Americans have been under the spell of "Non News" for so long a time
that I doubt many of us would know honest unbiased reporting if it hit
us between the eyes. Where we find ourselves today is the result of
allowing our public air space to be sold to a vast army of
advertisers. Big and little, they jockey for our attention. Their
goal is not to tell us the news, it is to sell us the product. Back
when tobacco was King, everyone appeared to have a cigarette or a
cigar or a pipe sticking out of their mouths. Even Santa Claus smoked
Chesterfields in place of his little pipe. Our air waves were turned
against us, subtly and not so subtly sending the message that it was
okay to smoke. And the tobacco industry fought to keep certain news
stories out of the public's eye. Stories of growing lung cancer,
people with throat cancer, elderly folks falling asleep with lighted
cigarettes that turned them to ashes. All we saw were those young,
healthy lovers running hand in hand through the fields of flowers and
Disney-like little love birds fluttering about them. Most of the
people we looked up to had a cigarette in one hand and a drink in the
other. Perry Como, Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole and so many more blew
smoke in our eyes, along with their smooth melodies. And that is just
one corner of how we have been charmed by the Pied Pipers, peddling
their bobbles, bangles and bright shiny junk.
We have unwittingly been transformed from Citizens, into Consumers.
Madison Avenue tossed truth out the window many years ago, in favor of
Schmooze.
We have come to believe that possessing gadgets is a sign of Progress.
And Progress is a sign of advanced civilization. It's a short step,
mentally, to then be sold on the need to protect our nation's right to
sell gadgets to the entire world. Gadgets such as tanks, fighter
planes, drones, ammunition, and of course all of the toys like iPhones
and smart phones. And so now we are ready to defend our right to
control the world's oil, and to drill wherever necessary in order to
protect and advance our American Freedom. Talk about confusing? And
suddenly we get excited over Sinclair? No, the problem is not
Sinclair, as scary as the aspects of being controlled by Sinclair'
brand of Truth, we must turn on the entire misuse of our Public Air
Waves. We must take them back and remove the control of the Pushers
and Peddlers who only see us as objects to be scammed. "Let the buyer
beware!" "Ther's a sucker born every second!"
If we learn anything from Sinclair, it is that we have allowed
ourselves to be teased and charmed down a road that has led us a long
way from our dream of Independence and Freedom.
Carl Jarvis
Carl Jarvis
On 4/5/18, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
What is important about Sinclair is that the stations that it owns do not
identify themselves as owned by it. They sound like local stations. People
who tune into Fox News, know what they're getting. But this is not true of
people who tune into stations owned by Sinclair.
Miriam
We Have Bill Clinton to Thank in Part for Trump's Propaganda Machine
Wednesday, April 04, 2018
By Jacob Sugarman, AlterNet | News Analysis
Donald Trump is seen speaking through a camera at a press conference at the
City of Hanahan town hall in Hanahan, South Carolina, on February 15, 2016.
(Photo: Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Donald
If you spent any time on social media over the weekend, you've probably
seen
it by now. On Saturday, Deadspin's Timothy Burke published a supercut of
news anchors for the Sinclair Broadcasting Group reciting a distinctly
Trumpian promo. "We're concerned about the troubling trend of
irresponsible,
one-sided news stories plaguing our country," each of them intoned. "The
sharing of biased and false news has become all too common on social media.
More alarming, some media outlets publish these same fake stories, stories
that just aren't true, without checking facts first. Unfortunately, some
members of the media use their platforms to push their own personal bias
and
agenda to control 'exactly what people think.'"
The post quickly went viral, earning tens of thousands of retweets on
Twitter and capturing the attention of "Last Week Tonight's" John Oliver,
who compared Sinclair's staffers to "members of a brainwashed cult."
Reporters and corporate watchdogs alike have voiced their dismay, decrying
the American telecommunications company's abuse of the public trust. But
what few have acknowledged, and what Oliver himself neglected to explore,
is
how the engine of Donald Trump's propaganda machine was constructed by none
other than Bill Clinton.
In 1996, Clinton passed the Telecommunications Act, the first major
overhaul
of the country's telecommunications legislation in over 60 years. For
decades, the FCC abided by what was known as the rule of seven, prohibiting
any one company from owning more than seven AM or FM radio stations or
seven
television networks. Under President Ronald Reagan, the rule of seven
became
the rule of twelve. It wasn't until the subsequent Democratic
administration, however, that the rule was abandoned entirely in favor of a
national ownership cap, allowing a single entity to own as much as 35
percent of market share.
While the bill was truly bipartisan, earning 414 votes in the House and 91
in the Senate, Clinton was among its greatest champions. "It promotes
competition as the key to opening new markets and new opportunities," he
said at the legislation's signing. "It will help connect every classroom in
America to the information superhighway by the end of the decade. It will
protect consumers by regulating the remaining monopolies for a time and by
providing a roadmap for deregulation in the future."
Twenty-two years later, that deregulation threatens to upend our democracy.
The far-right Sinclair Broadcasting Group, which allegedly struck a deal
with Jared Kushner during the 2016 election to provide the Trump campaign
with more favorable coverage, currently reaches approximately 38 percent of
American households. If the organization is successful in its acquisition
of
the Tribune Media Company, that number could climb to 72 percent.
"The Telecommunications Act of 1996 did not just permit consolidation in
TV," noted Guardian reporter Kevin Carty last November. "It paved the way
for radio monopolization as well. Before the law, it was illegal for one
company to own more than 40 radio stations. Today, the company formerly
known as Clear Channel -- iHeartMedia -- owns 858 stations."
Hindsight is 20/20, and a Democratic president can shoulder only so much of
the blame for a project as fundamentally authoritarian as movement
conservatism. But like NAFTA and welfare reform, which have accelerated the
demise of the working class, the Telecommunications Act offers yet another
example of third-way politics sowing the seeds of the party's destruction,
if not the country's. For this reason, the Sinclair merger must be stopped.
"A diverse, de-concentrated, and competitive media system protects free
speech in the United States," Carty continued. "It guarantees that public
discourse cannot be monopolized by concentrated power, whether in form of
populist demagogues or corporate plutocrats, as it is in so many less
fortunate nations."
