaign contributions aren't protected at all.
BB, ingenious. I contribute much the same way and sign innumerable petitions which puts me on every email list in the country so I sign more petitions. But the issues of transparency and upfront debate vs slogan ism and down right misinformation remains a problem. Several years ago I remember be asked to join the Chamber and I asked if women we members too. When the replied no, I declined.
DeleteIt is interesting to see the nations infrastructure which allows business to grow to be ignored and education which creates an knowledge voter based demeaned. The value of work to a society is important, Adam Smith from who we derive our free enterprise models knew that and other restrictions that were necessary.